Issues of race dominated the final moments of the Motion to Adjourn yesterday in the House of Assembly.

All speakers inspired to their feet by the contentious comments of Tony Brannon - a white tourism performer who placed the blame of the industry’s downturn in the 1980’s on black Bermudians and the Bermuda Industrial Union.

He has since apologised, but was still the catalyst for spirited comments from Members of Parliament.

MP George Scott began the Motion to Adjourn and said: “Tony Brannon said something that was offensive to Bermuda and particularly black Bermudians when he said black Bermudians caused the demise of tourism. I am sure there are some very offended people in Bermuda right now.”

He added that many issues lead to the decline in tourism, including the closure of the hotels and said the Government was working hard to turn numbers around.

He said: “The PLP is doing all it can to take tourism where it was years ago.”

Shadow Minister of Education, Neville Darrell said: “I was absolutely abhorred by his comments. I work in the tourism industry and I understand what goes into making it a success, what it takes from everyone in the industry.”

Opposition MP Louise Jackson echoed his sentiments and said the Mr. Brannon’s remarks were offensive.

Minister of Labour and Immigration Derrick Burgess questioned Mr. Brannon’s sanity and said: “The comments are coming from someone who appears to be mentally disturbed, I almost feel sorry for him.

“Those are not the words of a true Bermudian and it places both races of this country back.”

Mr. Burgess also said it was wrong of Opposition MP David Dodwell to say it was Mr. Brannon’s was exercising his freedom of speech. Mr. Dodwell was not in the House yesterday evening but responded to the issue after the session.

Many members of the UBP personally called Mr. Brannon yesterday to express their “extreme displeasure” with his comments, Opposition MP Michael Dunkley said.

He added: “He may have issues with tourism and where it is today but to use the words he used is not acceptable.”

But Mr. Dunkley said he did not hear the Government express outrage when a Government minister made similarly offensive remarks on Hott 107.

He was referring to Sen. David Burch’s use of the term “house n*****” on a radio broadcast in 2005.

He said: “If what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong then we should react the same.”

Opposition member Suzanne Roberts-Holshouser said that while she could not apologise on someone else’s behalf she was apologising “from the bottom of her heart” for the comments.

Opposition Whip John Barritt was next up to denounce Mr. Brannon’s remarks and said that while the tourism proformer sometimes makes “provocative comments for the sake of provocation” his recent comments did a disservice to the Island and race relations.

He added that he resents all types of racial stereotypes and that an Island the size of Bermuda did not need to resort to such things.

He said: “It does not help the situation. We need to stop using this language and get down to the issue. Maybe he does have an issue with the way the union conducted themselves but that has nothing to do with the colour of someone.”

Government backbencher Glenn Blakeney urged the country as a whole to deal with racism and confront it. He said often it was left to the “talking heads” to discuss race but that the Island needs an open dialogue in order to root out racism

He said: “As a small country we should be able to get to the nuts and bolts of the issue. All we have said is let’s talk about it but when we do talk about it we are accused of playing the race card.”

He noted that integration in Bermuda seemed to have only gone one way. He said when segregation ended black people joined what had been white schools, clubs and sports teams but that white people rarely joined schools and organisations that were historically black.

MP Ottiwell Simmons spoke of what he called the first integrated school in Bermuda, his alma mater, where there was one white student.

He also spoke of attempts at racial integration at the BIU and in both political parties.

And then the former union boss voiced some surprise in Mr. Brannon’s comments: “I became extremely disappointed with the remarks of Mr. Tony Brannon.

“I can tell you I treat Tony as my friend all along. He came and volunteered to me personally to speak in favour of the union against a certain hotel here when we were holding some arbitration hearings up here at the Cathedral Church Hall.

“So I said, ‘there’s a liberal’. Nice guy, I think he is. Anybody who says Tony’s not a nice guy I want to know. There’s only one person who’d say he’s not a nice guy, and that’s our former Premier,” Mr. Simmons said.

That reference was to former Premier Alex Scott and got a laugh from just about everyone in the House. Mr. Scott and Mr. Brannon had a public rift over potentially insensitive comments in an e-mail from the former Premier.

Mr. Simmons continued: “If we can’t get an individual that goes and makes a complaint against Mr. Brannon’s statement, we should get a class action against the person who made that statement.

“Or the Human Rights Commission should be called upon to investigate the situation and bring him before them and get a resolution to the matter.”

The final speaker on this issue was MP Renee Webb, who seemed to broadside every member of the House, in both parties, for not elevating the discourse on race issues.

She said: “If you look at the comments made by Mr. Tony Brannon, which were unfortunate and incensed people of a particular racial group, but at the same time you have somebody else who made comments against whites and Members didn’t stand up and criticise that.

“So we come from a place of dishonesty and hypocrisy.

“If it was wrong for Tony Brannon to have made those comments, then it’s wrong for a black Minister to get up on TV or a radio show and make comments with respect to house n******.

“As black people we can not only attack a white person when he talks about race and then ignore when a black person does the same thing.”

Ms. Webb told the House she admonishes all forms of discrimination and has a record of doing so.

“We have no problem legally discriminating against people in this country, and we know it,” she said. “People in this country listening to us think we are a bunch of jokers up here because people are dishonest and they can see through it.

“People know what happened.

“They know that Tony Brannon as a white will get attacked up and down the country, but if a black person does the same thing there will be silence from those same black people that were attacking Tony Brannon.”

See Monday’s Royal Gazette for more coverage from yesterday’s session in the House of Assembly