East Kingstown MP Fitz Bramble says he does not want to get involved in gutter politics but will go there if Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves continues to bring his mother into the election campaign.
Bramble responded Tuesday night at the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) campaign event in Belmont to comments Gonsalves made on Sunday, saying that Bramble, aged 64, has never built a home and lives in his mother’s house.
“Everybody know me as Mr. Nice Guy and blah, blah, blah, but I’m telling you, Ralph, you son of a–” Bramble said, then stopped suddenly before saying he was not going down that road.
“… but I’m going to say this very simply to Ralph: say what you want to say about me, say whatever you want to say about me. It’s not going to make any difference anyway, because the more you talk about me is more licks Luke Browne going get.”
He said that the more the prime minsiter talks about him, the more seats the NDP will win in the upcoming general election.
“I am going to say this for the last time, Ralph, leave Mommy out of your duttyness (dirtiness). Leave my mother out of your duttyness,” the MP said.
“Say what you want to say about me. I could handle myself, but if you continue bringing my mother in this campaign, you go see a completely different Fitz Bramble. You better believe that I am not afraid of you and I’m not afraid of any one of you,” Bramble said.
On Sunday, Gonsalves said at a rally of the ruling Unity Labour Party in Calliaqua that people said that the ULP’s Luke Browne did not win the East Kingstown seat because he was unmarried and living with his parents.
“They want to see him get married and have responsibility. Well, he married, he have a child. His wife is a professional,” Gonsalves said of Browne, an economist and lawyer, who Bramble defeated, foiling his third attempt to win East Kingstown for the ULP.
Gonsalves said that Browne, who will represent the ULP in East Kingstown in the upcoming poll, has his own house and no longer lives with his parents.
“Luke is 20-something years younger than Bramble. Bramble is 64. In his 64 years, Bramble never in his life knock up a plywood,” the prime minister said.
“He come back, he ain’t married, he ain’t got no responsibility,” the prime minister said of Bramble, who returned to St. Vincent to contest the 2020 general elections after living for some time in Canada, where he worked as the economic development coordinator for Estevan, the eighth-largest city in Saskatchewan.
“He live in he mother house, a wonderful woman who was ah office attendant, who built her house on the salary of an office attendant and Bramble at 64 ain’t knock up a plywood,” Gonsalves said.
“They don’t got no ambition. When man don’t get no ambition, how they go represent you?”
Meanwhile, Bramble, speaking at the NDP campaign event in Belmont on Tuesday, said he was only addressing the issue because “the prime minister, in his very disrespectful, low-life approach, decided to bring my mother into this.
“I have a big problem with that, a huge problem with that,” Bramble said.
He told the meeting and media audiences that his mother, Mona Bramble, from Bottom Town, has five children, all of whom have different fathers.
“I’ve given this story before, and I have no shame, because that is my reality,” Bramble said, adding that his mother her children as a single mother.
The MP said his mother only had a primary school education, “not because she wasn’t bright enough, but because of socio-economic conditions in Bottom Town at the time.
“And I can tell you, had it not been for the help and support and love of many people, including the family in Bequia who raised me, Mommy would not have been able to raise us.”
Bramble said his mother ensured that each of her children made something of themselves and they recognise “the love and the sacrifice that mommy made in shaping our lives.
“And I can tell you, I can tell you that every single one of us, all five of us, are very proud and honoured and very, very involved in our mother’s life today, as she approaches her 83rd birthday on the 20th of November.”
The MP said he and his younger brother, Andrew, who also lives at the house in Mc Kies Hill take care of their mother daily.
“And I want to also recognise Denise, who comes there every day and helps to take care of Mommy. Mommy is pretty good, but she doesn’t cook and wash and all that stuff anymore.
“We are honoured and privileged and proud to be able to take care of our mother, and I can guarantee you I will continue to take care of my mother who’s living in my house at McKie’s Hill until God decides that one of us has to go from each other.”
Bramble said that he can tell the prime minister that he will continue to take care of his mother when the NDP wins the election and he is a government minister.
“My mother is like no other, and I know everybody can say that, to. But one thing I hope and pray and wish for Ralph Gonsalves is that if he lives long enough to get to the age of my mother, that his children would be willing to take care of him,” the MP said.
SVG AND ITS GUTTER POLITICS!