Perhaps it was too good to be true. The General Election campaign had been among the cleanest in memory, until the end of last week, when the Progressive Labour Party "went negative".

The skit that was performed last Thursday night and then aired as an advertisement on Friday morning contained two slurs against the United Bermuda Party.

The first was that the UBP, which has made a point of the diversity of its candidates, was the same old UBP, "just with a darker tan". The second was that they were "shysters".

The UBP has made a big deal about the first claim, which effectively accuses UBP candidates of being Uncle Toms. The message is that the UBP is white controlled and its black Bermudians are simply window-dressing, or "sun-tanning". As such, the PLP infers, black Bermudians should not vote for the UBP based on its "true" skin colour alone.

It's perfectly fair to ask how the PLP would react if the advertisement had been reversed, and it was suggested that the PLP's white candidates of today and in the past are there simply for "tan-lightening". The comment would be seen as deeply offensive, and rightly so. The same is true in this case.

The second statement is without question libellous - the reason that ZBM was reluctant to air it. There is no evidence to support the claim and it defames all of the candidates and, arguably, all members of the party. Even though the ad was not supposed to run, did so by accident and then was pulled, it was always the PLP's desire to run it and its motives must be questioned.

Again, had the same accusation been made against the PLP, one can only imagine the indignation that would have followed, as there was after UBP candidate Jamahl Simmons accused the Premier of being "drunk on power" several months ago. Instead, there has been only silence.

What the PLP's motives were in running the ads is something of a mystery. With voters due to go to the polls in less than 72 hours, the PLP has yet to produce a platform or give anything more than the vaguest indication of what it intends to do if re-elected to another term.

Instead it has turned to smears and negative campaigning. That is an indictment on their campaign and their belief that voters would fall for this kind of gutter politics.