I have a lot of sympathy for Alex Scott.

Being the leader of a country ? or even a small Island ? can't be an easy job. Whatever you do, you're pretty much guaranteed to irritate or anger someone. At best, you're a target for annoyed members of the public and satirical newspaper columnists; at worst, you're a target for crazed assassins. If you're unlucky enough to operate in a parliamentary democracy then you have a whole bunch of people ? the Opposition ? who must dedicate their lives to finding fault with everything you do. Even the most self-confident individual must find it wearing from time to time.

So the Premier must be glad that the polls conducted every couple of months by Research Innovations on behalf of don't just focus on his job performance. In addition to asking "Do you approve of the way Alex Scott is handling his job as Premier?", the poll also asks "What is your overall opinion of Alex Scott?"

This seems like a very Bermudian way of doing things. Unlike the British, who are generally mean and curmudgeonly, Bermudians are generous people, who always like to find the good in others. If the pollsters only asked us how well we thought the Premier was handling his job, I imagine that many Bermudians would feel bad about yelling "Lousy!" back down the line, even if that's exactly how they felt. They'd worry about upsetting Mr. Scott, or hurting his feelings.

Asking us for our overall opinion of Mr. Scott makes this easier. It gives us an opportunity to tell the Premier that he shouldn't take our feedback too personally. It lets us say: "My kids aren't getting a decent education, I can't afford to buy the house I live in, and I'm terrified of being robbed or hacked to death with a machete when I step outside my door. And I think it's all your fault. But don't let that get you down, you still seem like a nice bye to me."

Indeed, that's exactly what we seem to do. In almost every poll that's been conducted, those with a favourable opinion of Alex Scott have outnumbered those who approve of the way he's handling his job, by between five and 18 percentage points.

The thing that troubles me about this, though, is that I don't think that most people have any idea what Alex Scott is like as a person. I certainly don't. I imagine he's probably quite nice, but having never met him, or had a beer with him, or had him round to dinner at my house, or gone on a cruise with him, I really don't know. Just because he spends a lot of his time playing silly political games doesn't mean he's a bad person. Or maybe it does. Maybe he's a really sore loser. Maybe he doesn't wash his hands after he's been to the toilet. Maybe he doesn't put a new bag in the trash can after emptying the old one. Who knows?

So if few of us know what the man (or should I say, The Man) is like, why do the pollsters keep asking us for our overall opinion of him? Isn't the only thing that matters how good a job he's doing?

I suppose our overall opinion is a measure of Mr. Scott's charisma. Some people don't think that charisma is important in a politician; what really matters, they say, is his or her ability to get the job done. I have a different view. We elect our Government to accomplish things on our behalf, true, but we also look to our politicians to inspire us. And for that, charisma is required.

However charisma in a politician is only important as a means to an end ? as a way to get things done more easily. That's why I don't see the point in asking us for our overall impression of Alex Scott when we're also being asked about how well he's doing his job. It doesn't matter if we all think the Premier's a nice bloke if he's doing a terrible job. He wasn't elected to be likeable, he was elected to run the country. (Well, OK, so technically Jennifer was elected to run the country, but you know what I mean.) Conversely, it wouldn't really matter if the Premier was a bit of a bore if he was running the country honestly and well.

Mr. Scott's family and friends are the only ones who know whether he's a nice person or not. I only care about how he's handling his job. And that's all the pollsters should care about too.

Phillip Wells

www.limeyinbermuda.com