---

Don’t think for a minute that the contemplated increase in retirement age is a way to give value to our seniors by allowing them to continue to work. It’s a way to avoid paying all those pensions — they hope we’ll all be dead before they have to cough up our money.

They should just do the right thing and pay the current retirees a pension they can live on — they’ve earned that much. They can draw down the account balance because the younger generations all have private pension plans — so when we retire the Government Pension fund can be zero. Look, right now in Bermuda there are more actuaries per square foot than anywhere else at any other time in history. Get them to do the math.

And I was really taken aback by the idea that Government might be introducing ‘incentives’ for Bermudians to have children. Don’t we have enough single mothers already? It sounds like the PLP have moved beyond Dame Lois and her famous call for black Bermudians to ‘fornicate in the bushes’ so that there would be more of them to vote for the PLP. (It’s true — you can look it up.) Apparently political ambition is no longer enough, they now want to pay people to fornicate. Where do I sign up?

I found that Bermudian consumers’ shopping habits, as described in The Department of Consumer Affairs report, were eerily similar to their political habits — “brand loyal, trusting, overly tolerant”. And, not surprisingly, they get the same negative results — dissatisfaction and buyer’s remorse. I also noted that the description of Bermudians as “willing to pay an exorbitant price for a product if it looks good or enhances their image” accurately describes virtually all the PLP’s activities over the last seven years — in particular their fascination with Independence.

Speaking of Independence, I hear that my name was recently taken in vain on the TV News. I didn’t see it myself, but apparently Rolfe Commissiong has chosen to insult me by insinuating that I associate with known politicians. I deny this categorically. Except for family functions I rarely see my cousin John (we all wear masks at the cabal meetings so I really can’t be sure if he’s there or not).

But that aside, I found his comments as reported in the biased and unbalanced print media curious to say the least. He claims that I am part of “a small minority determined to hold all of us as hostages” and “to advance their position at any cost”. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that as one of the 65 per cent of the population opposed to Independence I am actually in the majority.

The fact of the matter is that the small minority determined to advance their position “even if it results in the destabilization of the community” is the Premier, the PLP leadership and their supporters — Mr. Commissiong included. They are the ones still beating this dead horse while trying to avoid the referendum that will force them to give up on their outdated dream. For years, poll after poll has shown how the people feel. And if Mr. Commissiong can’t wrap his head around statistical sampling theory then he should talk to Walton Brown whose company conducts the polls. Walton is pro-Independence, but has the integrity not to fudge the figures to support his personal beliefs — something the BIC was apparently lacking.

And Rolfe’s assertion that opposition to Independence is driven by a lack of education is insulting. He’s like the ignorant tourist who thinks that if the local yokels don’t understand him he can get through to them by just talking louder. Like the Government, he says that he wants open discussion, but will not tolerate opposing views. That’s why the Colonel’s radio show gets to stay on the air.

By Rolfe’s own admission, the BIC report presents all the data required. So to quote Pink Floyd: “We don’t need no education. We don’t need no thought control”.

We need a referendum. And we need it now.[[In-content Ad]]

---