Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert says the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress is a dys­func­tion­al fam­i­ly who can­not put its dif­fer­ences aside like the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM). Im­bert was speak­ing to re­porters yes­ter­day af­ter the com­mis­sion­ing of the new Ma­coya bridge and gantry signs. Ques­tioned about the re­turn of Kei­th Row­ley to the Diego Mar­tin East seat, Im­bert said: "We are a team. "In any fam­i­ly you will have dis­agree­ments and we are all PNM and that's what you see at elec­tion time.

"You see the strength of the PNM...that we are will­ing to put any dif­fer­ences and dis­agree­ments we may have had be­hind and move for­ward.

"At this time what we are in­ter­est­ed in is be­ing re­turned to Gov­ern­ment and I wel­come his se­lec­tion and I look for­ward to hear­ing him on the plat­form." How­ev­er, when asked about dis­agree­ments with­in the Op­po­si­tion and that sim­i­lar­ly they too try to set­tle their squab­bles, Im­bert was quick to say it was a dys­func­tion­al fam­i­ly and not a good one like the PNM. He said: "All good fam­i­lies have dis­agree­ments and are able to put it be­hind them but dys­func­tion­al fam­i­lies like that Franken­stein mon­ster that they are as­sem­bling can­not put their dif­fer­ences be­hind them." Im­bert said the UNC/COP coali­tion would not be of any at­trac­tion to think­ing peo­ple of the coun­try.

"We are the Gov­ern­ment. They are try­ing to get in­to Gov­ern­ment and they will have a very hard time and when I see the mem­bers of that coali­tion...these are all failed politi­cians," he said. Im­bert, the Diego Mar­tin North/East MP, said his par­ty ex­pect­ed to get "a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of those votes that pre­vi­ous­ly went to the COP when it was fight­ing as a sin­gle en­ti­ty" in the last gen­er­al elec­tion. He al­so said there were no drunk­ards and al­co­holics in the PNM. Im­bert said there were no "eth­nic sug­ges­tions what­so­ev­er" when he sang words from the chut­ney Rum 'Til I Die at a meet­ing in Plum Mi­tan on Mon­day. "I am very se­ri­ous. There are no al­co­holics or drunk­ards on a PNM plat­form while I can't say the same for the UNC," Im­bert said.