Bermuda’s Government and governance is in such anarchic disarray that I sometimes wonder if Dr. Brown hopes to make such a hash of our democracy that Bermuda cries out for a constitutional conference to straighten it out … leading to independence through the back door.
The Premier interpreted the PLP’s election win as a personal vindication and statement of the PLP’s right to permanent rule. This has led to behaviour that can only be described as “drunk with power”. That secretive excess is rebounding and the “cult of coverup” will ultimately harm the PLP.
The damage to Bermuda is clear: no amount of PR spin can hide it. Bermuda’s public expenditure is outrageous, while inflation rages and the world enters an economic slump. The unions aren’t happy. The civil servants aren’t happy. Businesses of both international and local varieties feel abused. And let’s not forget the 48 percent of Bermuda who voted for the Opposition …
The only people who seem happy is this tight little new oligarchy. And even that’s a bit ragged, as the idea of “collective responsibility” is now out the window. There’s no wonder there’s talk of rifts within the party. Like us, they are waking up knowing they’ve been had.
“There’s unhappiness about arbitrary individualistic behaviour which seems to be migrating to other ministers who are taking their lead from that. It is causing rifts.” The Royal Gazette understands two recent Government initiatives were voted down by Cabinet but then later unveiled at press conferences, something which caused ructions within Cabinet.
It’s shocking to know that, not only are major decisions being made in Cabinet without public consultation or debate, but some Ministers are even defying the agreed decisions of Cabinet!
This makes a mockery of the longstanding international convention of collective responsibility which is enshrined in Section 57 of the battered Bermuda Constitution. The convention holds that Ministers who are unable to support the collective decisions of Cabinet must resign immediately.
Wake up Bermuda! The risk is not of being taken back to the past. The risk is having your future robbed from you.
Don’t talk to me about the New Bermuda. The list of broken and delayed promises is very long, and the only certainty is that there always seems to be a new outrage to eclipse last week’s one.