Explanation On David Forbes Acting Clerk Of The House

Last week a number of visitors and readers of this column in our view misread a comment made about the Speaker Halson Moultrie and the logic of his attack on the Chairman of the PLP Senator Fred Mitchell.  For the avoidance of doubt,  the article did not say and if inelegantly expressed did not intend to say that David Forbes the Acting Chief Clerk of The House wrote or had anything to do with the personal invective of the Speaker.  The name and his position was made to make a broader point.  The point is in an ironic way, properly made and understood by those who claimed that it was accusatory to Mr. Forbes.  We express it again.  The Speaker believed that the words in Philip Davis’ address to the public were inserted or written by Mr. Mitchell. He therefore attacked Mr. Mitchell.  The article pointed out the fallacy of that.  The fact is he did not know who advised or wrote the speech. Mr. Davis himself could have written it. It could have been done by professional advisors. All of that is irrelevant because the speech is Mr. Davis’ speech and the words were his, regardless of who wrote it. The article said that the Speaker’s argument followed to its logical conclusion though misguided in its result would be like someone who sees that Mr. Forbes is the Clerk of The House and decides that since he is the Clerk he is the one who wrote the words of the Speaker. That would be wrong because the words of the Speaker regardless of who may have advised or written it are the words of the Speaker. We hope that this settles this matter all around.