Premier Jennifer Smith has stated that she sees nothing wrong with Tourism Minister David Allen’s claim that Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell’s hotel would have gone bust without the Hotel Concessions Act. She may be the only person in Bermuda who cannot see that making public — on the floor of the House — a conversation between a person applying for tax concessions and a Government Minister is a dangerous precedent.

Evidently she does not see that it could prevent any other business owner from having any confidence that their dealings with Government on sensitive matters will be dealt with properly and not laid out before the House of Assembly when a Minister loses his temper.

In this context, it should be recalled that United Bermuda Party MP Tim Smith was raked across the coals when he threatened a planning application by his colleague Trevor Moniz. Mr. Smith was wrong to do so, but it should be noted that his aside to a colleague was only inadvertently made public when it was picked up by a microphone in the House of Assembly.

Mr. Allen’s statement was made in the middle of a speech. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Yet the same PLP that was happy to chastise Mr. Smith sees nothing wrong with Mr. Allen’s behaviour. If Mr. Dodwell is correct and Mr. Allen did misinterpret his remarks, then that will be even more frightening for businesses and their employees. Which hotel’s financial future will be put at risk next when Mr. Allen publicly misinterprets its financial position?

Ms Smith also argued that Mr. Allen was justified in making the statement because Mr. Dodwell said he had not benefited from the Hotel Concessions Act. Mr. Allen, apparently desperate to defend the only success of his troubled tenure at Tourism, was therefore entitled, Ms Smith said, to respond with the facts at his disposal and the inferences he had, incorrectly as it turned out, drawn from his conversations with Mr. Dodwell.

Mr. Dodwell, it seems, was in fact correct in the sense that his property has not received one penny of the concessions which were granted to it, in spite of the fact that the renovations were completed months ago.

Mr. Allen, it seems, aside from believing that the statement “I am going to see my bankers” is secret code for “I am about to go bust”, does not know which of the properties granted tax concessions under his legislation have actually received them. But Ms Smith does not believe that Mr. Allen was wrong to draw the inference. Mr. Dodwell had several phone conversations with Mr. Allen and a face-to-face meeting, she said. The “culminative” effect of that was that the Reefs would “suffer” without the concessions.

It may be true that the Reefs would “suffer” if it was deprived of concessions other hotels were getting. But there is a long way between “suffer” and “go bust”, the word Mr. Allen used on the floor of the House. Ms Smith, in defending Mr. Allen, identifies herself with his remarks and confirms them. In her view, he was and is correct.

That means that any Government Minister can take remarks made to them in negotiations, wilfully misinterpret them in public, and then avoid any sanction whatsoever. In the other world inhabited by the Cabinet, the facts will be as the Cabinet decides, not as they are out here in the real world. But this should come as no surprise. People opposed to joining Caricom can be labelled as racists by a Government Minister. Independent Senators can be threatened by a Minister for not toeing the Government line. Businesses can be told that they can refuse to give time off for the People’s Holiday “at their peril”.

None of this matters to the Premier, apparently. Of course, one thing will get you disciplined, and that is publicly challenging the Premier as Arthur Hodgson did. That will get you sacked — even if the Premier “welcomed” the challenge beforehand.