"Ah fighting wid lawyers Ah fighting wid priest Ah fighting wid teachers Ah fighting wid beast"

This was one of the songs a few years ago by Black Wizard about a certain Claudius. And now that the budget debate is over we can say that the obnoxious reality has proven to be a very disturbing affirmation of the song itself.

Legitimate questions are now being raised as to the sanity of the individual who still is entrusted with this very high and important office on the Upper floor of the Ministerial Complex in the Botanical Gardens. The nation is still reeling in trauma from the rabid and obscene display, which by all accounts surpasses all precedents of vulgarity.

The Prime Minister was supposed to be summing up the 2006 Budget Debate and the nation waited with bated breath for the man to utter words of wisdom, perhaps to adopt the posture of a statesman, befitting someone who has enjoyed the unique privilege to have sat in the hallowed halls of parliament for two decades.

Surely here was an opportunity to address fundamental and weighty issues pertaining to the national good and to exhort the nation to unite and face the serious challenges ahead. Instead Dr. Mitchell chose to wallow in putridity and expressions never uttered before within the four walls of the sacred institution were spewn from his lips. The nation heard him infer that there were rapists on the other side.

Leaders of Civil Society groups were "unmasked" for not believing in God. Others, by his account, have a personal agenda, like the President of the Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce whose very existence seems to offend him profoundly.

Even the church came under his gun, as he could not suppress his animosity towards one outspoken pastor, "Ah know way you does go and write you sermon!" This is the same Prime Minister who a few years ago was allowing another Pastor onto the political platform of the ruling New National Party (NNP) in general elections. This pastor was also known to be a spiritual healer of the Prime Minister. And where is this pastor now.... Behind bars at the Richmond Hill prison after a high court jury found him guilty of the murder of a 16-year old girl whom he had a sexual relationship with.

And the nation cannot forget the relationship that was developing between Prime Minister Mitchell and the disgraced Apostle Gerard Griffith of the United States. In the contribution of P.M Mitchell, he also took the opportunity to reveal the sinister behaviour of one of his detractors who, according to him, fraudulently conspired to pass off a woman's urine as his own. And for good measure he threw in a couple of vivid accounts of attempts on his life and how he narrowly escaped.

He was the most ferocious of attack dogs and he snarled through canine teeth, "Doh interfere with me and I won't interfere with you!" In the gallery and around the country the good citizens could only shake their heads in dismay, saying, "Look at what parliament has become." It was as if Claudius had defecated on the nation. Visitors to the Spice Isle were heard to express their grave concern, saying that Grenada is in real trouble.

The debate is over, but the embarrassment will remain like nasty stain in the minds of all who had the misfortune to have witnessed the outrage. Is it any wonder that 32 years after Independence the island is still politically unsettled?

The leaders of stature are not around to help our people to raise their heads and feel proud. We still do not know where we are heading as a so-called independent nation.