an especially apt message for the United Bermuda Party.

That is the message of the African National Congress in South Africa when they say that the only way forward for the Rainbow Coalition is together.

That is the message that President Bill Clinton gave to the American people when he took the podium to accept his triumphant election to the presidency for a second time.

But there was another part to President Clinton's message which is also relevant to Bermuda: "Our best days are still ahead.'' For years it has seemed that every time that Bermuda was about to reach a higher plateau, it has managed to "shoot itself in the foot''. As an example, there were very high expectations of an extensive influx of new international company business following the United Bermuda Party's last election victory.

That expectation was quickly disrupted by the unnecessary debate on Independence.

There were high expectations that Premier David Saul's government would strengthen the economy and solve the problems of tourism but what happened? McDonald's.

It seems to us that if Bermuda is to go forward and if the "best days are still ahead'' then there has to be unanimous agreement not to allow our internal squabbles, our disputes and our local problems to spill over and disrupt our high standard of living.

We must consider what impact local decisions will have on tourism and we must keep politics out of tourism and out of the hiring of tourism officials and operate our tourist business as an entity to be protected because it greatly benefits us all. Within reason, we must protect international companies from being hassled in order to score local political points. We have to recognise their contribution to our good living and the large number of very lucrative jobs they offer to Bermudians, jobs which Bermudian businesses could never provide, and we must understand that their hiring needs are often specialised.

If international companies were to leave Bermuda in any number, we would have a large number of well educated Bermudians without comparable jobs and perhaps without any job at all. Sensible people protect themselves from that kind of crisis. Not one of us intentionally works against the success of our own job or our own family income. Why then do we so often disrupt Bermuda's job and the Bermudian family's income? It should not be too difficult in a tiny Country where everyone eats from the same pie, a pie which shows signs of getting smaller because we have not looked after it properly, to agree to disagree when we must, but not to inflict our disagreements on our visitors or our guests.

That would be a step forward ... together.