Admittedly only virtually, alas.
All is
not entirely rosy in the politics of the North Atlantic island, with the current 'scandal' being that the government has forked out $1.5m to renovate the equivalent of N0. 10, but the
PM Dr Ewart 'Doc Hollywood' Brown is not going to move in. And the man has quite a sharp tongue, of which more later. Given the overall population of just shy of 66,000, government spending takes on the personal element, so this can also be viewed as $22 per head.
Ewart Brown appears to be quite the character, and I fear he fear might offer a template to British politicians who feel that they are not fitting in enough junketing as he doubles up as Minister of Transport and Tourism. This, it would appear, is not entirely normal practice in Hamilton.
Having been ruled by the United Bermuda Party since 1968, the Progressive Labour (
hurrah, they use 'English' English) Party took over in 1998. While there is the usual ideological split between the two, there is perhaps a bigger gulf involving race, with the former party indentified with the white population ( 34.1%) and the PLP with the black population (54.8%) . Judging from debates in Parliament,
things can get very, very nasty:
Brown "If I called that member a racist dog. You see it is the dog that matters.
Dr. Gibbons interjected: “Mr. Speaker is he calling me a racist dog?”
Dr. Brown replied: “Mr. Speaker, I would never call that member a racist dog, because I can tell that he is not a dog.” This exchange came about when the head of the UBP was questioning Brown on fund raising efforts in the US. Dr Brown is pro-independence, and I would not be surprised if it happens in the next few years.
Perhaps more from Bermuda later.
Labels: Bermuda
The article is about the Turks & Caicos Islands. The photo caption reads 'The Turks & Caicos Islands lie at the tip of the Bermuda Islands Chain'. In the text, they are correctly referred to as being 'at the southern tip of the Bahamas chain'.
The article is about the Turks & Caicos Islands. The photo caption reads 'The Turks & Caicos Islands lie at the tip of the Bermuda Islands Chain'. In the text, they are correctly referred to as being 'at the southern tip of the Bahamas chain'.
