Former Premier Sir John Swan has praised Alex Scott's Government while launching a stinging critique of his own party.

He said the United Bermuda Party's white elite were a turn off for voters and potential black candidates alike and he said wholesale change was needed to avert electoral disaster.

He told The Royal Gazette: "I think the UBP has to go through some very fundamental changes which I don't think it recognises.

"Until the UBP goes through that process they will find themselves always wannabes.

"It needs restructuring and recognising the cultural and racial and intellectual dynamics of the country.

"It has got to have the consent of the masses and have the perception of moral integrity. Bermuda has changed. "Can it do it with the present structure of the UBP? That's the $64,000 question.

"Can it do it under Grant Gibbons and under Barritt and under Dunkley or under Dodwell and people like that or does it need to bring on a new breed that will help it go through this process?

"The difficulty they have to face is that they might find the issue they have to deal with is themselves.

"My hope is there won't be a revolt but a transformation.

"Will it happen? I don't know."

He said he wasn't prescribing a particular number in how the UBP calved up its racial mix.

"With the demographics that Bermuda has the UBP has to decide whether it wants to be a strong Opposition and hope to come back to Government again or whether it wants to be in the wilderness, sticking to a position that does not necessarily lend itself to being in support of a proportion of the population." Sir John, who led the party for 13 years before resigning after losing a referendum on Independence, said the UBP needed to make itself more relevant.

This could be achieved by campaigning for increasing participation and freedom.

"The first thing they need to do is recognise they lost two elections.

"They have to ask themselves why. I think they lost because I don't think the racial make-up of the UBP really reflected the Bermuda as it really is.

"They were not able to get the competent candidates to run so they were seen as though it was a number of whites who had real qualifications, lawyers, business people and Dr. Grant Gibbons himself and a number of blacks who didn't have that intellectual background.

"So in other words we whites are still in charge and we want you blacks to come along and blacks are saying basically we want some parity with your system.

"The historical role of the UBP was to get some blacks in to make sure we got enough votes and with the white vote we are going to win."

Sir John (pictured) said promising black candidates were turned off by the present UBP regime. "You saw the candidates, they weren't people you wanted to rush out and vote for.

"They should have won that last election."

"Just like Jack Tucker found me and others like me, Grant Gibbons is going to have to do the same thing. You have to find the people and encourage them."

But he said if the PLP government continued by appealing to the centre ground it could pick up white votes.

"Unless the UBP can evolve as a party which is more reflective of the demographics of the country both colour wise and intellectually wise it just won't be seen as having the intellectual ability to represent the people its being asked to represent."

Sir John said the ideological gaps between the PLP and UBP were tiny when compared and voters would be won on effective representation.

"There still remains the racial gap." In Bermuda race was akin to ideology, said Sir John. "Why do they have so many black churches and black organisations."

He said blacks were not raising hell about the Bank of Bermuda being sold because they didn't have shares. "They are not big shareholders of BF&M, Argus, Colonial Insurance."

The PLP is helping to reduce inequality and Sir John said he hoped the UBP would also take up this goal.

"I don't think Bermuda is under any threat because of the PLP."

He said blacks were doing well with renting property while whites were owing equity in businesses. Sir John also praised Government's handling of the six-year term limits on work permits. "The Government still has the right to exercise a level of discretion which it is doing. I think it is acting very responsibly quite frankly."

He denied he had gone PLP but refused to say if he had voted for the UBP although he said he was still a member. Asked if the UBP was wrong to have Grant Gibbons as leader Sir John said: "It is not a question of being wrong, it is a question of can the UBP move on. That's the issue."

The UBP needed to develop a vision for people to rally around.

He said the fear that Bermuda would go down the tubes under the PLP had been proved wrong. "Some of these boogey men have gone away. I admire the present Premier whose doing an excellent job of communicating and being inclusive.

"I think he recognised that he's got a mission to make sure Bermudians are treated fairly and I admire him for it."

He said Mr. Scott had given a lot of people confidence which was a very good thing for Bermuda.