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Dear Sir,

I lived in the U.K. for a number of years and I see parallels with how the Bermuda Government deals with a crisis. Instead of addressing the basic grass roots cause of many of our problems they respond with bold announcements about how they are going to solve a problem and the latest SWAT idea from the Premier is another example.

We do not have the resources to implement these fancy ideas and we do not need to spend millions of dollars on consultants to tell us where the problems are in the first place, we need  resources allocated to the basic services and some accountability in Government Departments .

Bermudians do not expect miracles, we just expect a decent level of service that we had in the past. Things like knowing if you mailed a letter in Hamilton it would get to Warwick in a couple of days or if you applied for a new passport it would take 2 to 3 weeks, or that the police would show up if you reported a thief outside your house.

What we have now, even with the advent of technology, is a situation where our basic services no longer function properly. The Planning, Immigration and Education Departments are a shambles, the Police service is so understaffed that they can't even utilize the equipment they have (the new police boat and the surveillance system being 2 recent examples).  

The focus of this government is on spin: concerts, parties, overseas travel and big announcements about all the good things that will happen with another initiative,(five different operators for The Club Med site for example and still nothing), in the meantime the structure of our civil service is crumbling, just like it is in the U.K.

Alan Gamble

City of Hamilton[[In-content Ad]]

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