Dear Sir,

It is not fair for anyone to accuse a whole population of people of participating in something they had never acted on in the past, such as xenophobia, and then turn around and try to make them feel guilty about it for political objectives. That’s not right.

From the very outset, the One Bermuda Alliance as government began running a ridged psychological campaign based on xenophobia in an attempt to make Bermudian people feel guilty that they were not doing enough in going out of their way to open their arms wide enough to welcome into Bermuda hordes of foreigners.

I stand to be corrected, but for most of my 68 years of life and growing up in Bermuda, I have always heard and was being taught that Bermudians were the most helpful and friendliest people in the world, and that we would extend a hand out to anyone that found themselves in trouble — and that was wherever one may be residing in the world.

Is the OBA trying to tell me that was not true and all but a lie? For as far back as I could remember, Bermuda has always depended on tourism as being one of main pillars in our economy and we have spent millions of dollars in advertising over the decades trying to get tourists to come to our shores.

How then can one find the excuse to accuse a whole group of people of being xenophobic when you know they are not? Where does one find the nerve to do that? Although we may want to blame Michael Fahy for most of the stupid immigration policies he was trying to push down our throats, you could rest assured that he had the full support and backing of the Premier, the Cabinet and the majority of the OBA membership.

I don’t know how the OBA managed to get even the 12 seats that they did win in the General Election; they should have lost even more.

Did those people who voted for the OBA not understand what damage the Pathways to Status Bill would have done to Bermuda if that piece of legislation would have become law?

Did they not ask why the St George’s Police Station was still closed and was not mentioned in the previous election or opened right after they had won the election in 2012 like they promised?

Although one did not see too many white people attending the Progressive Labour Party rallies, my belief is that enough white people either stayed away from the polls or joined in and helped to push the PLP to its landslide victory.

To be told that money does not grow on trees, then turn around and pull large sums of money out of a mysterious hat to support programmes to help friends and family did not go over too well in the public’s view or show as a sign of good governance. To think that the OBA spent most of its time in office blaming the PLP for its shortcomings, thinking they could hide behind them and do nothing and get away with it.

I’m sorry, fellows, but that, too, did not work.

Please tell me, people, are we prepared to vote for bad government again? I sure hope not

E. McNEIL STOVELL

Pembroke East