The latest political poll results commissioned by The Royal Gazette and conducted by research.bm will not give much solace to either political party.

But the results surely raise more questions about the continued ability of Premier Dr. Ewart Brown's ability to remain in office.

With personal and Government approval ratings at less than 20 percent, and with six in ten voters having a less than favourable view of him, his claims from 2006 that he was the individual better suited than his predecessor Alex Scott to lead the party ring increasingly hollow.

This is especially true because the Progressive Labour Party's own standing continues to be pretty consistent with where it has been at any time except for just prior to an election – in the high 30 percent range.

One wonders where it would be with a leader who actually enjoyed greater respect from the voting public.

What makes that question more compelling is the fact that person exists and is waiting in the wings.

Despite the recent world financial turmoil, Finance Minister and Deputy Premier Paula Cox's personal standing remains at around 75 percent, a higher number by far than any other politician could hope to achieve.

And it may be that at this time, with financial markets in continued turmoil and the global economic outlook becoming grimmer by the day, that a politician who seems to garner respect from grassroots PLP supporters and the general business community is just the person Bermuda needs to guide it through what are likely to be troubled times.

It is no coincidence that for the first time in a long time the economy has become among the top three issues of concern among voters. After a decade and a half of steady growth, Bermuda's economy seems to be more vulnerable than it has been in some time, and a steady hand at the wheel is necessary to bring the community together is needed now.

This should not be read as a wholehearted endorsement of Ms Cox, or, as some will see it, as an attempt to divide the Progressive Labour Party government.

Ms Cox is not without her faults, as she herself might acknowledge. It could easily be argued that she should have done more in the last few years to restrain Government spending. And her well documented efforts to build consensus might suggest that she lacks the ruthlessness to make hard decisions and stick with them.

But it is hard not to acknowledge her strengths, and at the moment uniting a divided community, calming an increasingly skittish local and international business community and building a consensus on the Island's economic direction is critical. Sadly, because he has many other talents, it is hard to see a figure as divisive as Dr. Brown being able to do that.

For the United Bermuda Party, the polls give little more reason for happiness.

One might expect poor polls for one party to benefit the other, but the UBP has actually lost ground and leader Kim Swan continues to be an unknown quantity to many. Indeed, the UBP's greatest concern now is that it is sinking into any political party's worst fear – irrelevance.

This is mostly the UBP's own fault. Since the December, 2007 election, it has been engaged in a protracted period of navel-gazing and self-criticism. Three consecutive election defeats demand a post-mortem, but it should not be allowed to go on and on.

To be sure, the current Parliament still has a maximum of four years to go, and a great deal can happen in that time. But just as doing nothing was the worst possible option for the US Government in the face of the current market meltdown, so the UBP needs to decide what it will do, and then do it.