With a mother who once ran for parliament, a brother who was an MP and a grandson who wants to be Premier, it's fair to say that politics is in the blood of Jeanne Atherden and her family.

But it took until she was 60 for the mother-of-two to become a politician, when Opposition leader Kim Swan appointed her to the Senate.

That was a year ago and Senator Atherden says her experiences in the Upper Chamber since have been "very enjoyable".

She was a branch secretary for the United Bermuda Party in Smith's some 20 years ago and was offered the chance to go into politics in 1994 by Sir John Swan.

But she turned down the opportunity due to numerous other commitments, including work and family, and because her husband Maxim worked for Government.

Describing herself as having always been a UBP supporter, she explains why she finally took the plunge into front line politics.

"It was right for me because I was working part-time, my husband had retired and the other thing which was probably most important to me was people saying the UBP is dying and dead."

The Shadow Community and Cultural Affairs Minister adds: "I think what had happened was that we had allowed the PLP to repaint the image of the United Bermuda Party so that all the things that [the public] was hearing about was in terms of us not being a diverse party or promoting racial equality.

"So much stuff had been repainted that I think the public perception had started to be that what they were hearing was the actual reality."

The last general election, she claims, was particularly negative, with the notion that the UBP was a "white party" taking hold with the public.

As a black party member, she felt compelled to stand up and counter that idea, she says.

"It's difficult to hear a white person turn around and say 'that's not true'.

"I knew it was not true because I grew up in an environment that said get together, work together, try to foster relationships. When we went to party meetings, we had blacks and whites together."

Sen. Atherden's mother Pearl Adderley ran unsuccessfully for the UBP back when political parties first formed in Bermuda, in the late 1960s. She remembers coming back from college in Canada to support her. "We had a conversation about why she was running. She was running in an area that was definitely going to be a PLP seat."

The episode, she says, gave her a strong sense of what the party was all about.

Six years later, when she came back to the Island from living in Montreal, she spoke at a UBP conference on the topic of owning a piece of the rock.

It was as much of a hot topic then as it is now, she says. "We all wanted to own a piece of the rock but the rock was shrinking. We still have to figure out how do we make sure everyone gets a piece of the rock."

She has been loyal to the party ever since, arguing that its positive achievements are borne out by the Island's strong economic position and high standard of living.

Sen. Atherden, whose brother Erwin Adderley was a UBP MP, says she and others in the party are committed to working on changing negative perceptions. But she won't reveal anything about the contents of an internal report on reform produced last summer by a committee she sat on.

"We have been refocusing what the party image has been," she says. "We have been refocusing on what we want to be doing. We are trying to put forward constructive criticism and, even in our Budget reply that we put forward, suggestions and ideas."

The 61-year-old chartered accountant, of Riddell's Bay, Warwick, adds: "For us, things like the economy and spending are real issues."

Asked if the UBP could be doing more to improve its image by possibly taking a leaf out of the PLP's book in terms of attracting support, she replies: "I think in some respects, maybe sometimes people take the high ground because they believe that we are not going to wallow in that.

"Sometimes you have to get into a situation to say that if the face of politics has changed, you have to get on with dealing with the new face. But we still have what I call our ideals and the standard that we want to operate under."

Sen. Atherden describes a shift she felt came about after the historic election of 1998 when the Progressive Labour Party came to power for the first time.

"It seemed to me that when the change in government came, lots of people started to run for cover, to put their heads down."

She suggests that to be a UBP supporter became as unpopular and potentially risky to one's job security as many argue it was for PLP supporters during the UBP's years in power. A particular bugbear for her is government-appointed boards, which she claims have become far more partisan under the PLP.

"Lots of people on boards were all of a sudden off boards. That to me is the saddest thing that has ever happened.

"Years ago, you had lots of people from diverse walks of life being on board. It now seems to me you have the boards with so little diversity, it's unfortunate.

"The more people you get, the more ideas you have, the better solutions you come up with."

She refuses to accept the idea that the boards were politically weighted under her own party. "The PLP said to their supporters, when the UBP was in power, not to volunteer."

But she concedes that things are improving, adding that her party is determined to put names forward each year in the hope that they will be accepted.

What she wants to see more of in public life is true debate on the issues that matter to Bermudians.

"I love to argue," she laughs. "I don't believe in making points just to make points. In the end, you are getting no closer to solving something or making sure that it works for Bermuda."

The vice-president of Paragon Brokers and deputy chairman of Key Tech says sitting in the Senate allows her to get her teeth into many topics outside of her brief, including finance, her personal area of expertise. She's also passionate about women's issues and education.

So does she want to take her enthusiasm for politics as far as the House of Assembly, like her brother?

"I don't know," she admits. "I enjoy being in the Senate and I also recognise that some people love to be in the House.

I'm enjoying doing this in the Senate. Right now, I'm enjoying coming to grips with all the responsibilities as well as the obligations."

She chuckles when asked if she harbours ambitions to become Premier, recalling her young grandson telling her that he wants the top job eventually.

"For me right now, I want to turn around and make people want to join [the party] and make people see that I say things they stand for and believe in."