Regardless of Sir Peter’s background , a far as I’m concerned , he wasn’t from here so his perspective was, and naturally would be based on total local inexperience, and therefore much different than those who live here .

It’s not uncommon for all sorts of people not from Bermuda to speak as though ‘experts’ on issues or about people and circumstances that they have not grown up with .
It’s just when certain ones say certain things that resonate with one’s personal beliefs that they are suddenly considered luminaries of some sort.

Lord Pitt was another such person.

If by simply quoting Sir Peter Ramsbotham I can be called racist or prejudiced, so be it but Methinks thou doth protest too much!

Don’t shoot the messenger dudes, if the truth of what was Bermuda doesn’t jibe with your myopic recollections.

Sir Peter, while not a Bermudian, was an eminient statesman and I dare say a better judge of what Bermuda was and was in danger of being than either of you two.

Taken from The Telegraph:

“Peter Edward Ramsbotham was born on October 8 1919, the younger son of Herwald Ramsbotham, the Conservative politician who became Governor-General of Ceylon (1949-54) and was created a peer as Lord Soulbury (Baron in 1941, advanced to Viscount in 1954).

After Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, Ramsbotham joined the Army (Intelligence Corps) in 1943 and served throughout the remainder of the war, being mentioned in despatches and awarded a Croix de Guerre in 1945. He then joined the Control Office in Germany and Austria, serving as political officer in Hamburg.

He entered the Foreign Service by postwar examination in 1950, and worked on oil questions directly under Sir Roger Makins (later Lord Sherfield), who thought very highly of him. Ramsbotham was particularly articulate in his analysis of the problems which would be encountered in the next decade, those arising from the unexpected, sudden and massive increase in the supply of oil in Iran, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

He saw more clearly than most at that time how completely oil would transform the political and economic situation in the Middle East; and in this respect he had more influence on policy than would have been usual for a comparatively junior official.

In 1953 he was posted to New York as head of chancery in the UK delegation to the United Nations, serving under Sir Pierson Dixon during the Suez crisis.

Having returned to London in 1957, he was promoted counsellor in 1961, becoming head of Western Organisations and the Planning Department. From 1963 to 1967 he was head of chancery in Paris, and after a further tour of duty in London became high commissioner in Cyprus in 1969.

As Ambassador to the US he enjoyed a warm personal relationship with President Carter who, together with politicians, labour leaders, journalists and even ordinary American citizens, very much regretted his leaving.

He departed in dignified silence – on the crest of a wave of sympathy – to serve out the remainder of his official career as Governor of Bermuda.

As Governor and C-in-C of Bermuda, his last post, Ramsbotham took the decision to call in British troops during the severe rioting which broke out in December 1977, in the aftermath of the hanging of two men convicted of the murder of the former Governor, Sir Richard Sharples, and his ADC.”

I wish I was smoked up before reading your comment because it might of irritated me just a little less. Unfortunately your prejudice has lead you to a false ASSumption & made me have to bring out a can of textual whoop ass on you.

Here goes!

First of all Sir Peter Ramsbotham was the second governor after the assassination of Sir Richard Sharples who had been in Bermuda for less than a friggin year but he had to take the brunt of what the Bermudian government was doing at the time. RIIIIIIGHT! How did Sir Ramsbotham come upon this information about what was happening before him being governor? Since you seem to be clueless about this part of history I’ll enlighten you. The information was gathered by a mediator from Bahamas who was sent here by none other than ENGLAND’S GOVERNMENT. I’ll admit I’m not a rocket scientist but I know enough to know that a mediator job is mediation. RIOTS didn’t do JACK but cause a lot of mess to innocent hard working people’s businesses & lives & engrain the racial tension we have today within the psyche of plp & their supporters. The mediator was the one who brought light to what was going on in Bermuda to England which I might add could of been done in the first place by a certain lawyer at the time who received her degree in England. But did she? NOOOOOO SHE DIDN’T! WHY? Because she felt that Bermuda was better off being independent & her pride wouldn’t allow her to let england know instead she let her mates with the red headdresses do their thing while she pleaded with the courts run by the same government that oppress the people like they were going to lift their thumb off the power they had. Sir Edwin Leather didn’t even have an idea about the doings of UBP & even if the government anticipated civil unrest he didn’t or else he would have sent for English troops sooner so the riots would have not gotten as out of hand as they did. Isn’t it nice that we have a parent country constantly watching over us even though we have shown blatant disregard to them? Martin Luther King Jr. & Mahatma Gandhi have shown us that there are non violent ways of bringing about a change but instead the path of violence mongers like Stokely Carmichael is taken because some’s main objective is not real peace but power candy coated with a false peace.

Fact/ 2 out of as many as 6 were convicted of multiple murders.
Fact/ Bda still had the death penalty on the books and it was rightfully used.
Fact/ LBE and Julian turned it into a race issue and intentionally wound up the weak minded into a complete emotional frenzy.
Fact/ a lot of those same people are still messing up their own lives due to poor choices and bad decisions.

Fact/ thank heavens we can blame all of our problems on racism , and if we can’t we just rewrite history to suit ourselves.

I’m not sure what you expect Tommy to remember happening prior to the riots , but most of us remember a bunch of white people being murdered in cold blood by some blacks. Is that what you’re referring to ?

Was mediation even an option? It must be great to look back through Bermuda’s history with your rose colored glasses on (hiding dem red eyes!).

“Former Governor Sir Peter Ramsbotham said entrenched racism turned Bermuda into “a one-party dictatorship” in the 1960s and ’70s and was the underlying cause of the 1977 riots.”
“Sir Peter said both Government House and the United Bermuda Party Government of the day had fully anticipated the executions would spark civil unrest and had been prepared for the ensuing paroxysm of burning and looting.”

SO UM HELLO TOMMY CHONG! Have you remembered yet what REALLY happened prior to the riot?

Bermuda does not host the Privy Council or pay for the Royall Navy warship stationed in the area. These are the only things being referred too by the loudmouth British MP.
The fact that you can’t read or comprehend the press statement properly means that you are easy bait for the spin served up by the Cabinet Office.
My family has been here for 130 years – how about yours?

“They’re vote has nothing to do with choosing whats best for Bermuda, but simply colour.”

May I remind you, and I hope it for the last time…that its the Black voters that (yea those ones whos vote has nothing to do with whats best for Bermuda) shift elections based on whats best for this country.. Its the White voters who have voted enblock for the same party since before I was born! Even when they HAD to realize that it could not be right what they were doing, at the expense of blacks. You should be ashamed to go there…. when Blacks have voted to make things better for all and not just themselves!

I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but hey both parties are playing the race flag on all accounts.

The whole Island knows that Mr. Michael Dunkley is smarted then Mr. Craig Cannonier. We all know Craig is just the face of the OBA, and the rest of the party is white. I would love for Mr. Dunkley to be the next Premier, but for the UBP/OBA to take the win from Paula they have to keep Craig at the front of the line for now. After the OBA wins the election I see Bob or Dunkley running the show and Craig stepping down.

At the end of the day it comes down too 3 important things the color of ones skin, the HAVES = UBP/OBA and HAVE NOTS = PLP.

Did she manage to collect the money from Pastor Bean?
If not, why not?

All bark and no bite!

I certainly pay my own bills, and i would guess that Cox pays her own bills as well along with the general public. Does “Bermuda” mean Bermudians? if not, i beg to differ that “Bermuda is paying its own bills”, China is, and the Banks.

don’t get caught up in this, the important topics are national debt and jobs. if the PLP doesn’t turn this around asap they should be voted out for anything-else-but-this.