Cliff Raw Politics: Analyzing Juliet Holness has House Speaker

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:01]And that has to do with the turbulence in the parliament over how the speaker Juliet Holes has been handling the affairs of the House of Representatives and I've been listening carefully to the arguments And it's very simple.

[00:00:34]In a word, this is raw politics.

[00:00:38]This has nothing to do with about Mrs. Holes's competence or fairness or bass.

[00:00:47]Yeah. It all has to do with politics and how the political equation would have changed after that event on September 3, 2025.

[00:01:08]That's the general elections of last year.

[00:01:12]Going into those elections, Mrs. Holdness was appointed speaker with the expressed support of the opposition at the time.

[00:01:25]Yes, they didn't have an issue at that time.

[00:01:31]They had only 14 seats. 14 of the 63 seats in the parliament.

[00:01:39]The government had what?

[00:01:43]14 from 63. They had about 40.

[00:01:48]Yeah. 42.

[00:01:50]What was it? They had Yeah. 49.

[00:01:54]49 to 14. All right.

[00:02:00]And there wasn't an an issue about Mrs. Holes's conduct. In fact, she was made speaker a full year, more than a year in September 2023. Two years.

[00:02:16]She was speaker for two years from September 23 to the time of the elections in September 2025.

[00:02:28]And we didn't have this issue.

[00:02:31]come the elections and the PNP did not win.

[00:02:38]They tried their very best and they fell short.

[00:02:43]They fell short.

[00:02:46]They were able to double the number of seats in the parliament. But it didn't carry them over the line from 14 to 28.

[00:02:57]and the PMP has been licking its wounds since then.

[00:03:04]Mrs. Holes and the country and the parliament now have the political equation changing where you now have an opposition that feels and you heard Mr. Golding the party leader saying it that they have done very very well. They have doubled the number of seats in the house.

[00:03:35]They lost the elections narrowly.

[00:03:39]Yes. And they are simply flexing their political muscle.

[00:03:45]That's what it is about. flexing your political muscle by virtue of the fact that you have greater numbers.

[00:03:55]That's what this is about.

[00:03:58]Nobody pretty up.

[00:04:01]Yeah, I'm old enough and been around long enough to know that this is flex your political muscle.

[00:04:11]The question is, is it going to work?

[00:04:17]Is it going to work? Is it going to catch on?

[00:04:22]Are you going to be able to keep the government off balance where it's legislative agenda is concerned?

[00:04:31]Hence the big fight over N.

[00:04:35]And this is not to say not to say that the NAR bill has as presented had deficiencies and that is why they sat up for nearly 8 hours last week fixing it and making 20 amendments to it.

[00:04:56]Hm.

[00:04:59]So, I'm not writing that off, but I'm saying this argument about the speaker of the house being unfair and bass is really about the opposition feeling that it has greater numbers and it is going to harass the government in the parliament and outside the parliament.

[00:05:26]That's what it is about.

[00:05:29]So when you saw Dr. Angela Brownberg, doing what she know knew was something that was wrong.

[00:05:43]She knew it.

[00:05:45]H Why is she so emboldened?

[00:05:51]Yeah. Because they have greater numbers.

[00:05:56]And you saw manifestation of that when they encircled her and openly defied the speaker and the marshall to remove Mrs. Brown Burke political muscle.

[00:06:16]So when I hear and listen to the I I I just listen out look at them. Yeah.

[00:06:26]So yesterday, Mrs. Holes used the parliamentary sitting, the first since last week, Tuesday, to issue a statement from the chair on what had happened the week before.

[00:06:45]M and uh as we hear in this report from Dana Davyy, the speaker sought to put her perspective on the matter on the table and so too did Dr. Brown Burke. Yes. The JLP and the PNP.

[00:07:08]So we now have a fullfledged political row.

[00:07:14]H that's what we are now into.

[00:07:19]Here's Dana Davy's report.

[00:07:21]>> In a rare statement from the House Speaker, Mrs. Holes reflected on the behavior of the opposition benches as unfitting for Jamaica's parliament.

[00:07:30]>> The record will speak for itself. But I must speak to what the moment means because what occurred was not simply a breach of order by one member. It was a wider challenge to the authority of the chair and the orderly conduct of the house. The mace is not a decoration. It is not a prop. It is not an object to be used in protest. It is the symbol of the authority of this house. It represents the authority under which we meet, debate, disagree, vote, and make laws on behalf of the people of Jamaica. So when the maze is interfered with the issue is not simply about an object being moved.

[00:08:10]The issue is whether the authority of the house itself is to be respected.

[00:08:14]That is why this moment cannot be reduced to political theater.

[00:08:19]>> During last Tuesday's sitting of the lower house, Dr. Brownberg removed the parliamentary mace while the house was in committee for a clause by clause review of the national reconstruction and resilience authority nar bill. It resulted in her being named by the speaker and a motion carried by the government benches for her suspension from the day's proceedings.

[00:08:41]Dr. Brown Burke later accepted that her actions did not accord with parliamentary procedure. However, she says context matters, noting the concerns which were being raised about the bill when the incident occurred. But Mrs. Holmes says appropriate avenues for challenge exists and the speaker's chair should not be disrespected.

[00:09:03]>> Standing orders itself provides the avenues by which members may raise objections, seek clarification, challenge procedures, move amendments, divide the house and place their disagreement on the record. Those rules exist not to silence members but to protect every member, including those in the minority. Order is not the enemy of democracy. Order is what makes democracy possible.

[00:09:34]The House Speaker says last week's behavior was a poor example set for the wider nation and its children.

[00:09:41]>> Only today, many of us participated in Readacross Jamaica Day. We went into schools, read to children, encouraged them to learn, to listen, to reason, to respect themselves and others, and to become responsible citizens. What then is the example we set for those same children? When we look at the parliament of their country, if a student believes that a teacher has been unfair, do we encourage that student to disregard the teacher, disrupt the class, seize what does not belong to them, and refuse to follow instructions, or do we teach the student that there are proper avenues to raise concerns, challenge a decision, and seek redress? Of course, members of this house are not regarded as students, but the same principle applies here.

[00:10:29]Dana Davyy for Nationwide News.

[00:10:32]>> Juliet Holes, the speaker of the house.

[00:10:35]And uh what Mrs. Holes is up against, you know, is an emboldened opposition, strengthened opposition and she understands it.

[00:10:48]She's at a pivotal moment as speaker.

[00:10:52]She cannot afford to lose control of the house.

[00:10:57]And Mrs. The wholeness is a woman of substance and backbone. You know, she is an auditor, an accountant. And if you know anything about accountants and auditors, they operate in a profession that is dominated by rules. Follow the rules.

[00:11:21]And she's insisting that the rules must be observed.

[00:11:25]Yes.

[00:11:27]And in the new political equation of the parliamentary seat distribution in the house, the PNP is fighting that because before the rules were not rigidly imposed.

[00:11:43]Holiness recognizes, Mrs. Holles recognizes that as speaker, she's being tested. She's being challenged.

[00:11:53]How does she respond? by bowing to those challenges and then what? It's free for all.

[00:12:02]So, it's a battle of wills. After the break, you'll hear Angela Brown Burke's response.