Being a jetsetter was a bad move for the Premier

I thought being a jet setter would be fun. Jump on a plane, make yourself comfortable, buckle-up and away we go!  

Smooth. No hassles, no screaming kids (unless they’re yours), kicking your seat and no getting bumped with the food trolley. Best of all, no one would be climbing over you for the umpteenth time to make a visit to the rest room.  

Even the turbulence would seem rather exclusive. “Well if you think the American flight was rough, try flying on the G650 when you get hit with turbulence.” Yes, I would be good at being a jetsetter.  

For a few Bermudians though it hasn’t exactly worked out.  Premier Craig Cannonier, Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell and Attorney General Mark Pettingill found out the hard way that the time they would be saving hitching a ride on a corporate big shot’s nickel is now being wasted explaining to the public why their field trip wasn’t unethical.  

If it wasn’t unethical and I’ll leave it to their political colleagues and the Opposition to play tug of war with this one, it certainly was naïve and frankly, unfair to Bermuda as a country.  

Freebie

Firstly, they forgot to apply the most critical litmus test to why accepting a freebie might not be a good idea which is “How would we respond if the other guys were still running the country?” 

It doesn’t take much imagination to see the steam coming out of their collective ears if the previous administration had accepted the same ride to Washington, DC 

Let’s forget for a second that Bermuda is still struggling every single day and that any perception of Government leaders flying corporate rather than commercial just smacks of self importance.  

Let’s cut them a break for a second and imagine that after the corporate hotel titans did their due diligence on hotel development in Bermuda, they might have wanted to protect their company’s interest and not put their feet to Bermuda soil lest another competitor got wind of their interest.  

I’m doubtful of this but I wanted to at least throw them a bone.

I’ll even overlook that taking a ride might give the party interested in the first party the wrong impression.  

What girl hasn’t made that mistake before over dinner?  You learn pretty quickly that sometimes saying “no thank you, I’ll grab a taxi, a bus or have my brother, the Marine take me home,” avoids a lot of misunderstandings.  

I would have thought that the last people you would want to flirt with in a hotel would be with a bunch of hoteliers on the make.  

As a good friend has pointed out many times, “The food comes to the mouth.” I think you get my drift.

Safety

Our Premier and his two cabinet members shouldn’t have taken the corporate jet for a lot of reasons but if they needed one, they might have considered their own safety.   

Many companies wouldn’t dream of sending their key corporate personnel on the same flight never mind the same corporate jet.  

Bermuda has been blessed with a lot of intelligent and talented people but it doesn’t mean that   institutional knowledge and vision is easily replaced.  
We cannot afford the disruption or the tremendous loss of leadership had a tragedy occurred.  The country’s leadership is too important to risk, especially a small country like Bermuda. This goes for members of the Opposition too.  

We need all hands on deck and if the Premier needs to leave the country for the business of Bermuda then he should fly commercial.  

It’s safer. Flying on commercial airlines would have the added benefit of avoiding any suggestion that his work on behalf of Bermuda might be too easily courted by the comfort of a private jet.  

Right now there’s too much work to be done in Bermuda and everyone’s time is far too valuable than to be wasting time discussing private jets.  Leave it to the jetsetters.