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MOP for North Leeward Carlos James. (Photo: Lance Neverson/Facebook)
MOP for North Leeward Carlos James. (Photo: Lance Neverson/Facebook)
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Speaker of the House of Assembly and Unity Labour Party (ULP) candidate for North Leeward, Carlos James has threatened legal action and says he was not suggesting breaching the COVID-19 protocols when he said in a voice note “politics is a very fluid thing, eh, meaning that not everything yo’ put in writing yo’ ha’ to directly follow”.

The voice note began circulating on Tuesday and in the recording, the former government senator, was speaking to someone about an event that he is organising in the constituency on Saturday.

“… Listen to me, the event on Saturday, right, don’t follow the restrictions of about 20 persons or so per community. I expect Fitz Hughes to bring out a larger number than that. Leh the Unruly Boys them come through, organise with Kenny truck, alyo hop on the truck and alyo come through,” James said.

Fitz Hughes is a stronghold of the main opposition New Democratic Party in North Leeward, where James will make his second attempt to unseat the parliamentary representative, Roland “Patel” Matthews, who is seeking a third five-year term in office.

In the recording, James continued:

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“So we not limiting the numbers coming from Fitz Hughes. Yo’ see this thing, politics is a very fluid thing, eh, meaning that not everything yo’ put in writing yo’ ha’ to directly follow because we are guided by the process and we need to get Fitz Hughes excited. You understand me? So ah wa’an de fellas them come out and be a part ah de thing. So let’s work on that for Saturday. Mobile as much fellas from Unruly and the Fitz Hughes posse to come out to the event.”

Speaking on Boom FM on Tuesday, James threatened legal action, telling the host of the show, Dwight “Bing” Joseph:

“It’s an event we are having and I want you to listen very carefully because I have my lawyers who are also listening to this broadcast. And I have better lawyers than you.”

James laughed as he spoke about better lawyers although his tone was stern when he initially spoke about his lawyers listening to the show.

But he found himself having to respond to a question regarding whether his commitment and promises to North Leeward would are fluid also.

“This is in relation to an event where I set restrictions. I am allowed to change the restrictions if I want to and they are not restriction relating to any law that was set or cast in stone… They are my restrictions. I am free to change them, if I want. Why is it being blown into some political melee?” the politician said. 

“It is not a scoop, it is not a leak. I publicly disclosed that to explain to them that I am allowing for additional persons to come. And in allowing those additional persons, we are relaxing the restrictions that I set and provisions that I set to accommodate the whistle stop and that is in relation to one community…

James, a lawyer, said that the voice note was not a private recording.

“It is an open conversation I was having. I sent that information off to a particular community so they can listen to an explanation that I was giving.”

He said that the restrictions he was referring to are what he has set for the event.

James said that a whistle stop will be held in the constituency on Saturday, and he has imposed his restriction to ensure it does not turn out to be a motorcade, which is illegal for political campaigns.

“And I have decided to have approximately maybe eight vehicles on the road during this whistle stop…

“…  The eight vehicles will cover eight communities that form the constituency of North Leeward. And if you give or take maybe 18-20 persons in a van, maybe 18, then you will arrive at least one van per community…

“So the restrictions are not even pertaining to COVID. We are well within the COVID guidelines. The restrictions are pertaining to the smooth flow of traffic that is going to follow if we decide to go on the road in the motorcade.”

Asked if his statement had anything to do with the COVID-19 protocols, James said, “For you to even allude to that fact is ridiculous and irresponsible. For you to even go on radio and try to marry both is an irresponsible thing.”

He, however, said that in the voice note, he was “giving provisions for one community to relax my provisions that I set as it pertains to the persons who can come on the road

“So they are going to replace a van with a larger vehicle, maybe a bus or a truck to facilitate — and if you ask how many additional persons I am relaxing the rules for, when I check and did a tally of the numbers, it is only an additional number of five. So that instead of 20, an additional five persons will be coming from that particular community. That is essentially what it is.”

Asked what he meant when he said politics is fluid, James said:

“Politics is fluid in the sense that you are going to have, which actually happened, other communities saying how is it that one community is allowed to bring five extra persons than my community.

“And the point I was making to them was to say, look, listen, this thing is not set in stone. If I decide on the rules I want to set and if I go back and say I am relaxing it for one community. It is a fluid thing. There is a high and a low and if I decide, or if the persons decide there is a little bit of excitement coming out of one particular community and they want to attract at least a little bit more persons on the whistle stop, then I give provision for that. They are my rules that I set.”

James said he had other rules for the activity but he would not disclose what they are.

“It’s a whistle stop. What do you want, a constitution when you have a whistle stop?”

He said that the eight vehicles are expected to carry just over 100 persons, noting that this is way below the 300 persons that the national COVID-19 protocols permit at an outdoor mass gathering.

“But the real crux of the matter is, I was, more or less, being more concerned about the flow of traffic, not having a build up of traffic behind the whistle stop ad ensuring that we don’t run afoul of the law — the traffic laws.”

Asked about his comments that not everything that is written has to be followed, James said:

“That is in relation to the restrictions that I set. I was the one who gave specific restrictions curtailing what can be done on the whistle stop. And I said to you, the last thing you want is to have 50 vehicles in a caravan blocking the flow of traffic into North Leeward. That would be irresponsible.”

He said the public discussion about the event is a problem as people are now calling him asking to be part of the event and why only one village was allowed to have more than 20 persons.

“I am personally hoping it is not a big event. That’s why I set the restrictions in place.”

9 replies on “‘Not everything yo’ put in writing yo’ ha’ to directly follow’ — Carlos James”

  1. WE CALLING YOU TO RESIGN FROM THE SPEAKERSHIP IN HOUSE OF PARLIMENT FOR ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO BREAK THE LAW WHICH YOU SIGN TO KEEP ,UPHOLD AND PROTECT

    Mr Carlos James. ALL LAWYERS MUST OBEY THE LAWS AND NO ONE IS ABOVE IT

    Plese define These two group : ” Unruly and Posse.

    1 Are these gangs in Chata area?

    2. Are you encouraging Unruly and Posses to break the law?

    3 . Are you telling people what Ulp says in their manifesto is junk and do not believe a word?

    Vincy people read between the lines. cannot spin this one.

    Your words asking others to violate indirectly .(not to follow the covid 19 guidelines in place by your own government how are we to believe you and you are fair ruling as speaker in house of parliament and same people to represents in the same house .

    Your actions already speak for itself and threaten people with sue amongt to dictator.

    My to cents

    1. If you have had any business with Carlos, you would find he is an impressive personality. This statement is not like him or maybe he has to explain himself more. Out off context the statement is shocking but if you think deeper it actually is true.
      I have noticed here in SVG there are lawyers that seem impressive in the media but real scumbags in reality. Carlos does not impress in the media but is very good in person.

  2. Nathan 'Jolly' Green says:

    I do not like Carlos, I think that some of what his words can be a cause of trouble in the young folk.

  3. Are we reading this man Carlos James correctly? For goodness sake Carlos James has a pivotal role in our House of parliament and is now seeking to become an MP for his red shirts! In a book “The Banality of Evil”: Hannah Arendt and “the Final Solution” by Bernard J. Bergen we learn something that ought to stir us to action, especially when Law Makers becomes and encourages the law breakers. Far reaching consequences sure follows!

    “This highly original book is the first to explore the political and philosophical consequences of Hannah Arendt’s concept of ‘the banality of evil, ‘ a term she used to describe Adolph Eichmann, architect of the Nazi ‘final solution.’

    According to Bernard J. Bergen, the questions that preoccupied Arendt were the meaning and significance of the Nazi genocide to our modern times.

    As Bergen describes Arendt’s struggle to understand ‘the banality of evil, ‘ he shows how Arendt redefined the meaning of our most treasured political concepts and principles – freedom, society, identity, truth, equality, and reason in light of the horrific events of the Holocaust.

    Arendt concluded that the banality of evil results from, the failure of human beings to fully experience our common human characteristics – thought, will, and judgment – and that the exercise and expression of these attributes, is the only chance we have to prevent a recurrence of the kind of terrible evil perpetrated by the Nazi”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1QeSVaZlAU

  4. Duke the good book says , “what comes out of a man’s mouth defies him”. Carlos James is just a hypocrite and is deceitful. This is plain and simple, if he cannot be trusted, you can never take him at his word. My only hope is that he never get wins the constituency of NL.

  5. Nathan 'Jolly' Green says:

    For him to say what he said make him unfit to lead, even perhaps unfit to follow, certainly unfit to be leader of the house.

  6. Any one who believes they are bigger than the Word of God and the constitution of a country are a disgrace to that country.

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