Dear Sir,

I note with mixed feelings the small insert on July 1 showing Bermudians’ share of debt-servicing costs for the second quarter of the year.

I congratulate you on bringing this information to the attention of your readers. However, I would prefer that you gave each quarter a full statement of the debt situation.

I feel so strongly because while in Canada, I would read the paper stating the Canadian public debt figures.

There was discussion about reduction of the deficit, but somehow all the figures did not match up for me. After several months of head scratching, I realised that the percentages and figures were not about the Canadian national debt, but about each year’s shortfall of earnings when compared with that year’s expenditures.

Reducing the deficit meant that Canadians added less to the national loan debt in the current year than the year before.

Reducing the deficit sounded good but actually meant that the Canadian Government increased the national debt a little less this year than last year.

I venture to suggest therefore that you state the total principal amount of the loan due each quarter.

You can state the per capita share of the principal. Give a new figure, the share of each family as best you can estimate it. The per capita share of the interest on the principal only confuses the issue. Each family’s share of the principal will be a better picture of the difficult job bequeathed to us by the PLP’s legal raids on the public purse.

Then we should ask ourselves why there is not a national agreed emergency to work out joint solutions for the pickle we are in.

It was the PLP’s excess spending. Now it is OBA’s problem? No! It is not. It is Bermuda’s problem and those who made the problem should be helping to fix it and stop playing political games.

On another topic, why not print the financial information in normal size type. This information is increasingly important to Bermuda and Bermudians.

Yours sincerely,

BERTRAM GUISHARD