We are not ones to become - as is too often pompously and self-righteously the case in Jamaica - overly exercised about robust debate in the legislature.
We worry much, though, over the general lack of rigour and thought in parliamentary discourse and the absence, for the most part, of the art of the insult. Attempts at a put-down is often to wield a rude bludgeon, accompanied by a shield of vacuous bellows.
Ronald Thwaites, the People's National Party MP for Central Kingston, is among a few members of the House who are thoughtful in presentation and possess the ability to crushingly expose the dolt with refreshing urbanity.
Mr Thwaites slipped on Wednesday and for a brief period, during a sitting of the Appropriations Committee, became another in the pack, using unparliamentary language to describe a member, Mr St Aubyn Bartlett. There was a heated exchange between both gentlemen.
It is what happened afterwards that is important. Thwaites realised that he had erred and, perhaps more critically, that he might have lost an opportunity to make a serious intervention to the benefit of his constituents and the wider Jamaica. It was about the availability of medicine at public hospitals.
Apology
He apologised, although neither his tone, demeanour nor language came close to matching some of the excesses - more so for their clumsiness than biting edge - that have recently been witnessed in Parliament.
"I was overwrought because of the gravity of the problem and used a word in connection with the member that I ought not to have, and I apologise and withdraw," he said.
Mr Thwaites' decorum is to be emulated, especially when there are crude, tendentious and often juvenile antics of too many MPs. In the meantime, we hope that Mr Thwaites continues his hard work.
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