ONE thing that can be said about this current election campaign is the prevalence of the Ewart Brown factor and this has nothing to do with the accusations of his political detractors both outside and from within the PLP political support base, that he deliberately seeks the limelight.

I doubt if we have seen a similar impact of a black political leader on the Bermudian political scene since the era of Dr. Gordon; not withstanding the hey day of former UBP Premier Swan's 'hey-bye politics'.

Certainly from the day he was elected leader of the Progressive Labour Party and thus Premier of this country, Premier Brown has caused things to happen.

Former UBP political opposition leader Wayne Furbert may have blamed a lack of loyalty on the part of his UBP associates for his ouster from the leadership position of his party; but it is clear that the real factor in this was the emergence of Dr. Ewart Brown as the new PLP leader and premier of this country and the overall dynamism he has brought to the Bermuda political scene that has even forced his detractors to admit that he is the man that gets things done.

Even if the UBP political opposition was forced to bring forth a leadership that could compete with the leadership of Premier Brown, it has been obliged to do so in the form of a co-leadership with the Milkman (Michael Dunkley) as party leader and the pit-bull (Pat Gordon-Pamplin) as his deputy.

As far as this election campaign goes the UBP has been forced to conduct it on a two track mode.

Even as the milkman has made a great show of conducting a so-called issues-oriented campaign and even going so far as making a public display with his election candidates on the steps of the House of Assembly, declaring that his party will not be conducting a dirty campaign and will stick to the issues; UBP political surrogates have been conducting themselves in ways that are anything but this so-called clean UBP election campaign.

They have been mounting their dirty campaign on behalf of the United Bermuda Party using everything from insulting racial remarks made toward black and white PLP candidates as they approach their front doors on the campaign trail, to the opinions voiced on the poisonous and reactionary websites, the so-called infamous blogs hiding behind their anonymity and masquerading as expressions of free political opinion as they spew great falsehoods and outright lies concerning the PLP government and its leaders; Premier Brown being one of its favourite political targets. Having monitored these so-called dens of political iniquities for some time, it comes as no surprise that once an election was called they would be deployed in all their ill intent on behalf of the UBP political opposition; no matter how many statements are made to the contrary by the milkman claiming to want to run a clean election campaign-so-called!

One thing about these reactionary anti-PLP government websites - they have had long practice in denigrating black leadership in this country; mostly the black male in any role political or otherwise.

The type of black male leadership they are most likely to back is the weak; the sellout who is easily manipulated; those who are quick to throw their people to the wolves. All the things that Premier Brown, as a strong black leader is far from and as a strong black man myself I am duty bound to follow and support beyond 100 per cent.

One more tactic employed UBP political surrogates is one that can only be called the invisible political issue. Premier Brown has made it clear that the question of Independence is not a political issue in this election. Yet we have seen full page ads in the newspapers purported to be supported and sponsored by an anonymous group calling itself the Reality on Independence Group; a so-called non-politically-affiliated association of Bermudians. However in my opinion, if they are non-political and unaffiliated than I am an honourable white on the order that used to be conferred on certain non-whites who used to visit the than apartheid South Africa and who the white regime considered not to be in their national interests to make undergo the indignity of its racial policies.

I suspect that this group is in fact the son of the past anti-grouping within the United Bermuda Party; the so-called Concerned Bermudians who oppose former UBP Premier Swan's Independence referendum initiative which went down to defeat with the help of the then-PLP opposition call to boycott the plebiscite; a call of which I voiced strong public opposition. In no way was I prepared to make common cause with the so-called Concerned Bermudians whose one aim was to kill the idea of Bermudian Independence once and for all.

In its latest full page ad entitled 'Free Travel', it tries to frighten the Bermudian electorate into believing that a vote for a PLP government will see the restriction of travel, in particular to the United States. But the question I ask is why should the United States withdraw the current visa free entry into America if we should at some time in the future become an independent country when it had itself fought for national independence from the British?

I have this further response to the ad which attempts to divide black Bermudians from their Caribbean cousins when it asks the question whether Bermudians will be able to travel freely if we become full members of Caricom? Let me state clearly and loudly I am a proud black Bermudian of both African and Caribbean ancestry. To me my Caribbean brothers and sisters and me are of the same blood. We are the same people having arrived on the same slave ships but which had different destinations. This is my answer to the UBP political surrogates who are attempting to push the invisible political issue of independence for this current election; but rest assured, we will meet on this same battlefield on the issue of Bermudian Independence at which time I will be supporting a free and independent Bermuda.