November 5, 2014

Dear Sir,

Over the last few days both PLP MPs Rolfe Commissiong and Lovita Foggo have gone on scathing attacks on the PLP’s record in office.

Mr Commissiong’s recent article highlighted how black unemployment was persistently high, citing numbers collected just 9 months after the 2012 election when the country was still very much in the grip of PLP economic policy.

This is a clear indictment of the utter failure of the PLP to effect any real change in black empowerment.

He pointed out that the PLP’s term limits and surprise increase in Payroll Taxes have left even qualified international business lawyers like Paula Cox unable to find a job.

He cites proof that the warnings of international business leaders to be absolutely correct and the PLP leadership was wrong each time they defended job-killing policies. His statistics make it clear that the PLP’s top down “empowerment” policies benefited a chosen few who received lucrative consulting and business contracts while leaving the bulk of Black Bermudians behind.

Worst of all are those at the bottom of society who face unemployment and little government support.

In turn the financial ruin and squandering of billions by the PLP has left the OBA government fighting for Bermuda’s financial life.

We can only imagine what would have happened if the PLP had spent on education and social support instead of Beyonce concerts and friends and family contracts.

The PLP increased spending by $500 million a year between 2004 and 2011. Imagine if that had gone to helping black Bermudians become nurses, actuaries, and pharmacists.

He pointed out how Bermuda is suffering a brain drain.

This of course is nothing new. Many of my late 20 something and early 30 something friends did not return to Bermuda because of the toxic environment that surrounded Bermuda in the mid and early 2000s.

Indeed, in that hostile backdrop even David Burt has said he needed coaxing to come back to Bermuda.

Of course now after term limits and other job-killing policies gutted the back and middle office training grounds of international businesses it is often impossible for graduates to even find entry level jobs as they have been shipped overseas to Canada, Ireland, and Switzerland.

We should be grateful the OBA is taking steps to make Bermuda an attractive place to come home to after university by ending Conscription and ending term limits, perhaps allowing the training grounds of international business to return.

Ms Foggo called for the implementation of one of the recommendations of the 2007 Hopkins Report, highlighting how in their last 5 years of government the PLP promised and failed to implement the reforms from the Hopkins Report. After so many broken promises by the PLP she should be glad that the OBA are finally in power to make the changes that the PLP promised year after year and failed to implement.

The PLP also nearly ruined the island’s financial independence and with it any hope of national independence by increasing spending by $500 million a year between 2004 and 2011 (that’s 8,000 for every man, woman, and child in Bermuda for those who are counting).

I think the message in all of this is clear: if you want an end to racial inequity, a great education system, a welcome place for Bermudians, and independence for Bermuda then you can’t vote PLP.

To become a viable government for the future the PLP must accept the truths of the damage their time in office and learn the hard lesson.

AL