Dog show row spills from Parliament to Facebook

A row over an MP’s absence from a session of Parliament has spilled from the debating chamber into cyberspace, with Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and Opposition Leader Daniel Feetham exchanging acrimonious barbs on social media.
The exchanges began in Parliament on Monday before moving to Facebook that evening.
The clash centred around GSD MP Lawrence Llamas, who having moved a motion calling for outdoor access for elderly care residents was lambasted for missing a previous session in which he had tabled questions on the subject.
His questions were instead asked by his GSD colleague without supplementary questions while others were tabled for written answers.
The issue, Mr Picardo said, was that he had moved the motion which dealt with matters he should have put at the session he missed.
But Mr Llamas argued that he had been contracted three years prior, before he was involved in politics, to be a judge at a dog show in Brussels.
He said it was “very unfair” that he was being singled out given that government tourism minister Gilbert Licudi had missed a session of Parliament in order to play in the Gibraltar international backgammon tournament.
Mr Llamas argued that he had been contracted for the dog show prior to becoming an MP and had, in any event, also been representing Gibraltar internationally.
But taking to Facebook after the Parliament session, Mr Picardo wrote: “To miss a session of Parliament for which you are paid £35,500pa to go to a dog show is not to give the taxpayer value for money.”
Not taking the dig lying down, the leader of the Opposition, Daniel Feetham commented on the thread stating: “This is not right,” adding that it was also the height of political hypocrisy.
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