According to the Opposition Leader, it was his respect for the seat he holds in the House of Assembly (HoA) that he did not let the Premier have some choice words.

Hon Penn continued that such “schoolyard bullying type of behaviour” is not becoming of the leader of Government business and that the Opposition would not be bullied.

“We saw it in the House yesterday, because we disagreed with him in the House yesterday, because we challenged his position, he called me a house slave in the Honourable House,” Hon Penn said during an Opposition Press Conference on September 30, 2020.

Opposition will not be bullied- Hon Penn

The Opposition Member said he wanted to let the Premier and his Government know they were not going to bully any of the Opposition Members.

“We are going to stand firm, we are going to continue to speak on behalf of the people of this Territory,” Hon Penn continued.

According to Hon Penn, “I would never disrespect the privilege that I have to hold the seat that I hold in this Honourable House because I would have said something that would not have been too choice words.

“But I respect the seat that I hold and I trust that the Premier respects the seat that he holds.”

According to the Opposition Leader, Hon Marlon A. Penn (R8), it was his respect for the seat he holds in the House of Assembly (HoA) that he did not let Premier Andrew A. Fahie (R1) have some not too choice words.

Thinned skin Opposition?

Honourable Penn said the disrespect has even trickled down to “where persons employed in consultancy, and I mentioned this in the Honpourable House, are being paid the Government dime to bully or intimidate the Opposition.

“We will not be intimidated,” Hon Penn continued.

It should be noted that the Opposition has also been guilty of calling the Premier names including labeling him as a dictator; however, it has been quick to complain to the public whenever the Premier called them names, albeit sometimes far from offensive, including ‘Tri-Party Opposition’.

When critics, including the Opposition, had said the Territory was in a dictatorship, Premier Fahie only said the VI was not in a dictatorship but rather an ‘acceleratorship’.