Prime Minister's Special Statement, 8 June 2021

Speaker: Order! Like last week, but dealing with a different issue, we have the Prime Minister here with a special statement, and quite an urgent one. I feel questions are unnecessary for this sitting as meetings of the nature the Prime Minister is about to announce are common in this chamber and are common for the Prime Minister to achieve but not normally this early and so I'll now hand over to the Prime Minister.


Prime Minister: Thank you, Dr. Speaker. As the Chamber will be well aware, we do have the H Summit Major in the country every ten years starting in 1963 and we have had some H Summits Minor in years in between. Dr. Speaker, we are creating history this year. The Chamber will also be well aware that Prime Ministers have always been obliged to hold H Summits Major every ten years and are allowed to hold other H Summits Major and Minor when they see fit. So far, no Prime Minister has called an H Summit Major in between the ten year intervals but plenty of H Summit Minors, as Vice-Prime Minister Barrett did last year. I am organising an H Summit Major for June 2021 until April 2022. I hope Vice-Prime Minister Barrett will uphold this decision and see it through to its end. 

Dr. Speaker, this year's meeting is the biggest any Prime Minister has ever called. Until now, with the exception of 2020's H Summit Minor, H Summits Major and Minor have consisted of Prime Ministers and representatives of those who have passed since 1963. In 2020, Vice-Prime Minister Barrett met with former Prime Minister Renay Arce, who served our country as Prime Minister from 1910 until 1915 and is currently the country's oldest woman. This year, I will be meeting with Prime Ministers and representatives of those who have passed since the declaration of the Republic in 1850. I recognise the extent of this project, however, I am determined to see it through.

Dr. Speaker, the occurrence of this meeting this year into next year will not eradicate the 2023 H Summit Major and Vice-Prime Minister Barrett will still plan and host that in 2023. This year's meetings are organised in the way they are organised in the hope of facilitating everyone at least once, others who feel the need to meet again more than once until all concerns have been dealt with. This year's meetings will mostly take place on Mondays and Fridays to ensure the availability of myself and Vice-Prime Minister Barrett and the Leader of the Advanced Humanitarian League who is, himself, a participating former Prime Minister. This year's meetings will be chaired by you, Dr. Speaker, and so Monday and Friday meetings will also ensure your availability. On days when we must meet on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, Dr. Speaker, the Dr. Deputy Speaker will stand in for you, Vice-Prime Minister Ortiz will stand in for me and we will excuse the Leader of the Advanced Humanitarian League, if he had wished to be present at any of those meetings, from attending so that he can sit in this Chamber.

Dr. Speaker, if we need to, we will also facilitate meetings on Saturdays and Sundays. I will, rather than list in this Chamber, compile a list, in a document, of participants in the meetings and a list of topics being discussed and I will request a small piece out of the Chamber's time on a Tuesday morning to make those documents available to the Chamber before I publish them for public viewing. I will, also, as Vice-Prime Minister Ortiz to proofread the documents before publishing. I will not ask Vice-Prime Minister Barrett to proofread and would not expect her to as she both celebrates her thirty-ninth birthday next week and begins surgery for Lung Cancer last week. As soon as I hear she is recovering and well again from her husband, I will, first of all, visit her to ensure she is OK, then I will make her aware of the documents. 

Dr. Speaker, Vice-Prime Minister Barrett is expected to be kept in hospital for a few days following her surgery and I will be staying away during this time. She does not need me interrupting her during her hour of need. Finally, why am I holding this meeting this year? The Chamber will be aware that last year, ahead of the June 2020 General Election, the Government discovered our history had been altered and changed on the grounds of gender, race and age. This is unacceptable.

Dr. Speaker, I want to hold this year's meetings to find out if the list of our former Prime Ministers since 1850 and the declaration of the Republic is now complete or whether there remain further former Prime Ministers we do not know about and that the declaration of the Republic did take place in 1850 and not before. Secondly, I want to hold this year's meetings to allow former Prime Ministers and representatives of those who have passed since 1850 to have their voice heard like those since 1963 and be brought up to date on the running of the country and allow them to state their opinions in the same way our more recent former Prime Ministers and their representatives have been able to. I am now happy to give way for questions.

Speaker: I thank the Prime Minister for his detailed speech and I confirm to the Chamber the detail he gave about me and the Deputy Speaker are correct. I hate to say to the Prime Minister, I have no prepared questions on the Order Paper, no-one told me ahead of time they wanted to ask you questions today rather than tomorrow. I did, also, say at the beginning of today's special sitting that I thought questions were unnecessary today. Were you expecting questions? The Prime Minister. 

Prime Minister: Dr. Speaker, I forgot that today was Tuesday and tomorrow is Wednesday and tomorrow hosts Prime Minister's Questions. I apologise for my mistake and I am more than happy to hang on until tomorrow for questions.

Speaker: I thank the Prime Minister for that. Order! I now suspend the Chamber until 2PM. Order!