Bermuda must stop hounding out people simply because they have said something that does not meet general approval or attracts widespread disfavour, says former PLP MP Julian Hall.

He has spoken in support of entertainer Tony Brannon who, as reported in yesterday’s Royal Gazette, is selling his home and recording studio and considering living overseas in the wake of the storm of anger caused by his comments about alleged tourism-damaging union tactics used in the 1980s.

Mr. Brannon has revealed that one of the first people to call him as the race row erupted after he used the term “black Bermudians” was Mr. Hall.

Responding to the story, Mr. Hall said: “I see that Tony has ‘outed’ me.

“So, as to befriending Tony (despite his recent utterances) I plead guilty. I confess that I too regard Tony as my good friend.

“And, unlike many I have known in Bermuda, I do not kick a friend because he is ‘down’, or because he has said something which has attracted widespread community disfavour.”

Mr. Hall said he had known Mr. Brannon, 55, almost his entire life, and that he knew and loved the entertainer’s late parents.

“His father Terry Brannon was particularly a good and true friend of the black Bermudian people; and no one can tell me that Tony Brannon is any more racist than the rest of us in this dysfunctional family we call Bermuda.” An angry backlash on radio talk shows, newspaper columns and Parliament was sparked by Mr. Brannon posting comments on the YouTube website under a Bermuda Tourism video.

He admits he caused offence to many fellow Bermudians by unintentionally framing his comments in a racial context, and has expressed deep remorse for doing so and apologised to those he offended.

Mr. Hall, who said he wished he’d gone on the record about the row earlier, said: “Clearly Tony could have attributed the decline in Bermuda’s tourism fortunes and profile to the attitude and demeanour of ‘some’ black Bermudians and faced a lot less criticism.

“As far as I am concerned, the real assault on the tourism industry came as the result of an intentional UBP Government policy to phase out tourism in favour of international business; but that is an entirely separate debate.

“What now bothers me is the news that following the reaction to his YouTube comments, Tony now feels inclined to sell his recording studio and his home in Bermuda, to quit entertaining in Bermuda altogether, and to live elsewhere. This is utterly wrong.”

And the former MP added: “We must not continue to hound our people out of here simply because we don’t approve of what they say or how they say it. Those who claim that intolerance of free expression is somehow a new thing in Bermuda completely fail to appreciate our true history.

“The simple historical fact is that Bermuda has never encouraged a culture of freedom of expression. It is high time we started.”

Mr. Hall said Mr. Brannon, who has also now quit his role in the Hawkins Island tourism venture after 15 years, has “said too many good, true, positive and helpful things in the cause of Bermuda’s tourism industry for us to allow one over-the-top mis-expression to throw the baby of justice out with the bathwater of our own insecurities.”

Mr. Brannon made his comments to encourage a full and open debate on Bermuda’s past that included views from all sides, mentioning the racial hurt he and his father suffered from certain union officials when they ran the 40 Thieves night club on Front Street in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Mr. Hall agrees the issues of the past should be aired and debated and dealt with once and for all so Bermuda can at last move on. He said: “Let’s have a real discussion — all of us — about racism in Bermuda. If we dare.”