the voters who elected them. Sometimes elected representatives get confused and go off on their own platforms which are opposed to the general view of their constituents. Politicians who tried to lead Bermuda toward Independence are prime examples of that.

Generally in a democracy the will of the majority of the people prevails, just as it did in the referendum on Independence. Yet some politicians have not learned their lesson from the referendum.

Bermuda's economy is one of the most successful in the world. It got that way because of years of care and caution. It needed constant care because our economy's success is always endangered by the fact that it is also very delicate.

Bermuda's economy, tourism and international business, depends on a stable government and a safe and secure lifestyle. Visitors want to be safe and secure while they enjoy their expensive vacations. International businesses want to know that their expensive domicile in Bermuda will not be under constant threat from unstable government. Businesses can too easily go to other islands where they are virtually guaranteed stability.

Bermuda has been a success for a very long time. One of the dangers of continued success is that it can breed carelessness. People begin to think that they can behave as dangerously as they like and the Country's success will just go on and on. That's not true.

Bermuda is already suffering a tough lesson which it must remember. Tourism is dropping because we did not protect it. We allowed our facilities to deteriorate and our standards of service to decline while we cheerfully took the money and increased the prices. We simply assumed that success would continue no matter how we behaved. We know now that it is not true.

But we have not heeded the lesson. We have begun to take international business for granted by tampering with the stability of Government. Nervous international companies were subjected to a very close and uncertain general election. That was followed almost immediately by over a year of debate on Independence which made money very uncomfortable. We will never know just how many businesses did not come here because of the referendum debate.

Once the referendum was over and Independence was set aside, Bermuda had a chance to settle down and get its economy back together.

We are still not out of the recession, probably because of the referendum.

Tourism is dropping and we need huge sums for advertising to match the promotions being done by other destinations. The bases are gone and we face large unexpected costs both there and at the Airport. We also have to find a great deal of money to improve safety by restructuring the Police Service.

We should now be working to reassure business and to encourage international businesses to settle in Bermuda. To do that we need to demonstrate that our Government is stable.

What are we really doing? Five backbenchers are working against the general wishes of Bermudians and demonstrating that their own government is still unsettled. Instead of getting down to helping Bermuda, "the five'' are disrupting the House of Assembly to no purpose.

They may be able to obstruct Government's plans but to what purpose except anger and ego? They may be able to bring down their own Government but that will only turn them into pariahs.

Right now they are demonstrating to international business that they will not allow their own Government to settle down and get on with solutions to Bermuda's problems. These companies have had a long uncertain period and they will not accept much more instability. Again, we will never know how many companies are not coming here because of our own disruption.

Be it on the heads of "the five'' if they drive away our good living.