Shaw back in Shadow Cabinet

Parliamentarians on the Government benches cheered and jeered yesterday as Audley Shaw coolly returned to sit beside Opposition Leader Andrew Holness, the man he challenged for the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) just months ago.

With the parliamentary session on in earnest at 2:35 in the afternoon, Holness walked in and took his seat.

Shaw entered within five minutes and the two men chatted, ignoring the quips and teasing remarks that followed as he took his place in the seat reserved for the opposition spokesman on finance.

Up to that point, the media had not yet received the official communiqué confirming that Shaw had been restored to his former post. It was not until later, after Shaw was well established in his seat, that the advisory was forthcoming.

It was the seat that Shaw had occupied between 1994 and 2007 and again between 2012 and late 2013, when he first wrestled with former finance minister, Dr Omar Davies, and then the present minister, Dr Peter Phillips.

Shaw was characterised by Phillips as "the newly restored spokesman, finding his rightful place".

Then, as he rose to speak in the aftermath of Phillips's ministerial statement to the House, there was no doubt that the Shaw of old had returned as he unleashed his salvos.

- G. S.