St George’s Mayor Kenneth Bascome has criticised ruling party members for disclosing confidential information they received when they belonged to the UBP.“I think that it is very childish for former members of the United Bermuda Party to be now talking to the media in regards to privileged information,” said Mr Bascome.He said that when he was a member of the Progressive Labour Party he had served on the Central Committee for some years and “being a mature individual I would not go to the media and talk about conversations I may have heard.”Mr Bascome was referring to a press conference last week in which the PLP claimed that events which led to the formation of the One Bermuda Alliance were part of the UBP’s “secret plan” recommended by a consultant.The press conference, in which candidate Darius Tucker — himself a former UBP MP — demanded that the OBA release the “secret plan”, came on the heels of a ZBM report in which former UBP leader Kim Swan confirmed that a consultant had recommended that his party’s younger members form a new entity and that the “old UBP members” join the new entity and form a new party.The One Bermuda Alliance was formed when UBP MPs defected to the Bermuda Democratic Alliance in what was widely reported as a merger between the two parties.Mr Swan’s information corroborated what Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert told the House of Assembly in May last year when he called on his former colleagues to release the consultant’s report.Mr Furbert said then that the consultant’s advice had been followed to the letter and the formation of the OBA was part of a plan to attract the black voter.Sources in the OBA said then that the advice over the temporary split was merely a few paragraphs within a seven-page report and argued it hadn’t been taken seriously.The OBA dismissed the PLP’s latest call for transparency over the matter.Attempts to reach Mr Furbert yesterday were unsuccessful.Former MP John Barritt, who had served a brief spell as the leader of the OBA before retiring, weighed into the controversy on Friday.“This is so yesterday, a sad refrain from people who claim they are for change but still want to live in yesterday and do so only for their blatant, narrow political purposes i.e. electioneering,” Mr Barritt said in an e-mail.“The fact is that the OBA has so moved on from 18 months ago when it was first formed. There was no script for what actually happened when (1) party agreed to a leadership contest that would be open to any and all members to run, i.e. no longer restricted to elected members only; (2) when the party opened the voting up to the entire membership; (3) when close to 1,000 members participated in the vote and a non-elected member of the Legislature was selected leader; and (4) when interim leader John Barritt stepped down so the leader-elect Craig Cannonier could contest a seat in the House, successfully, and convincingly, as it turned out.“These were significant, important steps not just for the OBA but for politics in Bermuda and no one, I repeat, no one, wrote that script other than the OBA.”Mr Bascome would not be drawn on whether those who passed on privileged information received when they were members of the OBA should be trusted.“I leave that for the community to figure out themselves,” he said.But he asked: “Would they do a similar thing should they have a falling out with the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party?”And he said that many PLP supporters had criticised the OBA members for not resigning their seats when they shed their allegiance to the UBP but had a “different mindset” when Mr Furbert and Mr Tucker crossed the aisle.Mr Bascome, an OBA general election candidate for St George’s North, was a member of the PLP until shortly after the 1998 general election.He said he continues to be criticised for switching sides.“I was romanced by the honourable Wayne Furbert who was the leader of the UBP and who has now crossed the floor and holds one of the most high profile positions with the PLP,” said Mr Bascome.“Are you going to tell me that members of the PLP are happy with that decision?”