Baldwin Spencer says goodbye to the House

Opposition Leader Baldwin Spencer has said farewell to the House of Representatives and the nation as the public anticipates the dissolution of Parliament.
Following the 2014 general election, Spencer said that he would retire from elective politics. So, since he is not running for office again, once this Parliament is dissolved, he will not be returning to the House.
When the house convened this morning,the former two-term prime minister during the United Progressive Party’s tenure, thanked the people for allowing him serve.
“It was and has been a tremendous experience and I wish to say that I have to give thanks to the Almighty also for guidance and support to see me through,” he said.
Spencer is presently serving his sixth unbroken term in the House of Representatives. He was first elected in 1989 and has been the MP for St. John’s Rural West for 29 years – almost three decades.
The politician said he was grateful to the constituents. He also said that his interaction with Sir Vere Cornwall Bird, helped to chart his course in politics. He was elected prime minister in 2004.
“And I cannot say to you Mr. Speaker that I was able to get everything right. Clearly, none of us is infallible and looking back I could say to myself if I had to do certain things over again I would have done them differently based on experience,” he added.
 Spencer’s Farewell speech was well received and prime minister Gaston Browne acknowledged his service.
It was during the same sitting that Browne suggested that an Act be passed to give former prime ministers certain special benefits befitting of their service.
“And there are few individuals who would have given that extent of service and would have done so so selflessly,” Browne said as he reflected on Spencer’s success at the polls when he started.
Spencer also received kind words from the MPs Molwyn Joseph and Steadroy Benjamin and the Speaker of the house Sir Gerald Watt, QC.