Vexed Bermoothes

The Commonwealth Foundation has begun a four year project with the British Overseas Territories that seeks to increase their commitment to international standards in regard to labour rights, the rights of children and women, and other human rights issues.  Other goals of the project include promoting dialogue between government and non-governmental organizations, and working with […]

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Bermuda’s Auditor General is speaking out again about the political attempts to intimidate and interfere with his work.
He points out that the Auditor role is protected by the Constitution and the Audit Act 1990 which states that “the auditor is not subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority in the […]

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 Last year’s “Son of the Soil” crises - which involved surprise office moves and the abusive arrest of the Auditor General as well as several very expensive trips to the Privy Council in an attempt to muzzle the press - were an attempt to shift the attention from what the BHC investigation contained onto other […]

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The Select Committee on Foreign Affairs of the UK House of Commons has published their Seventh Report on the Overseas Territories.

It includes a wide variety of “housekeeping” suggestions regarding ways to improve governance in the Overseas Territories as well as to improve the UK’s relationship with them.
It includes a whirlwind tour of Bermuda’s dysfunctions including […]

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There has been much huff and puffery in Bermuda regarding whether to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by adding it to the Human Rights Act.  Both political parties have been evasive on the subject (with the exception of Renee Webb and Dale Butler) fearing the bullying pulpit.
Well, there’s been a particularly nasty […]

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As I commented back in March, the Corporation of Hamilton are doing themselves no favours.
The PLP has made clear its desire to absorb the Municipal corporations into the central Government.  At the same time, both the Hamilton ratepayers and many locals have criticised the Corporation for its lack of transparency.
But rather than engage in proactive […]

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The Department of Tourism has announced that the tourism statistics will now only be released quarterly as part of the Minister’s luncheon.  For the past eight months (wrapped around an election and amidst claims that the tourism numbers were being artificially boosted with business arrivals), they had been handed out monthly.  The schedule and content […]

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The clubby isolation of Bermuda’s legislature drives me crazy.   We hear lots of references about “the people’s business” but the institution does not operate in a way that allows the people to understand what’s going on, or to participate in it.
And let’s face it, the current PLP is not in a mood to drive […]

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The Royal Gazette ran a rarely seen fact today:
The Motor Car Amendment (No. 3) Act 2008 was passed by a vote of 18 to 14 of MPs.
We rarely get any detail on how voting occurs in our legislature - it’s all hidden in obscurity of the institution.  So which four MPs didn’t hang around for […]

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