Glamour, glitz and the Portuguese Sweet Girls abounded at the United Bermuda Party?s Annual Gala Banquet on Saturday night.

Opposition MPs, senators, the party faithful and several other curiosity-seekers packed the Mid-Ocean Amphitheatre at the newly re-opened Fairmont Southampton Princess for a five-course, $100-a-plate dinner, speeches, ?Boogy Down Time? with Legacy, and the dance moves of the Portuguese Sweet Girls.

?That?s a tough act to follow,? ACE chairman and CEO Brian Duperreault commented as he took the podium to make his keynote speech once the Portuguese Sweet Girls left the stage.

Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons opened his remarks by commenting that two women ? party chairperson Gwyneth Rawlins and his wife, Cathy ? had requested he keep his comments short.

?They?re like my own personal airport security guards,? he explained to shouts of laughter. ?When they say Grant, take your shoes off, I take my shoes off.?

As keynote speaker at the banquet, Mr. Duperreault spoke about the political, social, and especially racial polarisation plaguing the Island.

?Our dialogue about race is stuck in a sound bite,? he said. ??He didn?t get the job because he was black.? ?She got the job because she was white.

?Sometimes this might be true, sometimes it isn?t. But too many of us conveniently leap to the conclusion that race must be at the base of an injustice ? because for too long, and for far too many, it was.?

Bermuda?s maturity has been established after the Island?s reaction to events like 9/11 and Hurricane Fabian, he said.

?But when Government, the Opposition and the private sector try to resolve the Island?s social issues, we part like the Red Sea.

?Political expediency takes over. Honest analysis and discourse fall by the wayside. And nothing gets done.

?It drives me crazy ...It shouldn?t take a disaster to get us to work together.?

He offered volunteerism as the answer. ?The only time we don?t act like oil and water is when we donate our time and energy to something or to help someone. Then we unite ? fairly, decently, and for the greater good ... Helping others seems to be part of the DNA of this country.?

Legislation to support volunteerism would provide the Island with ?a powerful weapon ... a tool for cutting through the partisanship that is almost choking this country to death.?

He called on the UBP to make volunteerism a fundamental focus of the party. ?Reach out to the Progressive Labour Party,? he said. ?Invite them to join you in putting politics aside as you work to develop Bermuda?s Third Sector (volunteerism).?