Familiar to many as a political pundit and pollster Walton Brown has swapped his ringside seat for centre stage after being appointed to the Senate. Here he tells The Royal Gazette on how he plans to take a fresh approach.

A concern for the plight of expatriates and a burning desire to tone down the race rhetoric they may not seem like typical characteristics for a Progressive Labour Party politician these days.

But new Senator Walton Brown is determined to be forthright in his views and he says his cousin, Premier Ewart Brown knew that when he made the appointment. He said:"We are cousins, we are close, we talk a lot. Iam someone who doesn't know anything other than to speak his mind. When Ihave concerns I share them and he listens.

"And the honest approach appears to be working. Sen. Brown shaved a 100 votes off the UBP majority in Pembroke West at the recent election. It is the neighbourhood Sen. Brown, 46, grew up in, and he now feels like he has an obligation to constituents there. "I made some promises that I would work on issues and I will carry out those promises to the extent I can."He was appalled by some of the tactics adopted by both parties in a bruising election contest nationwide.

"The election took place against a backdrop of a high level of acrimony a tense negative component. There were dirty tricks engaged in by both sides.

"Sen. Brown became involved in the party in the 1980s once penning a piece in the party newspaper pointing out why the PLPhad lost the 1983 election by only appealing to the black working class voter.

And he now he argues the party needs to tone down the race rhetoric."We remain fragmented on racial lines. All members of parliament have a responsibility to heal Bermuda as much as we can through our public comments.

"We need to get beyond the racial divide. People have a multitude of attributes and characteristics I am a man, Iam a black person, I am a middle aged person, I am a Bermudian so we have many different attributes. Gender discrimination and misogyny is probably far more pervasive in our country than racialist language and I am still surprised we have found no one to address that on a regular basis."

"Sometimes we focus in the first instance on one attribute which is race sometimes you don't need to. Sometimes you do.

"Here's where politicians can lead we need to dispense with the racial rhetoric where race is not an issue."

''We should not be using racially inflammatory language or tolerating racially polarising comments by anyone."

Asked what he made of PLPMP Lovitta Foggo's comments that the UBP wanted to take Bermuda back to slavery Sen. Brown said:"She wasn't speaking in the literal sense, she was caught up in the moment.

"Really she was saying a vote for the UBP was a vote back to harsher times said Sen. Brown. But he conceded the PLP does have a lot of what he terms "racialism" where race is the language of discourse.

That is because the older generation of the PLP lived through segregation when race was seared into their consciousness and so it crops up in conversations which outsiders might find shocking said Sen.Brown.

"It is so ingrained, people use it without thinking. You hear black people say: 'Oh, yeah, I saw this person white guy'. You just described someone by their race right away because racialism is always there in your consciousness.

"I think there was an American Congressman talking about Obama saying Obama has escaped the shackles of racism saying when he speaks he is a black man but he doesn't speak as a just a black man.

' We will make progress when more and more of us politicians and non politicians can address issues and not necessarily use race to express that because it makes race appear an issue when it is not.

"There are signs of hope said Sen.Brown, recently with a woman who made a "profoundly racist comment about white people" on talk radio being shot down by caller after caller.

He believes the silent majority are sick of the race baiting.

"We need that silent majority to get a voice and challenge those who would engage with what I call the racialist ideology. We have to start from somewhere.

"But it also meant tackling racist structures if the conflict is to die down, said Sen.Brown.

Even after a convincing election win which secured his position Premier Brown seemed unwilling to extend an olive branch to the white community which didn't support him, telling a BBC journalist that Bermuda's white population didn't need reassurance.

Probed on this Sen.Brown said the track record of Government didn't show a single policy which had discriminated against whites but he conceded there was a perception Dr. Brown was not reaching out to the white community.

But he said those in the PLP believed whites needed to make more of an effort themselves and whites who joined the party were vilified in their own communities. He urged whites to judge the PLPon its deeds and words.

Recently columnist Stuart Hayward wrote that whites seemed only to be accepted as legitimate by the PLP when they joined the party they were heroes if they joined while whites in the UBP were all painted as villains.

Sen.Brown responded: "We need to mature as a party. When you have racialism seared into your consciousness you are automatically suspicious.

"But my position is you take everyone at face value if they say they are interested and want to join and work with you then you work with them and judge people on their deeds.

"And it his deeds not just words that Sen. Brown wants to be judged on.

"I am not attached to politics per se. I am imbued with a passion for improving social conditions.

"For me politics is a vehicle for doing good. I really want to make a difference on some key issues. I am not here for a profile. I was well known before I was appointed as a Senator and I actually crave anonymity which is why I love to get off the island.'

He believes Bermuda with its wealth, small size and diversity can be a model if the vision is right. If promoted to Cabinet he would love to serve in Education or in the Labour and Immigration ministry.

On the latter he would like to see a more harmonious labour relations atmosphere and he said the rights of foreign workers should not be forgotten.

"I think we need to stem this rising tide of xenophobia which I see up and down this country. I hear it on all sides - not just in the PLP side. I also hear it on the UBP side as well which is shocking. I believe diversity is a good thing. We need people to come from other countries ¿ our economy requires it. We need an approach that balances the need for our economy to be strong and competitive alongside the needs of Bermudians.

"There is no zero sum game."And of his new-found platform in the Senate he said: "Then those who don't even get to vote who should be represented. The people who live and work in the country who are partly responsible for our success don't have a vote but that doesn't mean their interests should go unaddressed there are contract workers who are exploited by employers, they are largely intimidated.

"They feel if they speak up they will get kicked out."Politics has been a lifelong passion for Sen. Brown. It was a topic at the family dinner table.His grandfather WG Brown was an independent thinker who spoke to the UN's decolonisation committee in 1964 while his father and mother were strong union activists. Sen. Brown then studied politics at university, became a politics lecturer at Bermuda College and then set up a polling firm which has tested the nation's political climate.

He takes very seriously the Senate's role of taking a second sober look at legislation. "Rather than simply being a rubber stamp as the Upper House has largely been since it was set up.

"And he plans to speak out on issues not tied to legislation.

Many know Sen.Brown for his firm belief in independence.

While it remains a long-cherished PLP goal the party has yet to put it to the people despite nearly a decade in power. Recently advocates such as former Cabinet Minister Renee Webb and Wayne Perinchief have expressed doubts about splitting from Britain.

But not Sen. Brown who said: "Independence is a noble objective to pursue. We are an anomaly in the world today in the sense that we don't have the ability to pursue all of our interests in the international arena.

"While he realises most Bermudians don't support independence he believes sticking with the present arrangement isn't an option as that keeps changing with Britain now demanding oversight of Bermuda's financial services industry.

"That is in contrast to the clearly stated allocation of responsibilities in our constitution.

"I am not sure whether they are trying to force us to go independent or to gobble us up as part of the UK.

"Independence will remain an issue until we achieve it.

"But he said the independence debate needs to be handled maturely. "There is too much immature posturing.

"We saw that with Alex Scott - he wanted to appoint the Chief Justice but our constitution is clear, the Chief Justice is appointed by the Governor. So why the posturing? It created a false conflict and didn't do any good for the pro-independence supporters.

"He laments former Premier Sir John Swan and then Opposition leader Freddie Wade could not have hammered out a deal to join forces ahead of the failed independence referendum in 1995 when three quarters of the House was for going it alone.

Democratic checks needed to be enshrined to ensure a Government in an independent Bermuda could not ride roughshod over the Auditor General or the judiciary, said Sen. Brown.

Asked when the PLP would ever put the issue to the public Sen. Brown said: "The PLP have had the issue of independence enshrined in its constitution since 1968. We have been in power for nearly ten years now.

"I think if we had a thorough discussion on the issue with factual information we could quite readily have another decision on it.

"I think a referendum is an imminently sensible way of rendering a decision on something as important as independence in this present context.

"Sen.Brown has also had an astute eye for the wider political scene.

Asked about who might take the helm at the defeated and rudderless United Bermuda Party he said: "John Barritt has always struck me as someone who is measured in his opinions, who is a fair man, who has great commitment to improving this country. I think he would be an excellent choice as leader.

"As much as I like Wayne Furbert as a person, the fact that he was leader and then replaced seems to be problematic.

"He said the UBP need not fear having a white leader if he was the right choice and pointed out white UBP leaders had won several elections while the black caucus of the 1970s had been formed because black issues were not being addressed by a black leader ¿ the father of current UBP leadership hopeful Bob Richards.

"It has nothing to do with race. Someone like John Barritt can easily transcend racial barriers - in fact he already has.

"Sen. Brown said the UBP had come close in the election and got 47 percent of the vote. "The public never rejected the UBP. They have shown a preference for the PLP.

"No one said the PLP, either internally or externally, that because they were in Opposition for 30-plus years they should pack it in. They lost every election before 1998 because they had a flawed electoral strategy.

"That was fixed under Freddie Wade's leadership. People exaggerate a little bit I think. You lost three elections, doesn't mean you have to pack it in."