Reaction to United Bermuda Party (UBP) MP Pamela Gordon's reversal on her party's call for a constitutional conference and referendum on electoral reform came immediately after the Boundaries Commission debate.

UBP insiders expressed a certain amount of confusion and some even suspected personal motives given that Ms Gordon had authored the position two years ago and had even gone to London to hand an 8,500 signature petition to the British Government.

Ms Gordon spoke to The Royal Gazette to clarify her stance after Friday's debate on the Boundaries Commission Report.

"My major concern is that the UK Government has not come back to the Bermudian people and indicated what their plans are. So I was in full support of a constitutional conference and a referendum two years ago when this whole thing came about," she said.

"With the passage of time and more information that has come to me, I now grow increasingly concerned by the UK's silence on the second part of this process. I would have felt that half way into the first part of the process they would have been able to tell the Bermudian people what they could expect in relation to constitutional changes.

"For instance, will they allow an amendment to the constitution by both Houses of parliament in Bermuda which will subsequently have to be ratified by an order in council in the UK ?"

She added: "Will they consider that the 1979 constitutional conference was a special one because of the riots and the Country was in disarray at the time and that conference was held as a result of the Pitt Commission and changes were made because of the civil unrest and so technically that doesn't count ?"

At the 1966 conference the British said to Bermuda that both parties should put any alternative constitutional proposals in their platforms and whoever wins the Government will have a mandate to make the changes to the Constitution.

"Have they changed their minds?

"They have given no guidance," Ms Gordon said.

And Britain had also left "in the air" the question of whether amendments recommended by the Opposition in January will be taken into account.

"They have given no indication.

"Therefore an issue as fundamentally important to the Country as a constitutional conference, usually for items that have caused a lot of dissension where you can't get agreement, we don't know what items can be on the agenda."

She said that the UBP position had been based on the 1966 conference which said a conference would have to be held for any major changes.

But now Britain was asking the colonies to modernise their constitutions.

If Britain was willing to accept a clause that would allow Bermuda to make changes internally, to be ratified by an order in council, then a conference would not be necessary, Ms Gordon said.

"I wasn't trying to be political.

"I was standing on principle here, because we have now completed the first part and they are leaving the Country hanging and we are waiting for the other foot to drop."

Excerpts from Ms Gordon's speech are printed on pages 11 and 12.