Dear Sir,

The letter from Beverley Connell on the subject of political bickering and financial extravagance in government media communications published by you on April 26 was right on target.

How on earth does a government gainfully employ 30 employees in the Department of Communications and then propose additional expenditure of $2.5 million in an attempt to camouflage its many examples of incompetence? This is Alice in Wonderland politics.

Would it not be cheaper to close The Royal Gazette so that the snollygosters in government could be totally free to waste taxpayers’ funds? I recall when the Mid-Ocean News closed some years ago the Premier, Ewart Brown, said words to the effect of “one down and one to go”.

With the wave of fiascos such as the Ministry of Education, the Department of Public Transportation (bus schedule) and deteriorating infrastructure — not to mention our mountain of debt — our political leaders are really saying that we cannot afford, nor should we spend, time criticising them.

It is not true that we are incompetent, they say; we just have bad communications, but the Bermuda media fail to understand that and they mislead the public.

I am reminded of what General Douglas MacArthur is credited with saying about Franklin Delano Roosevelt back in the 1930s — that he was “a man who never told the truth when a lie would suffice”.

Fast forward to 2019 and to Bermuda, and we have a similar state of affairs. Except that David Burt is no FDR.

ROBERT STEWART

Smith’s