Vexed Bermoothes

Bermuda’s ferry workers will hold one of their famous “rush hour” meetings tomorrow to consider strike action in support of the pilot who was recently convicted of driving the ferry while drunk.
Marine and Ports has fired the pilot. The BIU says Government should find him another job.
There are indeed many sides to the story. […]

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In public, Mayor Madeiros said he would protect the Bermuda Society of the Arts’ place in the City Hall & Arts Centre.
In private, he voted to evict them.
And someone leaked the minutes. That’s embarrassing.  But what’s more important:  betraying the trust of the Corporation or betraying the trust of the citizens and patrons of Hamilton?
“I […]

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The policeman who blogged about Bermuda’s crime statistics has been suspended. He had pointed out that Bermuda’s improved crime statistics in recent years in fact omit several important categories of offense including assault/bodily harm, willful/criminal damage, and drug-related offenses. He then indicated that these offenses have, in fact, seen dramatic increases.
If this is […]

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Well, they’ve signed another SDO, this time to build a six-story tower holding 66 condominiums at the CoCo Reef/Stonington property.
It’s a sign that our planning process is irretrievably broken when every major project sidesteps the planning process using a Ministerial special development order. This is at least the sixth SDO issued over the last […]

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No matter what happens with the effort to introduce Public Access to Information laws [PDF] to Bermuda, there are certain changes that need to be made.
Notably, the meetings of public boards and committees need to opened to the public. Here are just a few examples:

It is archaic and unnecessary that meetings of the Corporation […]

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More than 300 people have flown in for the 49th annual Bridge tournament at the Southampton Princess (Fairmont whatever).
That’s about 300 more than came for all the faith based tourism events combined!  Probably cost the taxpayer a hell of a lot less too.

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A reader asked “what are Hansard minutes and why should the Bermuda Parliament have them?”
Currently the journals of the Bermuda House of Assembly [PDF] are rudimentary, merely noting that an individual spoke without giving any detail about what they said. For example:
Mr. T.E. LISTER made a Statement relating to the state of public education in […]

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The Privy Council has released their rationale in striking down Government’s gag order against the local media:
The public interest in the freedom of the media to disseminate information relating to those who submitted themselves for election as legislators overrode the public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of documents relating to a police […]

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Now that Government has its much hyped television station, will they show the complete proceedings of the House of Assembly and Senate live? In streaming video? The footage should be made simultaneously available to other media outlets at no charge providing, of course, the CITV logo is shown on reused imagery.
I would support […]

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I don’t get it. Some folks are uncomfortable because the Royal Gazette and “anti-PLPers online” are supporting the public access to information law.
It says a lot about local expectations that people should stay in their box.
True, the local media should have provided more analysis in 2005 when the PATI briefing was first distributed. […]

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