Recently, there has been much talk about an impending change in the leadership of the United Bermuda Party. There seems to be some basis for the rumours since Dr. Grant Gibbons, the current leader of the UBP, is busily defending his leadership.

Rumours of change in the leadership of Bermuda's Progressive Labour Party have always been rampant in Bermuda. However, only recently has the UBP been the target of such rumours. This ignorance of the leadership conflict that often rages in the ranks of the UBP is surprising considering, the origins of the UBP and its history with respect to changes of Leadership.

The UBP was formed as a result of an amalgamation of three very antagonistic groups ? Portuguese Bermudians, English Bermudians and Black Bermudians seeking rapid economic progress. It should be obvious that any attempt to unite these very disparate groups would meet with continuous party infighting.

Except for the first two leaders of the UBP ? Sir Henry Tucker and Sir Edward Richards ? there has been a succession of leaders who have resigned the premiership as a result of UBP party infighting. Premature resignations began with the premiership of Sir John Sharpe. It would seem that Sir John was forced out of power in August 1977 because he was listeningto what the PLP was saying with respect to the social needs of Bermuda's Black population. Sir John thereby provoked the ire of the UBP black caucus who were emphasising the need for black economic empowerment. This group was joined by the more reactionary wing of his party who wished him gone for their own special reasons.

With Sir John's resignation, Sir David Gibbons was catapulted into the Leadership. Sir David was considered to be the financial genius who would develop the best workable plan to placate his party's black caucus while at the same time reviving the waning strength of the UBP. However, after his failure at the polls in 1980, when the PLP came within two seats of unseating the UBP, his party detractors began to proclaim noisily that Sir David was a cold administrator who responded only to hard facts with little empathy for the feelings of ordinary people. No doubt these criticisms were a major factor leading to his resignation in 1982 in favour of Sir John Swan.

Clearly, few in the UBP granted to Sir John Swan the brilliance easily attributed to Sir David Gibbons. Despite ready admissions that Sir John Swan could get the job done, few seemed to recognise the genius that had turned a little real estate firm into the industry leader. Instead, Sir John's success was attributed to Bene Rego's tutoring and M. A. Gibbons mentoring and Financing. What seemed to have been forgotten by the ever present UBP detractors was the fact that there were several realtors who had received tutoring from Bene Rego and financing from M. A. Gibbons. However, none had created the empire that Sir John had done using only black staff.

Upon achieving the leadership, Sir John called an election in February 1983, less than halfway through the UBP's term, and following the important advances made by the PLP in 1980 when they won 18 of the 40 seats in Parliament. In the 1983 election, the UBP picked up three more seats and called to an abrupt halt the gains the PLP had just made. The PLP had truly been caught napping. They had grown comfortable with the four-year election cycle and did not bother to make certain that their voter base was fully registered during the infamous annual registrations.

The resulting loss of three seats was traumatic for the PLP party faithful. An immediate consequence was that an intense struggle over the leadership ensued. When the dust settled, six party members were expelled, including four stalwart Members of Parliament ? Gilbert Darrell, Austin Thomas, Lionel Simmons and Walter Brangman.

Seeing the vulnerability of the PLP following this massacre, Sir John called another snap election in October, 1985 in the hope that he would acquire a black majority in the UBP parliamentary caucus. Sir John did not achieve his goal of a Black majority. After the selection of the Speaker ? John Barritt Sr. ? Sir John ended up with equal numbers of white and black MP's, in the UBP parliamentary Group.

Sir John continued as leader of the UBP for 13 years and probably still would be leader had he not placed his leadership on the line in a quest for independence.

Sir John had every reason to seek Independence. He saw that the PLP were making substantial electoral gains under new leader L. Frederick Wade. He felt he needed something to stem the tide and was certain that Independence would turn the trick. It was not a wild venture. Sir David Gibbons previously had produced a White Paper on Independence in which all the myths about independence were debunked. The paper stated that Bermuda need not fear invasion by a hostile power; Bermuda's important economic ties were with the United States and Canada; Embassies could readily be set up using the external offices of the Department of Tourism; and the cost of independence would be well within the financial boundaries that Bermuda could afford. Finally, Sir David declared that he was not prepared to take the crucial step of independence until the people were properly educated about the concept.

Sir John Swan was not prepared to await such education. After experiencing a second successive electoral setback in 1993, he determined that he could regain the UBP ascendancy by usurping the PLP platform of Independence. He therefore sought to get a mandate for Independence by means of a referendum. He quickly realised that the white members of his party were less than lukewarm about the prospect of Independence and let him know that. Hence, he tried to ally himself with the PLP Leader ? L. Frederick Wade ? in order to win the referendum. In addition, he threw a threat at his own party by promising to resign, if his bid to seek independence through a referendum failed. Sir John was unable to attain the support of Mr. Wade and the referendum failed by a significant percentage. To his credit, Sir John kept his promise and resigned.

Dr. David Saul succeeded Sir John Swan as the Premier. Dr. Saul, formerly an educator, had also had a successful career as Financial Secretary and the manager of Fidelity International Limited. Hence he was highly regarded as the person who could successfully manage the government's finances and yet deal effectively with the pervasive problem of Education.

Unfortunately, many of Dr. Saul's decisions angered some of the more conservative members of the UBP Party caucus ? notably the decision to allow Sir John Swan to open a McDonald's franchise ? who later joined forces with the PLP to pass a motion of Censure in Parliament. Dr. Saul soon resigned as Premier, saying he did not believe he could lead the UBP to election victory. His successor, Dame Pamela Gordon, avoided the now all too familiar UBP party infighting but chose none-the-less to resign after gaining the dubious distinction of being the first UBP Premier to lose a general election.

Currently, the leadership of Dr. Grant Gibbons is under threat because some members of his party believe that they require a black leader in order to win the next election. This is strange reasoning because if it is politically important to have a black leader in order to win the next election, the PLP not only have a Black Leader but they also have a black cabinet. Furthermore, this cabinet is competent and fully knowledgeable about the social and economic needs of Bermuda's dominant race. This is evidenced by their introduction of the election winning strategies of a "Social Agenda" and "Sustainable Development".

In my view, what the UBP needs is a group of men and women that are dedicated to redressing the social and economic injustices of the past that have contributed significantly to the vast differentials in incomes between black and white households. Such being the case, that party needs a leader who can develop strategies to reduce the differential by improving the skills, access to markets and capital that have been withheld from a vast majority of black Bermudians for most of Bermuda's 500 year history. Perhaps the UBP parliamentarian who would have the greatest chance of achieving this would be Mr. David Dodwell. However, given the current mood of the UBP, he apparently needs to be black.