September 16, 2002

Dear Sir,

On February 5, 2002 the following letter was printed in this newspaper:

"Dear Sir,

Many Bermudians are wondering how will the Boundaries Commission finally determine the number of seats for the House of Assembly as part of the process of Electoral Reform now underway.

Well, I'm going to share a little secret with them. The people's representatives and I emphasise the People's Representatives - in this case the PLP delegation of Dame Lois Browne Evans and Mr. Eugene Cox - will propose 25 seats.

In response, the People's Representatives - in this case the UBP delegation of Ms Pamela Gordon and Mr. John Barritt - will propose, of course 40 seats.

Then, the foreign Commissioners in their wisdom will more or less split the diffenence, following the fine art of compromise and voila, we will end up with a house of between 31 and 35 members.

And all will be well in the Kingdom!"

Of course we now know that PLP leadership went in into the negotiation process at the front end looking to achieve a 32 seat house. A number I might add that they have never publically shared with us. We also know that the leadership was very unhappy when the inevitable compromise was brokered that resulted in a majority consensus behind a 36 seat configuration.

My point is that why would the leadership (Ms Smith) go into this process at the front end with what was their desired figure of 32 when most astute political observers knew that compromise would ensue? Frankly they would have been far smarter to have introduced a figure at the begining, of say 23 or a 25 seat House, as suggested, which would have resulted-once the compromise was reached-in a House that would have ranged anywhere from 30 to perhaps 32 members.

It's called the art of the deal and they botched it big time.This is just another small example of the political amatuer hour that has infested that leadership and which more than likely has caused Mr. LF Wade to roll around in his grave on more than a few occasions.

ROLFE PATTON COMMISSIONG

City of Hamilton