Former Progressive Labour Party MP and controversial lawyer Julian Hall last night told a crowd of about 500, including Premier Alex Scott and a number of Senators, that ?you need a lot of confidence to survive in politics even when your colleagues watch you slip and slide.?

Mr. Hall was speaking at the Bermuda Industrial Union?s annual Labour Day banquet at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel.

?You need to have a lot of confidence like Dr. Ewart Brown when you?re smashed weekly in the local media even when your colleagues let you down.?

In a speech entitled ?From Butchie With Love?, a nickname he?d been given when he was born prematurely, Mr. Hall told the crowd that he got concerned when powerful people can?t take criticism. ?It lets the other side talk for a change and hear their ideas.? The Island, he said, was built by black and white people who have a lot to offer.

?I don?t want to belong to a black political party. I don?t want to belong to a movement that is based on race.?

Mr. Hall said he wanted to belong to a movement that is based on ideology, adding that he did not want to be part of a winning political machine.

?I want to be part of a political machine that has beliefs and principles.?

To a loud applause, Mr. Hall said he wanted to belong to a party that believes in what it is doing and that never forgets its core support ... ?the working people of Bermuda?.

Striking a conciliatory note after raising eyebrows in a recent article in rg Magazine where he criticised the PLP leadership, Mr. Hall led off his speech saying he did not come to the Labour Day banquet to ?slam the Government?.

In a speech sprinkled with good humour and jokes, Mr. Hall talked about how he was raised by people struggling for change.

?In the political arena, politics without love, forgiveness and humility is just ?poli-tricks?.?