If the United Bermuda Party is to win the next General Election it needs to get its message out, stating clearly where it stands on issues that range from smaller details such grocery and Belco bills, to the GPS system for taxis, mortgage rates, housing, education and job opportunities.

And its MPs, officers and members need to reach out and mingle with parts of the community who have never come in contact with UBP people, doing so by moving out of the familiar surroundings of Chancery Lane wine bars to places such as Hubie's Bar on Angle Street.

Those were messages delivered by audience members at a meeting of the Party's Southampton Region attended by new leader Wayne Furbert and Shadow Ministers Jon Brunson and David Dodwell this week.

Mr. Furbert has expanded on his theme first raised at a UBP meeting in Southampton on Tuesday in which he told the party faithful that he admired the way California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was brought into power because of a recall system.

He told a meeting of Sandy's Rotary Club Wednesday the UBP supported introducing a system of parliamentary recall, where citizens would be able to petition to remove the Government or individual MPs if they under-perform, are corrupt or unfit for office.

And speaking to The Royal Gazette after Wednesday's meeting, he said: "I think it's needed because my whole vision is to put the power into the electorate and not into parliamentarians or people who feel that now they have arrived they don't have to be accountable to anyone.

"Unfortunately, our system is that you can stay there for five years and be not accountable and antagonistic and corrupt to a certain degree. I'm saying why not have a system that allows the electorate to recall."

Mr. Furbert told the meeting his party wanted "the formation of a political commission that will look into the workings of our political process, so that at the end of the day people are served better and will always come out on top".

He added: "Bermuda's political situation is in need of a dramatic overhaul. This is a priority. We can no longer expect the masses of Bermudians to sit on the sidelines and wait for a general election or, worse yet, social unrest, for their voices, concerns and needs to be heard and acted upon.

"We must empower our people to shape the direction of our country."

Afterwards, he explained: "The recall idea may not work. I'm just saying let's look at a new way of how we handle politics in Bermuda. At the end of the day, we have to ensure that the people are ultimately in charge, not politicians.

"I'm just saying that the people should be able to kick out the PLP or any other party, so that power rests with the people."

Mr. Furbert also talked about what the UBP would do for the Island's older generation.

"I can see a Bermuda where our seniors will live out their golden days in paradise because their country recognises and appreciates their contribution."

He said the UBP would raise the mandatory retirement age in the civil service to 70, with optional early retirement.

The party would also have a free health clinic for older people, offering preventive and basic care; free prescription drugs and eyeglasses for cash-strapped seniors and affordable assisted-living facilities.

Mr. Furbert told the gathering in St. Anne's Church Hall: "I got involved in politics because I love this place called Bermuda."

Referring to Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, John F Kennedy, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, he added: "People get caught up in visions, not organisations. I'm more interested in Bermuda than the UBP.

"People say 'Oh, don't say that Wayne, we are going to lose now'. But no, if Bermuda wins we all win. It's as simple as that," Mr. Furbert continued. "I'm the leader of the UBP and I'm asking people to vote for a vision.

"For the last 40 years we have been fighting each other based on PLP-black, UBP-white, and it's been pulling us apart and it's time for it to stop! My whole make-up is to try to find a way to pull this little country together."

Mr. Furbert said his vision for the future of Bermuda may include reform of the political system, incorporating aspects of the US democratic set-up such as fixed term elections, congressional question and answer sessions and the ability to "recall" a failing leader.

Shadow Tourism Minister Mr. Dodwell spoke of the need for the Party to communicate better and develop its electoral platform, adding: "There is a huge group of people who are undecided.

"Our challenge is we have to find a way to get to those people and tell them what we are about and what we stand for and have them tell us what they think.

"A lot of them are under 40 and some of them were too young to vote in 1998 and some of them don't even remember what the UBP did or stood for eight years ago."

He does not believe there will be a third party emerging on the Island's political scene but said the UBP could grab the middle ground.

Shadow Works and Engineering and Sport Minister Mr. Brunson said he was continually asked what does the UBP stand for.

He said it stood for the pledges contained in its 2003 election platform, but added it was also vital that Party members and supporters spread the word and truly understand the needs of the people.

"We have to understand the plight of the working class Bermudians. We have to be in the trenches with them to understand their plight," he said.

One member of the audience said Party members needed to go to sporting events, or clubs and bars where UBP members are not normally seen and mix with people they don't normally meet to hear their concerns and get in touch with the most pressing issues they face.

He said he had grown up in "Middletown" and had taken "licks" because he supported the UBP.

He urged UBP MPs and its members to move in wider circles to meet non-UBP people and get feedback, going to places like Hubie's Bar in Angle Street rather than just hanging around the Chancery Lane wine bar scene.

"You need to stop preaching to the converted and come out to where I'm at and take some of the licks I'm taking. Why not go to where they are playing a soccer game or a big cricket match and everybody is happy and go out there and talk to people," he said.

The man added that people had voted for the PLP rather than the UBP because "they say they would rather be kicked by a black guy than a white guy".

Another audience member said Bermuda's youth today did not carry the baggage of racism that many of the older generation still do.

Mr. Brunson agreed race is less of the question to the young than job opportunities, education and home ownership.

"Bermuda is becoming less of an option for them as a place to live. There is a brain drain. Their opportunities, be it for work or home ownership, are elsewhere. The challenge is to reverse that cycle," he said.

Another man at the meeting said there was a need to stop using the word racism, he said: "We should take people as we find them. We should get away from using that term."

He warned if the UBP did not win the next election there would be a "mass exodus" of young Bermudians from the Island.

A young woman said she had worked for both the UBP and the PLP during different election campaigns said she was now undecided who to vote and she knew many others who thought the same.

She wanted to know where the Party stood on education. She said once had an enviable reputation as a place of quality learning, but she wanted to know what had happened in the last 20 years and why there were not the young Bermudians moving up into international business sector.

And she said another problem was the fear of a backlash from their bosses which prevented many Bermudians from changing jobs and moving up the career ladder.