Vexed Bermoothes

Politics.bm highlights Dr. Brown’s evasiveness in saying that he doesn’t want independence to be an election issue. But of course it is, doctor we-had-to-deceive-you!

While in Bermuda Dr. Brown always casually says independence is on the back burner. However, the subject is front and centre in speeches during Dr. Brown’s frequent travels … delivered with every ounce of desire and thwarted ambition that his lil’ heart can provide. Here’s an excerpt from his “Goodwill Plus” speech in Washington just a few weeks ago, the same one that revealed “Stereotype Sven” and the national security threat posed by mayonnaise:

In 1776 the Founding Fathers of this great nation started America on a course of greatness. Unlike my colleagues Manning, Jagdaeo, Golding and Gonsalves I do not lead an independent, sovereign nation. There are other Territories like Bermuda whose tie to the United Kingdom remains. My last request of the Council and of the Congressional Caribbean Caucus is to remember this country’s quest for independence when the time comes for us, the remaining Overseas Territories to take our place among the family of nations. The clarion call of the naysayer of independence for us is the loss of stability. My history teaches me that since 1776 the United States of America has gone from strength to strength and enjoyed growing stability and high regard at home and abroad.

My view is that that same stability can and will be enjoyed by the peoples of the Overseas Territories when independence inevitability becomes theirs. The difference will be made in the support of our friends in this country who will vouch on the world stage for our soundness of government, our commitment to the rule of law and the natural inclination of all living things to be independent.

In the past, Dr. Brown has said Bermudians wanted a leader who was “stubborn enough to move them towards independence”. I think that’s gross self-glorification.

Dr. Brown has undermined the public trust in himself – it’s his own doing – by squandering capital both real and political. As a whole, Bermudians realise that it would be difficult and risky for a village-sized island like ours to go it alone. And they certainly don’t want to try it in the current atmosphere of unaccountability and political immaturity.