and Paget East it might be sensible to take a look at what kind of candidate Bermuda needs for Parliament today. It is important to do so in these two safe seat districts because the UBP primary is in fact the election.

In the days before party politics it might have been acceptable to vote for parish worthies who were vocal on street lighting, but today Parliament needs experience and political know-how to get things done. Let's be straight forward about this, there are already a number of people in Parliament who have very little to offer Bermuda in terms of experience and talent and brains. We do not need any more people of limited capacity. Too often these days top people opt for their own careers and their own financial aims and leave Parliament to someone else...almost anyone else. Therefore when we have talented candidates it is important to elect them.

The fact that a person thinks he or she would like a seat in Parliament either for their own prestige or because they think it would be a feather in their cap is not enough today. Candidates should have proven political ability and the talent to make a difference for Bermuda. Given the confrontational nature of Parliament, they also need a fairly thick skin. Today being able to accept comment is essential to political success. Seat warming should no longer be acceptable. Far too often both political parties waste seats on people who make too little contribution.

Bermuda is certainly small but it is not parochial and it has not been spared the complex problems which face much larger countries. Add to that the fact that Government now has a huge budget and you have a Country which needs talented politicians. Bermuda is the best and it deserves to be served by the best.

At the end if the Twentieth Century there are complex issues which will need solutions by thinkers and doers. Race is like an envelope which contains us all and solutions will take sensitivity, experience and patience and a knowledge of how the whole of Bermuda works. Like most of Bermuda's major problems, race is not a Devonshire problem or a Paget problem but a Bermuda problem. Solutions will come from people who have Bermuda's interests at heart.

That is also very true of our other social ills. Drugs are a very important and very disturbing symptom of trouble in Bermudian life. We have to understand that as a national issue because it has nothing in common with street lighting. Crime, especially crimes of violence and theft, are often related to drug and alcohol abuse and we must try to get to the roots of the problems. Voters should choose candidates who can deal with social complexity.

For solutions, Bermuda needs Members of Parliament who will not see issues in simplistic terms. Bermuda is no longer a simple Island.