of Assembly debates his gay rights bill. Whatever attention he does attract today will pale beside the revelation yesterday that a UBP group wanted to make Dr. Stubbs Premier of Bermuda for a limited time.

There are a great many people, in fact a majority of the people, who are not in favour of Independence at this time. There are also many people who are both puzzled and disturbed by the present debate on Independence and who find the whole disruption of Bermuda to be unnecessary. However we doubt if even those most strongly opposed to Independence would suggest for one minute that the Hon. Sir John Swan should be dumped and replaced by Dr. Stubbs. Given the fact that Sir John Swan is clearly in his last Parliamentary term, this newspaper has heard many names suggested as a replacement but never the name Stubbs.

There is no doubt that Dr. Stubbs has made a significant contribution to the Country. Bravely championing the gay rights initiative brought him back to the forefront of Bermudian politics. However he had been out of the forefront of political life for many years. He is also a sick man. If nothing else, we would have grave fears about what the pressures of the Premiership would do to his health.

When it becomes clear that a long serving and successful political leader like Sir John Swan is preparing to retire, there is bound to be a good deal of fighting for position on the part of hopeful successors. There is also bound to be in-fighting on the part of political factions hoping that their choice will win. That situation is magnified when a leader is preparing to leave in the midst of a huge controversy and nothing is more controversial in Bermuda than Independence.

Poorly conceived clandestine political meetings may all come down to the old addage that desperate people do desperate things. We think several of the people involved in talks over Dr. Stubbs are showing the strain of desperation.

It is bizarre for a group of mainly white politicians, especially right wing white politicians, to think that they had any chance of replacing Sir John Swan with Dr. Stubbs, or any other white person, without wrecking the UBP and seriously disrupting the Country. For one thing, as politicians the group should be well aware that no politician seriously agrees to a limited term.

Some do agree to be "interim'' choices until they get the job but most of those then decide to "stay on for the benefit of the country''.

The John Stubbs plan has been described already as "hare-brained'' but we think it is a good deal more than that. At its best it is destructive.

If this is the kind of "sense'' present in Bermudian politics today when people are already disturbed by past events, then many people will be justified if they hang their heads in despair.

Don't you politicians care about the Country? The public does.