Dear Sir,

Now that the “Tweed Saga” is winding down, permit me some observations on it and some related issues. The first is the dangerous precedent that has now been set regarding how churches are pastored in this country. For those denominations that failed to speak out against an obviously flawed policy being applied to the Church, stand by, your turn is coming.

Next is the visceral reaction to the Bermuda Industrial Union’s America’s Cup threat. All of the usual phrases were trotted out in reaction to the BIU president’s statement. Bermuda was told that “the world is watching” and all about how much Bermuda stands to lose by being so impolite as to stand up for something.

Isn’t it interesting that when a CEO threatens to take his payroll-taxpaying jobs and company out of Bermuda because of some government policy — remember, payroll tax increases and term limits? — thereby jeopardising our economic security the One Bermuda Alliance did not bristle or demand that he get back into line. We take that card being played and adjust our behaviour as directed. So it is clearly not the threat as much as who is making the threat.

As for the America’s Cup, is it all that it claims to be? Twice in your editorial January 6, Sir, you water down the event’s promise. It’s a “feel-good factor ... (even) ... if not immediately (delivering) returns in ... pockets”.

And again with this gem: “That spending will take place in Bermuda, whether you can see and feel the greenbacks or not.”

In those two statements, Sir, you encapsulate exactly why there has been a lukewarm reception to this elite sporting event of the privileged few in these islands. Your sentiments mirror those of the out-of-touch government, which cannot seem to understand that ordinary Bermudians will no longer accept that economic success is a spectator sport, confined to watching those who have always had make more.

If this event promises no more than some extra overtime or a few hustles to pay for a Black Friday shopping trip, what differentiates it from the other events we have had in recent years?

Does a tree falling in the Amazon make a noise? Of course, it does but only for those who can hear it. The rest have to take the word of an eyewitness or through word of mouth. This is what the America’s Cup seems to promise: we must take the word of the already rich that it is making money for folks, and that it is good for Bermuda whether we benefit from it or not.

The final observation arising out of this entire affair is the OBA’s new-found love for Bermudian jobs. After four years of strict message discipline worthy of the “four legs good, two legs bad” mantra from Animal Farm, the OBA has defied its usual script. People should recall this is the government that has preached — timely pun intended — about how the increase in work permit approvals is a measure of the economic turnaround and has been at great pains to emphasise the importance of foreigners and direct foreign investment to our very oxygen supply.

As if by magic, the Reverend Nicholas Tweed’s is the first foreign-held job that it demands must be given to a Bermudian.

Whatever happens to Mr Tweed, the OBA should know that many wholeheartedly agree with your view, Sir: “Without him, there is all brawn and mania but little panache, the sort that moves even people who do not want to be moved.”

A.S. SIMONS