What is it about the Progressive Labour Party Government that makes it think that it can take decisions without telling anyone and then announce them weeks and sometimes months later and expect people to just accept the decisions and go on with their lives?

This method of government does not just apply to regular members of the public who might not be expected to know or care about every single detail of government or party affairs; it applies to backbench MPs and Cabinet Ministers as well.

Two revelations in yesterday’s newspaper are all too symbolic of what former Opposition Leader Pamela Gordon used to call “stealth government”. One was the news that leaders of the Progressive Labour Party will, after November, hold four-year terms instead of the current two years.

The second was Premier Jennifer Smith’s announcement after the Peppercorn Ceremony that Government never had any intention of closing the St. George’s Police Station. Before the 2001-2002 Budget, it was decided, she said, to close the station for renovations and then to re-open it as, in effect, a sub-station.

That’s what most of the residents and friends of St. George’s want; they understand that the station is inadequate. It was not that long ago that a man being held in the cells literally pushed a wall down in order to escape. But the residents also feared that removing the Police station entirely from the town would make it more lawless than it is now — and that’s saying something.

So why the mystery? And who actually knew about this plan that the Premier said had been in place for 18 months?

Her Chief of Staff, Sen. David Burch, apparently didn’t when he told his colleagues earlier this year that it made no sense to have a 24-hour station in Southside and a second one in the old town.

And Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister did not seem to know about it less than three weeks ago when he said there would be no turning back on the plans to close the station and to build a new one in Southside.

Sen. Burch could perhaps be forgiven for not knowing; he was not in the Cabinet when the 2001-2002 Budget was agreed, even if he has been more or less constantly at the Premier’s side since November, 1998. But Mr. Lister was. Had he forgotten the decision?

The Premier also said the Government had chosen not to respond when debate about the station closure broke out. Why on earth not? Why allow people to be misled and why allow fear to grow when the answer was so simple and could have quickly satisfied people?

The only possible answer is that the Premier literally pulled this out of her hat after the Peppercorn Ceremony on Wednesday. Having had both the Governor and the Mayor of St. George’s express concern about crime levels, it would seem that Ms Smith decided to end this growing tempest in her constituency.

She claims that a Cabinet decision was taken before the 2001 Budget to close the St. George’s station for renovations, move the Police to Southside and re-open the St. George’s station to ensure the town had a Police presence.

But this was never stated in the 2001-2002 Budget and no money was allocated for the renovation of the St. George’s station although $1 million was allocated for Southside. Nor, apparently, were the Police told, because Commissioner Jonathan Smith wrote to Opposition Sen. Kim Swan later in 2001 to say that alternatives, from a full station to a sub-station to no station at all, were all being considered by the Police.

If the Cabinet had made a decision to staff the St. George’s Station in some way, as the Premier avers, then Mr. Smith would not have included the possibility of no station in his letter to Sen. Swan.

All the Premier had to say on Wednesday was that Government was seriously considering keeping a Police sub-station in the town and would make an announcement shortly. All the Government would then have had to say was that it had heard the concerns of the public and will keep a scaled-down presence in the town.

Instead, the Premier tried to have it both ways. The all-seeing, all-knowing Government made the decision a year and a half ago, she said. It just didn’t tell anyone. What a wonderful method of government — you can never be wrong because you can just rewrite history as you go along.