Vexed Bermoothes

After a decade of neglect of the international business sector by our Government, some of the shine has worn off Bermuda’s Gold Standard™.  In the past, stability and good sense government were among Bermuda’s strongest selling points. That’s less true today.

A major UK insurer today announced they will add operations in Ireland, and justified the move to Insurance Day by bashing Bermuda:

Beazley had picked Ireland ahead of Bermuda because the mid-Atlantic island “doesn’t add anything to us from a business point of view”.  He added that Beazley did not see Bermuda “as a stable environment [when] compared to Ireland”.

For the record, Ireland was the first Eurozone country to fall into technical recession, currently has a 7.9% unemployment rate, a real estate bubble that has burst spectacularly with 30% drops in some areas, and there are worries that the country might default on its sovereign debt.

But it is seen as more stable than Bermuda.  Why is that?

• Bermuda has eroded its goodwill by spending its windfalls merrily without building relationships with the sources of that revenue:  the international business sector.
• Our budgets have grown tremendously – with much spending that is undeniably wasteful – but requests for better governance are magically turned into some sort of racial affront.
• Education is Bermuda’s Achilles heel.  Lots of talking, not much fixing.  That applies to a lot of things in Bermuda.
• Government speaks the words “openness” and “accountability” but in fact behaves to the contrary.
• In the face of global financial calamity, Government’s strategy appears to be “hope for the best.”  Instead of frank discussions of what Government must do, we are flooded with meaningless PR and red herring sideshows.
• Government is under performing – and most of the community admits it.  But the somnolent Opposition has not stepped up its game.