Subj : Re: Um...no comment?
To   : Frank Reid
From : Angus McLeod
Date : Sun Sep 04 2005 21:46:00

  Re: Re: Um...no comment?
  By: Frank Reid to Angus McLeod on Sun Sep 04 2005 09:16:00

 > Maybe your Barbados "monarch-like" Governor General can influence the 
 > actions of his hand=picked prime minister and the parliament more than 
 > our president does. 

Have you been watching the cartoon channel?  Because I can assure you, the 
Prime Minister and parliament of Barbados is not hand-picked by the 
Governor General or anyone else.  Government ministers are elected for 
each constituency by a poll of the registered voters.  Ministers so 
elected then choose a Prime Minister from amongst themselves.  The Prime 
Minister chooses his own cabinet from the elected ministers. Usually (but 
by no means always) the Prime Minister selects members of his own party to 
form the cabinet.  In this case, the leader of the opposition will create 
a shadow cabinet. Those who do not get selected for the cabinet become 
back-benchers or ordinary members of the honourable opposition.  The 
Governor General plays no part in this -- he is a ceremonial head-of-state 
and plays no part whatsoever in the government executive.

By the way, our parliament was founded in 1639, and has functioned without 
interruption since then, That's 366 years, making our parliament the third 
oldest on the planet.  I do believe your Declaration of Independence was 
in 1776, which means we got you beat by some 137 years.  So when you're 
done teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, come on back and tell me 
about your First Amendment right to freedom of speech!  I'd just love to 
trump your Bill of Rights at 1791 with my Magna Carta at 1215....

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