seems to tell the world that many of the people who are suffering from the recession are not blaming a Country's leaders. There were many factors impacting on the British General Election but the voters followed the trend of rejecting a left wing party in favour of the status quo, perhaps feeling that no matter how bad the recession and the unemployment the Tories were their most reliable alternative. That does not mean that the voters were over-the-moon about all aspects of Conservative policy but it may well mean that they saw the Conservatives as more capable at coping with the recession.

Maybe British voters simply knew that their Government is as hard pressed by the wide-spread phenomenon of a recession as they are. If that view holds in America, it may bode well for President George Bush when November comes.

Voters have also seen the hard results of socialism in any number of countries and appear to be moving away from left-wing leaders. It may simply be that socialism as an idea has been discredited in the public's eyes. We think the British Labour Party recognised that when it moved so noticeably towards the centre in preparation for this election. The public exposure of the hard life in Eastern Europe, we think, has made people in the West grateful for what they have and for their way of life, recession or no recession.

Contrary to some thinking in Bermuda, no government wants a recession because no government wants to face the political uncertainties bred in people who are hurting. It is the nature of elected Governments that they want people to be prosperous and satisfied. Indeed the efforts of the Ronald Reagan government to keep the people of the US fat and happy at any cost to the basic economy is one of the factors in this recession.

Bermuda is in a much more vulnerable position because, in a very real way, it does not generate the economy which so heavily influences its well-being.

Physical location dictates that Bermuda is at the mercy, good and bad, of the US economy. That has been true throughout this Island's recorded history from ship building, to blockade running, to rum running, to farming and tourism. It has also been true of international company business because we would not be a desirable location if we were more isolated.

Bermuda's problem if that it does not always make the most, internally, of what it has. There are always opportunities internally to make the best of what we are given and that can only be achieved by not disrupting our livelihood with our personal and political differences -- by not wishing our problems on our clients. Clients pay their money and want smooth service. They don't want to know and should not have to know if there were problems delivering the product. If there are problems, they can always get the product somewhere else.

Bermuda has to recognise that it can create opportunities for business and it can reassess tourism and attempt to be a more attractive international company location but these are all service industries and they require service. Tiny islands cannot even dent the US economy which so affects them but they can make the best of what they have.