July 30, 2003

Dear Sir,

Last weekend I was asked why I thought that we needed a New United Bermuda Party Government and what was so wrong with the PLP?

On the surface, that is an easy question to respond to but there are deeper issues to consider.

On the surface, it doesn't look like we are any worse off than we were before. But I think the biggest change has been in our social fabric - our sense of fairness and our sense of community. The PLP may well have been the promised saviour of black Bermudians but it hasn't turned out that way. No, far from it - they have managed to split this community racially and they have managed to show that all they care about is greed and corruption. No question about it, black Bermudians in Bermuda and probably the rest of the world have not been treated equally for hundreds of years. But the PLP way is not the way to make all those years go away - although I accept that we had to see them in action to believe it.

The UBP of my father's day was a great political machine when it came to running the business of Bermuda - give it some credit for making Bermuda one of the wealthiest and most successful country's in the world - but it either lost or never had or never recognised a social responsibility.

The other thing that concerns me is the PLP's lack of any real competence in running a Government. Sure, they were the Opposition for a long time but for much of that time they were paid Parliamentarians. I would have thought that they might learn some things about running the machinery that makes Bermuda tick ... but, no, they decided to throw the baby out with the bath water and re-invent the wheel.

I try to think of any major (or minor, for that matter) thing that almost five years of PLP rule has accomplished. Can you think of anything? What have they done to improve the lot of black Bermudians, what have they done to improve the life of any Bermudian ? Seriously, what have they accomplished? They say they need another term - why, to keep on doing the same things? All I see is greed, corruption and incompetence.

Tourism is collapsing around us; they wont/don't talk to the media so we never know what they are doing except when they decide to leak something in their own interest; education is a mess; capital building projects are run with a degree of incompetence not seen in many places in our world; and as above, our social fabric is split like never before.

Sure, international business continues to grow. But believe me when I say that growth is in spite of the Terry Lister Gang not because of it! If you really think that the PLP has anything to do with the growth of international business ... well, I have a bridge that's for sale. There's been a lot of talk about whether the New United Bermuda Party really is New. Take a look at the people running for them and listen to what they are saying. No Party can ever prove anything - competence or a changed philosophy - unless they are truly given a chance to show it. Talk is cheap - whether you believe them or not. I look at the slate for the UBP and see not only a fair smattering of business competence but an even larger smattering of social conscience.

When I look at the PLP slate I see mostly the same old tired faces, the same old words and the same old tired ideas. They didn't make any effort to learn anything during their years of sitting and criticising and, when given a chance, they did nothing with it ... except for themselves. You will decide how you want to live and under what kind of Government but if this is what we are to be for the next five years - it's a sad day for us.

FOR A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Southampton