Vexed Bermoothes

Blustery Opinions From Bermuda

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Well, that didn’t end up so well

September 16th, 2011 · Bermuda Politics, Business

Bermuda has boomed as an international business centre due to the critical mass of decision makers in the insurance sector and related fields that worked here.

So the PLP, in all their glory, came up with the brilliant idea of placing “term limits” on how long those business leaders could stay on the island.

This – combined with the general pissiness of  the PLP towards expatriates and international business – led to a massive exodus from the island.   Voilà, no critical mass.

The PLP’s actions have excoriated our economy.  Bermudians from blue collar to white collar are feeling tight around the collar.  No matter what the spin says, IT’S NOT THE GLOBAL ECONOMY that fuxed Bermuda.  It’s our own weak political leadership that smothered the golden goose.

Back in the days of hubris, the Cayman Islands copied Bermuda’s term limits excess.  They’ve now admitted this was a mistake and also deeply damaged their economy.  They are now moving to undo term limits.

Admitting is the first step to recovery.  The second is voting in a competent Government.

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Resetting the Dial

August 29th, 2011 · Bermuda Politics, Economy

The PLP’s theme for 2011 is “Resetting the Dial”.  I suppose this acknowledges that they’ve been way off course in recent years.  But it does beg some questions:

  • Who sold them this crappy sundial anyway?  It doesn’t seem to tell the time!
  • How does one reset a sundial?
  • Can’t they afford a clock anymore?

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If a tree falls in the forest …

August 25th, 2011 · Bermuda Politics

Admonishing the local press, the head of the BIU said:

“Please print what the BIU says, if not I will not have you here at press conferences in the future.”

LOL!  A Pressless Conference!

It would be an interesting echo chamber if only Chairman Furbert and Senator Furbert were left in the room.  Congrats to the Workers Voice for finally getting online.

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The Labour Vote

August 24th, 2011 · Bermuda Politics, Economy

After years of inept management the Bermudian economy has shrivelled.  Inevitably we are feeling the stirrings of widespread unrest and conflict amongst Bermuda’s labour unions.

However, the wildcat strikes take their frustrations out on the general public.  And we too are suffering under the perma-neophytes in the Cabinet.

There is an election coming.  Your vote has more lasting impact on the quality of Bermuda’s governance than an emotional walkout.

The propaganda says that “PLP+Labour=All the way”.  However, recent experience shows that often the party always takes precedence over the people.  Systemic problems like we face cannot be fixed in “sweetheart deals”.

My guess is that we are looking at an election before the next budget.  In other words, before they have to reveal just how bad Government finances are and how much they will need to cut AND borrow next year.  Don’t be fooled.

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Strike

August 17th, 2011 · Bermuda Politics, Transport

Sooooo.  From current circumstances, a distant observer might understand that the BIU is on strike to protect transportation workers’ ability to take illicit drugs.  No?

We’ve been here before.

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PATI, Much Later

August 1st, 2011 · Bermuda Politics

Following my post last week on the yearlong silence about PATI, Lady BlahBlah has announced that the PATI law will become operational in late 2012.

If this is true (and I have little reason to believe it is) then Bermuda will have taken 10 years to implement its transparency law.  Not particularly impressive.

It’s all a matter of commitment.  PATI was budgeted a mere $210,000 dollars this year.  By comparison, the highly questionable offices in Washington DC and London got $1.7 million – despite showing little value for money (apart from subtly enhancing the PLP’s long term independence dreams).

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Red Herrings

July 27th, 2011 · Bermuda Politics

You can smell PLP campaigning season starting to wind up.  I wonder when hired gun Mr Boyke will appear on the scene?

The PLP have a lot to answer for … and they will do anything to avoid answering for it.  So, I am sure we’ll be treated to all the delightful politricks and divisiveness that have been the hallmarks of their recent thumps at the stump.

Politics highlights the latest dissimulation where the PLP blog dodges answering legitimate parliamentary questions by dredging up a bunch of red herrings to change the subject.

While dodge attacks like this may be clever political strategy it’s my opinion that they are also fundamentally dishonest.

  1. What were the questions that Bob Richards asked in the House that the PLP is trying to smokescreen?
  2. Why on earth does the OBA not post its parliamentary questions – and the status of the Government answers – on the Internet?  Stop being so passive!

In past years, Government has released its mid-year collection of revenue vs budget.  The fact that they are evading the subject this year is not a good sign.

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PATI, Still Waiting

July 27th, 2011 · Accountability, Transparency

It has been a year since the Public Access to Information (PATI) Act was passed in the Bermuda Legislature.

A year later, the law has not been put on the books and no commencement date has been given.  There is no sign of “freedom of information act” preparation in any part of Government.

The PLP wants to be able to talk about PATI, but doesn’t want to comply with it.  While Bermuda has hummed, hawed and delayed, other countries have created their laws, implemented them, and even had time to improve them based on experience.

This leaves me wondering.  After 12 years in power are the PLP still this bad at leading Government?  Or do they have 12 years of constant circus they’d rather hide from PATI?

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Mea Culpa

July 25th, 2011 · Economy

It’s always amusing to compare what Bermudian politicians say off the island to what they say to our faces.  Over the weekend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association tweeted the following summaries:

CPA_UK (@CPA_UK)
Hon Terry Lister (#Bermuda) #CPC2011 Tourism not enough, need legal immigration & incoming business for economic growth

CPA_UK (@CPA_UK)
Hon. Mr Lister: Migration is a challenge during high unemployment, but stopping it lowers spending & slows growth. #CPC2011

You may recall that Terry Lister was one of the ministers responsible for implementing  “term limits”.  I am glad to hear that he now understands the damage that this harebrained policy has inflicted on Bermuda’s economy and future prospects.  Here’s Minister Lister from the headier days of 2003:

“Everybody has a six year work permit limit, which can be extended to nine years. For a real, real key man it can be to nine years or beyond. Personally I want it to be the key man to stay nine years and can’t go beyond that, after that it is over.”

The PLP was warned repeatedly and in no uncertain terms by business and by the Opposition that term limits was screwing us.  But they stubbornly stuck to it.

It took 10 years for the uncertainty of term limits to drive out the middle management in our international sector … taking many hundreds of support jobs in the bitter exodus.  Term limits is about as insane a government policy as you can find.  Bermuda trades on the “mind and management” that is located here.  We have few other resources.  It took years to build up that intellectual critical mass … until PLP hostility and poor policy making threw out the welcome mat.

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CITV

July 25th, 2011 · Media

In the online comments to a Royal Gazette article about a speech made by Senator Laverne Furbert last week, the Senator herself complains that the newspaper only reported 1/10th of the content of her speech.

Sure.  Whatever.  That’s the role of the media: to distil the cacophony of daily events so that an average person can get up-to-date in a reasonable amount of time.

But I would like to thank Senator Furbert for raising a valid point.

(Background:  Several years ago, Government set up its CITV channel at the cost of several million dollars with running costs of around $750,000 annually.  A deal was struck with an American TV station for $200,000 per year to act as a mentor for the channel … no news as to what benefit that provided.  And a station manager was recruited from California … what happened to her?  Over time, dialogue about CITV and its relevance has faded away.  Its website has been down for months and its YouTube channel has a whopping 14 videos.)

CITV does not cover sessions of the House of Assembly or the Senate.  If CITV is to be retained, it should.  Then those who care, can hear the other 9/10′s of Senator Furbert’s wit and wisdom.

I presume CITV does not cover the Legislature because Government does not want to give opposing MPs a platform.  Instead, CITV gives Ministers a chance to broadcast their canned speeches without pesky reporters asking questions.  Controlled exposure.

But at a higher level, let’s face, we are skint.  We can’t pay for many basic Government services, but we continue to fund this vanity project?  It’s time to look at whether this is a good investment.

CableVision, which delivers the channel to local households, is a digital network and should be able to provide actual viewership for the channel.  We pay for CITV, and the public should be able to judge if it’s a worthwhile use of public money.

I am very surprised that the Opposition MPs have not taken up on allowances made in the Political Broadcasting Act in 2003, which give them a right of response to shows dealing with any policy of the Government or that are informative nature.  There’s a lot of leeway there, and these response shows can be up to 50% of the time of the original broadcast.  Moreover, costs for preparation and airing of the responses can be paid for by the Consolidated Fund.

In my opinion, Government has no business running a TV channel.  It is a prime example of the fat that has built up around the civil service in recent years … fat that has resulted in our huge debt burden and increased taxes.

The local broadcast media is struggling.  If Government were serious about developing opportunities for Bermudians in this sector, it would do far better to allocate some funding to independent producers to create local content for those outlets.  Remember, we want tax payers.

UPDATE:  This cracks me up.

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