Five years later, yes FIVE years later the document is leaked to the press. Much of what was suggested has come to pass. SO WHAT! The OBA has former UBP people. The OBA also has many people who were very unhappy with with the UBP & have no interest in the PLP either.

Enter the desperate PLP diehards who, well aware of the dismal 14 year record of the PLP, have siezed upon the document in an effort to distract voters from real issues.

It is a nothing document & it is 5 years old!!!!

In any case, something needs to happen with education and very, very soon. We are already in trouble.

I have seen this kind of obfuscation, distraction, and diversionary tactic before, and it doesn’t fly. Mr. Barritt and Mr. Swan have both said a document exists, one that was written FOR THE UBP. That was not the document that Mr. Cannonier saw, which was a forgery and which was also denied by the overseas consultants who purportedly wrote it.

The bottom line is, I DO NOT LIKE WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO BERMUDA UNDER THE PLP! I have reached the point where I don’t personally care who is actually running the OBA, I am so fed up with where things are right now.

I don’t like lies and deceit. I don’t like feeling powerless. I want a government that listens to the people, and if it doesn’t do what the people want, it has a very good reason for it, and shares that reason intelligently, coherently, in language the people understand. I want a government that spends its money wisely, without a lot of waste and shady dealings. I want transparency and honesty and responsibility. I want a government that isn’t afraid to admit it has made a mistake and for it to be willing to go back to the table, work with all stakeholders and get it right. I don’t want a repeat of either the UBP or the PLP.

Am I asking too much? I actually think the people of this island deserve a government like this. I think there are quite a few of us who have become more politically alert, to the point that I am hoping that whoever wins this election will have a hard time with business as usual.

The reality is that in a Democracy, the majority rules! Sorry if you do not like the rulers!

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/wag+the+dog.html

Solution: use your common sense, we all have them. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, guess what, IT’S A DUCK.

Based on the ZBM reporting, it will be interesting to see if the lawyers issue any other comments today.

Think about it. The internet one was altered in whatever way. Therefore the purported author could accurately deny involvement – plausible deniabilty. Now that the supposed original has surfaced, we will see if they maintain their denial.

If the PLP or anyone else firmly believe that the article is genuine then they should produce it and be fully prepared to defend their action through a court of law if necessary. It is ridiculous to accept a questionable document if no-one is prepared to publicly claim that it is genuine. It should be a clear case of put up or shut up.

But to answer what you’re asking, no I don’t have a problem with it.

All the fuss seems to be about this terminology when in reality there is nothing whatsoever wrong with being a surrogate. It is not a negative term. It means substitute or replacement, not valueless figurehead.

In a country like Bermuda where race is a huge issue during the elections, why on earth wouldn’t any party promote more strongly their black candidates than their white ones?

Frankly, I’d much rather that race not be an issue in politics but the PLP have made it so, so why complain when it was suggested to the opposition to counter it.

So, please start again – since it is a real document…

As posted above, before you respond, Barritt admitted the existence of the report. Swan, Furbert and Tucker also admitted but they can be dismissed because of possible sour grapes.

Before you write a comment that disparages Barritt, remember that he was the OBA saviour that stood aside to give his seat to a ‘seatless’ Cannonier after he ‘won’ the OBA Leadership.

Be careful also because the existence of the report gives credence to the reported manipulations in the OBA vote that resulted in the most likly winner (Dunkley) not contesting the Leadership.

- The UBP has a branding problem and should change its brand
- The UBP lose because black Bermudian voters are prone to vote PLP, regardless of current conditions
- The UBP cannot win in its current format, so a split is suggested
- Black voters might have been turned off by how prominent a white candidate was (Dunkley)
- Poorer, less educated voters are more likely to vote PLP (I’m sure that is simple statistical fact, check the census – just like most democracies)

None of those are particularly shocking. What should a report on this topic say? Let’s hold hands, pray really hard and everything will be better?

And I love how the PLP have the gall to question dodgy political strategies. For those with short memories, the PLP changed their leader to an at the time-unelectable MP 24 hours after the people had voted, because they had to ‘deceive the electorate’. Nice.

Where is the greater hoax – Barritt admitted the existence of the report. Swan, Furbert and Tucker also admitted but they can be dismissed because of possible sour grapes.

Before you write a comment that disparages Barritt, remember that he was the OBA saviour that stood aside to give his seat to a ‘seatless’ Cannonier after he ‘won’ the OBA Leadership.

Be careful also because the existence of the report gives credence to the reported manipulations in the OBA vote that resulted in the most likly winner (Dunkley) not contesting the Leadership.

This is a smoke screen and a forgery that is being used to distract away from the PLP’s dismal record on governance and how badly they have left Bermuda while they have been trying to run things.

I won’t get into corruption at all, no need to. What they have been are bad managers for the country. They have failed at their jobs – not all mind you. There are some good, honest folks in the PLP but on the whole, the PLP have failed and now they throw a fake document because they know their backs are against the wall. They realise they have failed in their quest and are terrified of losing power.

Forgettng all the conspiracy theories, Dunkley, Gibbons or Smith should state whether the document is true.

We will also see if there are any more legal challenges since the original appears to have been found.

The political solution would have been for OBA to release the document some time ago to allow the firestorm to die down. How do the black and white OBA supporters face each other in light of these damning revelations?

John Barritt, and a few others have stated years ago that there was such a document. However, and it is a big however, what the UBP chose to do back in 2007 has very little to do with the OBA of the present. Do not ever believe that the OBA consists primarily of UBP members. There are a large and growing number of us who were not affiliated with any party but are disturbed by the present state of affairs, and quite a few who were PLP but became disenchanted (to put a nice word on it) with the way the government has been conducting itself since 2007.

The UBP did not have a say in who was elected leader of the OBA or any other position within that party. The rank and file members are the ones who elected them – one man one vote. Since only the UBP hierarchy would have been privy to such a document, the rank and file would not have any idea about any conspiracy, even if such a thing were planned.
It is kinda hard to manipulate more than a 1000 people in a room without showing your hand, although it appears to be quite easy to manipulate 40+ thousand people on an island. WHAT a distraction from the real issues that are drowning us!!

Bets on it being the same person?

The facts:
Former UBP leader Swan admits such a document exists
Former interim OBA Leader Barritt admits such a document exists
Current OBA Leader Cannonier denies such a report exists
US consultants hire Bermuda lawyers to deny they authored the report and then effectively threatens anyone for publishing the document

GARY MORENO PRODUCES THE DOCUMENT ON BERMUDA’S MOST WATCHED NEWSCAST

Problems
1 – how did the leader not know about the report, given its significance in starting the OBA? has he been duped?
2 – did the former UBP heavy weights simply withhold the report? Who else had access and did not share with Cannonier?
3 is anyone following the play book, to Cannonier’s disadvantage
4 the OBA supporters often claim the racial balance of the party but are now effectively reduced to surrogates for the real decision makers

The OBA are asking the electorate to ‘trust us’, we will do better and many of the main decision makers already have a detailed plan based on a hidden agenda to use black supporters to attract black swing voters!!

And some of you posters think this is not a major PR disaster this close to an election – REALLY!! What else doesn’t Cannonier know or is being witheld from him?

Bravo…you’ve just proven that any utterly insane person with a half-decent command of the English language can turn an unfounded lump of partisan garbage into a lengthy, substance-less post that uses the word “Fact” 9 times and still transcends literally nothing.

If you’re all the PLP has in terms of damage control, they’re truly screwed…

Also, Mr. Dunkley was the leader of the UBP. Anyone below him was a surrogate. Do you detest the word black? The author seems to think that race played a major factor in voters decisions in 2007 and so noted it, and address it. Would followers have been better than surrogates?

sur·ro·gate [sur-uh-geyt, -git, suhr-; sur-uh-geyt, suhr-] Show IPA noun, adjective, verb, sur·ro·gat·ed, sur·ro·gat·ing.
noun
1.a person appointed to act for another; deputy.
2.(in some states) a judicial officer having jurisdiction over the probate of wills, the administration of estates, etc.
3.the deputy of an ecclesiastical judge, especially of a bishop or a bishop’s chancellor.
4.a substitute

Where is the insult in surrogate?

Of course, I get it now…the OBA are really the pawns of the UBP who actually the Forty Thieves who are really a splinter of MI6, who are run by the royal family who really answer to the Chinese Central Committee who themselves are actually a colony of the alien race known as Ferengi!

We’ve got record breaking debt and unemployment, but hey let’s play conspiracy chess.

It is fundamentally unhealthy for any democracy to have the same group of people in charge for a long period of time. Just give me change.

LOL try again PLP