IT takes a certain desperation for a politician to bother to propose policies he knows will never be enforced.

This week, Premier Alex Scott and his former deputy, Ewart Brown, went head-to-head in a bid for the leadership of Bermuda.

One might imagine that each had told his supporters to stress the positive aspects of their political careers, that each had highlighted the need to paint as clear a picture as possible of his vision.

However, in the run-in to the challenge for the leadership of Bermuda, the Premier's right-hand man chose not to follow that route.

At a time when Mr. Scott considered a good spin especially prudent, Housing Minister David Burch decided to take aim at the island's landlords ? in the same breath threatening penalties against those who chose not to let their properties and accusing everyone with more than one home on the island of suffering from "pure, unadulterated greed".

He made his comments to a packed meeting at the Bermuda Industrial Union on Tuesday, informing those present that more than 2,000 units on the island sit empty.

According to Sen. Burch: "Those people that elect to do that should have to pay a premium to keep them vacant."

Way to go. Instead of approaching individual homeowners about vacant buildings, instead of creating incentives which might make it more appealing to them to rent their properties, why not prod them into action by attacking them?

According to , Sen. Burch insisted that "too many homes either carried rent tags that were too expensive, or stood empty as a result of 'pure, unadulterated greed'."

How someone can accuse a person of "pure, unadulterated greed" when they aren't cashing in on the island-wide trend of inflated rents, is beyond my comprehension.

And while I agree that housing comes at a ridiculous cost in Bermuda, many residents would argue that the price tags attached to Sen. Burch and the rest of the Cabinet are just as absurd, if not more so.

I've said it before, this is supposed to be a democratic society. Goods are bought and sold on the open market, with the owner free to do with them as they please.

A more commonsensical approach would be for the Government to talk to landlords, to strengthen the legislation in place so they are protected against tenants who don't pay on time or at all, who refuse to pay for damages and who leave properties in an unacceptable state.

Talk as well to those homeowners who would love to rent out their properties, but do not have the cash to improve them and are unwilling to charge a person to live in a house where the conditions are unacceptable.

Ah, but I forgot, the state of the home doesn't matter. Look at how long residents at Lefroy House had to suffer. The Sandys facility suffered damage to its roof during Hurricane Fabian in 2003. Despite repeated urgings by Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson, nothing was done.

Worse, when the matter was raised in the House of Assembly in March, then Minister without Portfolio Walter Lister, told MPs not to look at the hole in the roof, but to look at how well the seniors who live there are treated.

The much-debated, well-overdue improvements didn't happen until last month ? three years after the fact.

As a second example, consider the plight of Esther Williams, an 82-year-old who was last year living in a home managed by the Premier. In that instance, the senior citizen was paying $300 of her $582 monthly pension to live in a dilapidated house with no bathing facilities, plagued by termites and mice.

It wasn't until her daughter, Sharan Samuels, spoke to the media that Mrs. Williams' situation improved.

As Mrs. Samuels explained to the daily: "Mr. Scott said he would look for a new place for her and that they might have to knock down the house rather than repair it. He said that, once, finished, she would be able to go back.

"It was nice for them to come and visit and show a little bit of concern, but I had to make a noise before that happened. My momma was not happy with the situation and I was looking out for her as at her age, you need someone looking out for you."

On Tuesday, Sen. Burch admitted to those present that Government has a responsibility to tackle the housing crisis but that some problems could be overcome "if we went back to families helping families. We have to pool our resources and share. Reach back to community roots."

I think it's high time the Government practised what it preached.