LARRY BURCHALL
OPINION
Can Gov't deliver the social goal of Bermudianisation?
Bermudianisation? Shakespeare and Dickens would say it is "dead as a doornail". Bermudianisation is a concept, an ideal. Under the concept, Bermudians would be the top-paid workers, top employees and top managers.
OPINION
Giving the green light to casinos is playing a socially dangerous game
Premier Dr. Ewart Brown, the prime advocate for casinos in Bermuda, speaking to Sandy's Rotary and writing as a guest columnist in this newspaper, claims that "as many as 3,000 new jobs and up to $146 million could be added to our economy".
OPINION
Media Council Act will crush freedom of the press
The proposed Media Council Act 2010 surprises me. It is a huge, unwieldy legislative sledgehammer trying to hit a tiny Bermudian ant. The Act seems driven by a Government that has acquired a recent deep paranoia about the Royal Gazette and its reporting.
Gov't must stop hiding BDA's debts from taxpayers
The little snippet that leached out about HSBC commencing a “non-deal roadshow”(*) concerned with Bermuda’s debt leads to a question linked to the currently hot issue of press freedom, a Bermudian’s ‘right to know’ and Government transparency.
Shooting victim left his footprints in the sands of time
Life in our small 50,000-person community of Bermudians has its advantages and disadvantages, its facts and realities. Several times I have said or written that we Bermudians have a tendency to sanctify and glorify, or vilify and decry, rather than describe and record accurately and honestly.
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OPINION
Govt's $500m bonds sale pushes us deeper into debt
To cover its past sins and mistakes, Government is selling $500 million of Bermuda bonds. It means Government will stay with a $60,000,000 overdraft facility, rollover the $200 million due on June 17 and consolidate the still outstanding balance of $1,101 million national debt into this $500 million sovereign bond …
Finance Minister's revenue projection is pie in the sky
Ministers of religion deal with the God in the sky. Ministers of Finance, some of them, deal with pie in the sky. From 1998 to March 31, 2003, Government spent less than it took in in taxes and fees. For five consecutive years, Government had an annual surplus.
Bermudians will be stung hard by crippling Gov't debt
Bermudians are about to get stung — and stung hard. Tomorrow, Finance Minister Paula Cox must rollover, pay off or default on the $200,000,000 five-year loan facility taken up on June 17, 2005.
OPINION
BDA is not a cult - we don't have to follow leaders blindly
Bermuda is a nation, not a cult. Characteristically, cults have strong leaders — usually men — who exercise almost magical powers over their followers.
OPINION
Gov't debt crisis will hit everyone from seniors to kids
Many people think Bermuda’s national debt issue is a matter for their children. This is so wrong it is almost comical. The reality? Bermuda’s debt situation is a problem — steadily building to a crisis — that will slap you this year, kick you hard next year and still affect your …
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OPINION
Government is now trapped in a debt vice
The government over-grew, over-spent, and over-borrowed. Now under-handedness has been added. The consequences of this combination of bad actions will be that Bermuda will suffer a prolonged economic recession.
OPINION
PLP are modern redcoats fighting off common sense
There is an image from the long ago past. It is of red-coated British soldiers forming a square and holding off a charging enemy. This image is captured in several paintings of past battles.
OPINION
Dr. Brown's towering legacy: a mountain of debt
On November 1, 2010, Premier Dr Ewart Brown won’t be Premier. He will have saddled up and ridden off into the sunset of his 17-year political career.
OPINION
Column on Government finances: an apology
An opinion column headlined ‘Gov’t money mess includes $1bn in wrongly handled funds’, which ran on page 8 of the August 4 edition of the Bermuda Sun, carried substantial inaccuracies.
OPINION
Most unionists now work for Government
In 1981 the powerful Bermuda Industrial Union, then led by Mr. Ottiwell Simmons, flexed its muscles and brought Government and Bermuda to a standstill in the General Strike of 1981.
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