To begin my argument, I would like to first use an analogy to link two totally seemingly unrelated concepts.

In party politics, such as what we have in Bermuda, the holder of political power can be analogously compared to the king in the children's game of "King of the Hill". Likewise, political mechanisms have their analogy in the tactics, physical, mental or otherwise, that a political party must take to stay as "king".

Political ideology is the framework of thoughts, ideas, concepts and philosophical foundations that can be said to motivate these actions. When political ideology changes, likewise political mechanisms change and the position on the "hill" can be either threatened or strengthened.

Now many of us have played the game of King of the Hill as children and will know that there are many different scenarios that can happen. Sometimes there is one king, and at other times, an alliance is formed whereby two or more co-kings can work together to keep ownership of the hill. However, if the intent of the kings holding the hill are different, there is real potential for conflict. I use this analogy to highlight the importance of political ideology to shaping the identity of political organisations and to highlight the way by which political ideology and political action are connected.

Bermuda's political landscape, like all political landscapes, is a changing one; sometimes rapid and at other times more gradual. The two main political parties, the PLP and the UBP, that were first founded some years ago, are still in existence, whereas other parties have come and gone, and most recently a new party has been formed. The creation of new parties from old ones reflect intra-party games of King of the Hill, where by ideological differences can cause former co-kings to move to new hills.

On these new hills, new ideological positions can be mooted, new alliances formed and new political mechanisms actioned. As a young man, I was raised on the PLP hill. I have early memories of accompanying my mother to her job as administrator to, at the time Leader of the Opposition, Dame Lois Browne. On other occasions, I recall helping her to stuff envelopes in the party offices as well as attending dinner parties at former Opposition leader Freddie Wade's home.

It was at these social gatherings that I felt the true essence of the PLP ideology at the time was revealed. I distinctly remember a spirit of optimism, openness and culture that in some ways characterised the early 1980s time period in Bermuda, and indeed, in many places around the world. A certain "triumphant revolutionism" was present as well, I presume obtaining some of its formative energy from the social militancy that characterised the popular Black Power ideologies so influential in the 60s and early 70s internationally.

It was in this triumphant spirit that chants like "PLP all the way!" were born. Although surely influenced by foreign discourses of Black Power, the PLP agenda was much wider than a narrow focus on race. Fundamental issues of inequity existing in Bermuda despite self-governance, such as equal rights, women's rights in the workplace, promoted a mild but comprehensive thrust for revolutionary change. The party environment was by no means restrictive or exclusionary; this was noticeably seen in the presence of characters such as David Allen, who I remember always carried a colourful personality to match his far more colourful shirts!

At that time, the PLP were not the king of the hill, at least not politically. But what the PLP did have was "solidarity", which happen to have once been used as a popular party slogan of the day, reflecting the internal unity within its ideology. Now that the PLP have become the political king of the hill, some things have changed.

The historical basis of the PLP's labour moniker was in alignment with similar labour ideologies all over the world, i.e. a support of worker's rights, increased welfare for all, in particular, the disenfranchised worker in society, and a promotion of a socialist paradigm in which "the people" influenced power. From my point of view, there was some difference in the labour ideology of the PLP from that which existed in the United Kingdom. This difference arose primarily due to the fact that the disenfranchised of Bermuda, the working class, were chiefly made up of black people, a situation occurring as a remnant of Bermuda's colonial past and oligarchic economic structure. What has changed is that black people in Bermuda today not only make up a substantial portion of the working class, but now also the middle class. Ideological and politically, this represents a real challenge for what voices should have space on the hill and whose concerns take priority.

Other elements of Bermuda's changing socio-political scene also reflect this conflict of interest. The growth of vocal and increasingly influential environmental groups over the past two decades has seen the emergence of new power players in the political King of the Hill game. Interestingly, differing from conservation-based environmental groups like the National Trust, which historically seem to ideologically more align with elements of a conservative right, the environmental protest groups seeming at most odds publicly with the PLP today are those that would historically have been characterised as emanating from a more political left.

Although the still relative homogenous nature of these sorts of environmental protest groups mean that they pose no real threat to a mass switch of allegiance of the social community served by the formative ideals of the PLP, care must be taken so that political ideological shifts do not cause too far of a movement away from the original motivations of its fore-founders or this allegiance may become weakened. Although possibly too revolutionary for some people's taste, the suppositions of celebrated Caribbean scholar Walter Rodney capture the essence of my argument. He writes in his seminal work "Grounding with my Brothers" how perpetuating a "system" that was formerly criticised means becoming part of that system. He warns against the measuring of personal progress from the acquisition of material things, saying that the real transformation comes when we are free physically, mentally and spiritually to define and evaluate the world from one's own standpoint.

The challenge for the PLP is how to stay authentic to the essential needs of the communities from which their political ideology emerged, while at the same time consider the needs of an increasingly diverse and globalised Bermuda. An even greater challenge will be to assure confidence in such necessary efforts to celebrate the PLP's roots in real "people power", while at the same time not incurring the fear that often accompanies such movements and avoiding the attempts to discredit these efforts as racist.