Vexed Bermoothes

The Governor gave a press conference this morning:

“Because it breaches the Constitution, this exchange of notes [leading to the Premier's Great Uighur adventure] which was negotiated and sent on June 10, was in our view, invalid. In other words, the Bermuda Government’s action to solicit the arrival of the four Uighurs was unacceptable. I talked to the Bermuda Government yesterday, June 16, and suggested to them that they should now consider carefully their next steps.”

However he adds that the Uighurs “cannot and should not go back” to Guantanamo Bay, adding that the UK, US and Bermuda needed to work with one another to find the right outcome.

The Uighur episode must be seperated from the conflict regarding Ewart Brown’s leadership.

Meanwhile, the Sun is reporting that the PLP backbenchers are backing off support for a no confidence vote for fear of losing the PLP’s majority in the House. They are at no risk of losing their majority.  Just their credibility.  If they don’t act, they are sowing the seeds for immense future problems for their party … and for all of Bermuda.  Their withdrawal would show that there is no action – no matter how irresponsible, harmful, or illegal – for which they’d be willing to act as a check or balance.

Moreover, the PLP’s spin tactics of pushing this all as a racial issue is further deepening the poison in Bermuda’s soul.  Today the Premier depicted the protests as “a perceived loss of privilege that has driven our whites into extreme anger”.

He knows better.  The whole idea of Rule of Law is that it provides equity of treatment for all.  The Rule of Law was key to breaking segregation.  When the that Rule of Law is bent to the changing desires of a single politician – and his party falls over in sycophancy – then no-one can count on this country.  And what do we have then?

(I find the silence of Bermuda’s lawyers regarding this Constitutional issue to be amazing and reprehensible.)