BRITISH Members of Parliament should not take sides in Bermuda’s internal political fights. I make this statement in the wake of the recent attempted intervention in Bermudian political affairs by the British Shadow Minister of Trade & Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.It is clear that conservative Member of Parliament, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown is mouthing the concerns of the United Bermuda Party leader, Michael Dunkley, when he tabled a question in the House of Commons last week asking assessment the Labour government has made of the implications of the arrest and detention of the Auditor General for law and order in Bermuda.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Meg Munn responded that the Auditor General in Bermuda was arrested and subsequently released on police bail in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation by the Bermuda Police Service, adding it would therefore not be appropriate to comment further.

I would ask the British Shadow Minister of Trade & Foreign Affairs this: “If, in his opinion, there is a question of the rule of law being jeopordised in Bermuda in the wake of a criminal investigation concerning missing police documents, is he inferring that he lacks confidence in the current British appointed Governor or that he doubts the competence of the current Commissioner of Police in Bermuda?”

FrankIy I am not surprised that UBP leader has sought political help from overseas, in this case from within another man’s country, the United Kingdom.

This is entirely in keeping with the views of a certain element in this country who would not mind if the British suspended Bermuda’s Constitution, abolished the Bermudian Parliament and ruled this country directly from London.

This is not the first time a faction within the UBP’s political support base has feverishly hoped the British would intervene on their behalf. An attempt was made to do just this when the Progressive Labour Party introduced legislation that created single-seat Parliamentary constituencies in Bermuda . At the time, in a last ditch attempt by UBP supporters to block this initiative, there was a march on Government House calling for a constitutional conference to be convened on the issue. In my opinion this protest had little to do with preserving the traditional democratic process for introducing constitutional reform in Bermuda and everything to do with blocking this long overdue electoral reform.

Contrast the UBP leader’s attempts to recruit political allies from Britain to use against his Bermudian political adversaries to the recent trip to the United States made by Premier Dr. Ewart Brown.

He was not in Washington to recruit political allies to use against other Bermudians but rather to enhance Bermuda’s economic and trading links with our most important partner, the United States of America.

While in the American capital Premier Brown and his Government colleagues met with powerful figures on both sides of the political aisle, holding talks with Democrats and Republicans alike.

Even the Premier’s congratulatory note to newly appointed UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was not an attempt to curry favour with the British Labour Prime Minister or to woo a potential ally to use in a domestic political fight between Bermudians but rather was intended to establish cordial relations between the leaders of our two countries (even if one remains a British Overseas Territory — although I believe we are now witnessing a growth in nationalist sentiment in Bermuda with an increasing number of people believing the time has finally come for us to beome a nation in our own right).

I doubt very much that UBP leader Michael Dunkley, enmeshed as he in his colonial dependency mentality, understands how best to go about pursuing international relations that will best benefit Bermuda and all of her people. Confining his recent talks in the UK, as he seemingly did, to ideological soul-mates in the Conservative Party actually does nothing to advance Bermuda’s real interests.

I am not even sure Mr. Dunkley realises that Bermuda’s destiny lies in the Western hemisphere and not Europe, which we remain artificially tied to as a result of our current colonial links with Britain. For those of you who doubt this, just ask yourself the following questions: When Bermudians emigrate where do they go — to the east or to the west? Where is the largest Bermudian expatriate community living? Where do we go, in the main, when we travel on vacations? Where do we send our children when they go overseas to school? Where are the greater proportion of blood and family ties? Where are Bermuda’s greatest trading and economic links? Did Bermudians recently stand in line and demand that the Immigration office open on weekends to get a British passport — or did they stand in line to get a stamp on those same passports that said that they were Bermudians?

Finally, let me state this. In a recent conversation with some of my work colleagues we agreed that the biggest mistake the UBP made in picking a new leader was to opt for Michael Dunkley. He failed to impress during a recent radio interview on Hott radio, dodging certain questions that were put to him in a most evasive manner. He was clearly uncomfortable and blew what could have been a golden opportunity for him to connect with rank-and-file black Bermudians. The UBP would have been much better off if they had chosen MP John Barritt as their new front man for he is cut from the old white cloth of politicians like the late Sir John Sharpe, longtime Hamilton Parish MP Haskins Davis and the late Flip Galloway from Sandys Parish. As long as these UBP politicians were on the scene, the PLP found it next to impossible to defeat them because of their genuine and longstanding links with the black community. They had real cross-over appeal because they really did make the effort to cross Bermuda’s racial and cultural boundaries.

But then how would Mr. Dunkley know this? In his radio interview he claimed he could not remember the existence of the 40 Thieves, the old oligarchy of businessmen who held sway over Bermuda’s political affairs for so many years. As an election looms, there’s only one thing left for the UBP to do — fire their foreign political advisers and save some money. This one is done.