BY JEANNETTE LAYNE-CLARK

WHAT A WEEK it has been! During the past six days, Barbados' political stage has been the setting for drama, intrigue, bluster and buffoonery – more than enough, in fact, to keep the nation thoroughly entertained.

The aftershocks following the volcanic outburst of Dr David Estwick, deputy leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), (is he still?) have generated both intelligent discussion and mindless chatter. But preoccupying both pundits and "prattlers" was the recurring question: will Mr Mascoll cross the floor?

Now we know. The former Opposition Leader will do just that!

Personally, I don't know Mr Mascoll at all. My impression of him has always been based on his public persona, the image he has projected through his performance (plus his – and/or his party's – often misdirected efforts at public relations) as Leader of the Opposition.

As I've often remarked, despite his ability, knowledge and capacity for research and analysis, he has never managed to convince me (nor, I venture to suggest, too many other people) of his suitability for the role either of Opposition Leader or as a serious candidate for the post of Prime Minister of Barbados. Simple as that.

While aware of his intellectual assets, I have always thought him to be politically naive and generally lacking in the assertiveness, savoir-faire and that most elusive of attributes, stage-presence, that have been associated with such political virtuosos as, for example, Tom Adams or Branford Taitt.

But whatever Mr Mascoll's deficiencies, he had nevertheless impressed me as being a person with that one quality not easily identified on the battlefield of politics – INTEGRITY. And it was because I thought of him as a man who valued his integrity that I could not imagine him being persuaded to sacrifice his credibility (which he has now shattered) at the altar of expediency.

Now, all his mouthings about being willing to allow anyone to "make use of his talents" and his readiness to accept "whatever the Prime Minister offers" merely expose him as a shameless political pawn.

Let's face it – people don't instantly embrace their detractors simply because they've been "hurt" or because they can't always attract the support of their friends! Mr Mascoll's present whimperings are pathetic, his behaviour not unlike that of a spoilt brat in the throes of a tantrum.

Can any of us imagine Dame Billie Miller, for example, suddenly turning her back on the BLP to slide over to the other side just because she has a beef with her party leader, or is at odds with her party?

Faced with the option of becoming a Dem or giving her life, that lady is, I'm willing to bet, more likely to choose the latter! That's the depth of her commitment to her party. She could certainly give political martyrs a lesson in integrity.

I honestly didn't see Mr Mascoll in the role of political grasshopper, capable of executing the same fancy footwork on which people like Kerrie Symmonds, Johnny Tudor, Hamilton Lashley, Rudy Grant et al so readily relied to hop across to the other side.

I somehow didn't believe he would have joined a party whose policies and programmes he has constantly criticised and whose members have persistently vilified, reproached and ridiculed him in the House during his tenure as Opposition Leader. Where is the man's mirror image?

In his wrap-up of the Budget Debate, Prime Minister Arthur condemned the so-called "gag order" reportedly imposed on DLP members. In so doing, he posed the rhetorical question:

". . . By what legitimacy are you masquerading as representatives of the people? . . . They are not men; they are not mice . . . they are worse than minions."

To borrow the Prime Minister's words, let me boldly say that for the former Opposition Leader now to be so nonchalantly leaping over to the other side (a coup for the BLP, whose members must be grinning from ear to ear!), he, too, has proved himself to be worse than a minion.