If Yogi Berra, the world's greatest living mangler of the English language outside of the White House, had been present at yesterday's housing march, he would have been able to declare it was "deja vu" all over again.

Desperate parents ? mainly single mothers ? marched, many with their children, to protest the lack of affordable housing. Premier Alex Scott and Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent promised action, along with an appeal to the marchers not to be used by politicians (presumably of the Opposition variety).

The crowd, by all appearances, was not terribly impressed. Nor should they be. This cycle of protests and promises has now been going on for so long that the entire "housing crisis" has become jaded. It is no longer a crisis. It is quite simply, a reality which the Government apparently hasn't the foggiest idea how to change.

Mr. Scott and Mr. DeVent made another promise, albeit a limited one; to house 20 families by the end of September.

Mr. DeVent could give that commitment because the emergency mobile homes he promised in the Budget Debate in February are apparently coming in. But he would not say yesterday where they would go, and if he hasn't got those ducks in a row now, it would be no surprise if this is another promise that he can't quite keep.

Mr. DeVent also announced that he had "just" completed an affordable housing study. That's good news, after almost seven years under the Progressive Labour Party. Maybe now it can fix the problem.

As a first step, Mr. DeVent should release the study, which, it is to be hoped, is more than the telephone survey done in April.'

In the Budget debate on February 28, Mr. DeVent also announced the formation of a Cabinet committee to develop a Satlinist-sounding Five Year Plan for Housing. But yesterday he had no news to report on how that is going.

Nor was there any news on plans for at least 11 new units in St. George's and Somerset that were due to be completed on May and July.

Mr. DeVent gave a long list of commitments this February. He needs to let people know where he stands now. And that's something he has signally failed to do, most recently when he and Mr. Scott first tried to prevent Opposition MP from debating the Prospect housing controversy and then used the PLP's majority to stifle debate after two MPs had spoken on the motion.

Mr. Scott's warning to the protesters ? many of whom would traditionally have been PLP core supporters ? is just sad.

The PLP was quite happy to "politicise" housing for decades, and the failures of the United Bermuda Party in this area before 1998 was one of the primary reasons the PLP was elected.

And why shouldn't people be political on the question. Since it lost the 2003 General Election, by definition the UBP did not run a perfect campaign. But the party produced an innovative and far-reaching housing plan, including plans for 100 affordable homes at Tudor Hill, duty breaks for contractors building affordable housing and zoning changes in North Hamilton to allow more multi-storey developments.

The PLP, by contrast, promised collaboration between Government and the private sector. That was it. And then-Housing Minister David Burch mocked the UBP plan because the bedrooms in the affordable Tudor Hill homes would not fit a king-sized bed.

The betting here is that the woman quoted in today's story who is living in a single room with her three children would have been quite happy without the king-size bed.

Perhaps the housing protesters should become more political rather than less. That's because the one thing certain to spur politicians to action is the prospect that they will lose votes.