United Bermuda Party Leader Wayne Furbert is planning to extend an olive branch to the PLP if he wins the next election ? by offering a member of the ousted Government a seat in his Cabinet.

He admitted the controversial plan might come as a shock to colleagues but he said it was important to unify the country.

He told : ?My dream is when we become Government, to show how serious I believe that we have to find a way to work together, is to include a member of the PLP in my Cabinet ? if they will come.

?I do have someone in mind.?

But he said even if a PLP MP would not join his Cabinet he would ask someone who was a known PLP supporter to join.

?It is just something I believe in ? hopefully my own colleagues will support it.?

He said time was running out to make Bermuda a better place.

Mr. Furbert, who made his comments in a wider interview with which will run tomorrow, stressed that he had always been interested in hearing views from outside his own political circle.

He said he would have been happy to vote PLP and let them run the country if they had done a better job after their 1998 election.

?The dream Freddie Wade had of moving his party towards the centre was stolen by a certain group and the rhetoric moved further to the left,? he said.

The talk of changing party labels ? encouraged by Khalid Wasi who wants to create a new political force to supplant the UBP ? is a red herring, said Mr. Furbert, who believes it is how people behave that really matters.

He said: ?The 14 of us could march over to the ABC tomorrow and be sworn in but people would still be saying the same thing. People vote on ideology and personalities. We are not changing our ideology.

?So you still have 85 percent of the white vote, so, where are you? It hasn?t improved or changed at all.?

He said undermining the UBP wouldn?t change the problems of the PLP

?The PLP are still talking the same language ? come back to the plantation or the language Col. Burch has been using.?

Mr. Furbert, who replaced Grant Gibbons in a low-key political coup last month said he was well aware Bermudians were sceptical about politicians.

?They don?t, in general, trust politicians. I am trying to reverse that.? He said the main thing he wanted to achieve was to put the people back in charge.

Fixed term parliaments was one way of giving power back to the people and out of the hands of parties.

Allowing the Opposition to bring money motions is another possibility.

?Government can always vote it down but at least allow them to bring it,? he said.

Parliamentary committees should be opened to public scrutiny said Mr. Furbert who also said MPs should be allowed to speak out against their party in favour of constituents without the Government being in danger of falling.

?Maybe I am an abnormal politician but that is where I will live and die ? in the frame of mind that the people come first.?