grasp the leadership. He is in fact a highly intelligent and capable man who wanted to do his best for Bermuda and for the people of Bermuda. He had a dream to make Bermuda an outstanding and highly effective society. He wanted to take a successful Bermuda into the next Century but he stumbled because he was intellectually unable to take political advice. His leadership failed because he was not a politician nor was he a people person. He lacked people skills or street smarts. In those two areas Sir John Swan was a very hard act to follow.

There is a huge difference between leading the Country and running a successful business or running an effective Government ministry. In our view Bermuda can only be governed by a leader who can encourage different groups to create a consensus and Dr. Saul is by nature a loner. He is a solitary man who is certain of his views and often those views were right for Bermuda. They came to little because they did not find general acceptance. For reasons that are more difficult to understand he also had great difficulty getting outright support from "the establishment''. Perhaps that was because he never declared his position on Independence.

It is not unusual for any structured organisation to take time to settle and to destroy a few people in the wake of a leader who has been in office for a long time. Perhaps Dr. Saul's leadership came at the wrong time or, perhaps, the politicians who chose him as leader should have known that he was unlikely to command the affection of the people.

It is fair to say that some of the issues which plagued the Saul Government were not of his own making although he often took the blame. His Cabinet colleagues made mistakes, McDonald's being the major debacle, for which Dr.

Saul paid the price. Yet Premier Saul leaves his party reunited, after a split which caused him a painful vote of censure in the House, and he leaves the Bermudian economy in good shape after the debilitating recession. The latter is a major feat. Like many of Bermuda's political leaders, Dr. Saul made personal sacrifices for Bermuda in terms of his own finances and his family.

We believe that recent polls have not been encouraging for the United Bermuda Party which is used to winning and that Jennifer Smith, the new and popular leader of the Progressive Labour Party, was seen as a real threat to the UBP.

Premier Saul and the party hierarchy may well have decided that their future success lay with a new leader. In answers to questions following his resignation he suggested "a new and younger leader''. It may also be true in today's Bermudian politics that no white leader, except perhaps a very special person of great stature, can win a general election.

David Saul said after his resignation that he wanted to be remembered as "doing his level best''. There can be no doubt about that.