“The most serious failure of leadership is the failure to foresee”

Robert Greenleaf

The Progressive Labour Party used to jump up and down about “two Bermudas”. This was to attract votes by promising to dismantle the divide between the “haves and the have-nots”.

No effort was spared to remind us that the divide was colour-coordinated between Blacks and Whites. Hence, the disadvantaged should vote for them to put an end to it once and for all.

The 1998 PLP election victory and the wave of optimism that came with it was primarily the promise to the country to have a more equitable distribution of wealth and shared prosperity for all.

The most glaring failure to achieve this goal stares us in the face every day. We can plainly see that after 20 years of PLP governance, we now have only a fraction of that prosperity.

Our “can do nothing right” government provides a lifeless City of Hamilton, high unemployment, crushing debt, higher taxes, potholes galore, burdensome cost of living, crumbling infrastructure and our children’s education is a mess.

These facts that we see every day should be a sufficient reminder.

The two Bermudas used to be a sizeable upper class with a standard of living that was way above average. The second consisted of white-collar and blue-collar working-class Bermudians who had to sometimes work two or three jobs to pay a mortgage, put children through school, holiday once a year, save and invest for the future.

The one good thing was that our economy used to provide the opportunity to do just that.

I think it is fair to say that the first Bermuda continues to thrive and “the rich are getting richer” under the PLP. However, even they have not been spared the negative economic onslaught, with many local businesses folding over the past two decades.

The Fairmont Southampton, Sonesta Beach, Elbow Beach and Trimingham’s are but a footnote in history of a more prosperous time.

Our once-mighty tourism sector, which was the “bread and butter” of the working class, is a mere fraction of what is was. Our Caribbean neighbours are seeing unprecedented tourism numbers post-Covid, while Bermuda is almost 30 per cent behind our best pre-Covid numbers.

Our statistics department never tires of warning us that the class gaps continue to widen to dangerous levels — as if the PLP promise of shared prosperity is a cruel joke to all those that rushed to the poles believing it.

In the meantime, the original “second Bermuda” has been reimagined by the PLP and splintered into three.

The first and most obvious of that group is the new political elite — the “friends and family” network headed by none other than the Premier himself. The only qualification for some of those in this group is to have unwavering support for a failed “can do nothing right” PLP government.

After undermining the integrity of the Bermuda Public Services Union with unprecedented conflict of interest, the Premier decided to appoint himself in charge of spending the nation’s finances. After forcing Curtis Dickinson’s resignation, he discarded that minimal check on his power in spending our money.

He has basically told us that, in his mind and by his party’s silence, he has somehow earned the confidence to have that unprecedented power. But I ask the country to show one initiative from the Premier that has benefited Bermuda?

The former finance minister left his post after pointing out the financial disaster of the Fairmont Southampton. Not only has it remained closed, but we are learning more and more of the outright lies and skulduggery behind its continued closure.

The third Bermuda is the increasing number of Bermudians seeking refuge in other countries — mainly Britain — as a result of their economic disaster. Many of our family members have been forced by the PLP to go begging for financial assistance in another jurisdiction. They are hedging their bets that they will at least be able to survive there.

Not too long ago, Bermuda had a surplus of jobs at all levels of the economy to spare our people this humiliation. Unfortunately, this particular Bermuda created by the PLP also includes our elders, who must leave our island because they cannot afford to retire in their own country towards the end of their lives when they should be near their family.

The fourth Bermuda are those of us who have employment but are barely making ends meet or are seeing our standard of living erode because of stagnant wages, significant inflation and a soaring cost of living.

The PLP has created this group mostly through its failed immigration policies. With a declining population, the rest of us have to pay higher taxes to support the pension plan and our increasingly elderly population, who cannot afford the basics of food, medicine and their bills.

Frankly, if this immigration challenge isn’t fixed soon, we may not even be able to attract anyone to come to our shores — then we will be totally and for ever screwed.

The only ray of hope in all of this unfolding economic disaster is the hushed expectations about a windfall from the corporate income tax that may never be collected. But even if it does come to fruition, we can bet our last dollar that it will be squandered in typical PLP fashion as if destroying the country is the ultimate plan of the people behind it.

Then we will be left even more desperate at the mercy and hands of the PLP.

• Vic Ball was a One Bermuda Alliance senator from November 2014 to July 2017, and more recently a candidate in the 2020 General Election in Smith's West (Constituency 9)