Friday, the Hon. Quinton Edness told the members that malicious people in the community have started rumours which have destroyed the reputations of wonderful people.

"It's a poisonous, insidious ill ...'', Mr. Edness said.

Mr. Edness is correct, of course, and every person in Bermuda knows of recent examples of highly destructive innuendo and gossip. The political nature of the gossip is demonstrated because it is so often about candidates in marginal constituencies. This kind of gossip about public figures always increases when an election is approaching because, while Bermuda avoids open negative political campaigning, it often engages in negative campaigning by malicious gossip.

It seems to us that there is also a ready willingness in Bermuda to destroy institutions, not to question or to explore or to disagree, which are functions of freedom, but to destroy for personal or political gain with wanton license.

This extends to such things as the attempt to damage the team setting up Bermuda's campaign against drugs. The actions apply just as often and just as unfairly to institutions like the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital as they do to individuals. We think "poisonous insidious ills'' extend to institutions which have been carefully designed for the public good in response to public concern.

In the effort to destroy our institutions, there is an attempt to send the message that Bermuda is run by people who are kin to oppressive aliens from another planet. These "aliens'' are, in fact, our relatives, our friends and our neighbours. We think Bermuda is too small for this kind of division. We need co-operation and not confrontation. We also think Bermudians are too mature to give real credence to false claims against other Bermudians.

Bermudians are interested in the welfare of their fellow Bermudians and in the stability of Bermuda and we think it will take more than rumours and false accusations to convince them that Bermudians are bad people or that Bermuda is a bad place.

Yet we must question what provokes this bitter savaging of Bermuda and her institutions and this opposition to constructive programmes by some Bermudians. When people do these things, their actions are compounded by Bermuda's size and the wildfire nature of gossip.

It is a peculiarity of Bermuda that the politically motivated gossip of whatever nature continues despite the fact that Bermudians generally do not like the Country disrupted by unnecessary confrontation.

Politically motivated rumours will grow as the election approaches and should be treated as what they are, destructive gossip intended maliciously. The political use of gossip may only indicate that party politics came to Bermuda very late and we are still politically immature. Or it may simply be ill-conceived political posturing which produces no real advantage but does produce great hurt. It could be personal greed.

We think that what Bermudians really want is a kinder, gentler and less confrontational home.