Marc Daniels Resigns As PLP Senator
[Updated] Marc Daniels has resigned as the Opposition Senate Leader and Senator for the PLP.
PLP Chairman Scott Simmons said, “The Progressive Labour Party would like to acknowledge the service of Senator Marc Daniels who served the people of Bermuda and our Party from 2012 to 2016 [as Senate Leader for most of this current year 2016].
“Senator Daniels represented us remarkably in the Senate with his PLP counterparts, debating legislation, holding the government to account, and standing strong for the Bermudian people.
“His contributions helped to make the PLP Senate team a force to be reckoned with, and he was able to connect with and inspire many during his tenure.
“We thank he and his wife family for the time they have sacrificed in performing service to our community and we wish them well.”
Mr Daniels confirmed that he resigned his position as the Opposition Senate Leader and Senator, however told Bernews that he “remains a life member of the PLP.”
His resignation follows a few days after Marc Bean. who served as Opposition Leader, announced he would be retiring from politics.
The former Senator said he “could not in good conscience even continue to serve on an interim basis under the temporary leadership of the Deputy [Acting] Leader and his band of rebel MPs, as they acted with the utmost deceit to undermine the former Party Leader’s twice confirmed duly elected position.”
Update: Mr Daniels statement, taken from social media, is below:
As I stand on the grounds of Parliament listening to the commencement of the Speech from the Throne, many individuals, inclusive of the Press, are asking why I am not seated with the Parliamentary Group.
Appreciating that no statement has been proffered on behalf of my Party I will share the following correspondence that I submitted to the Party on Saturday, 5 November 2016, to the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party Chairman, the Deputy [Acting] Leader and the Executive Branch.
“In light of the recent announcement that our Party Leader, the Hon. Marc A. R. Bean JP MP, has retired from party politics, I am compelled to likewise tender my resignation as a Senator on behalf of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party [“PLP”].
I shall remain forever grateful to the former Party Leader for placing his trust and confidence in me, by appointing me to serve as a Senator and Opposition Senate Leader, to represent and advance the aims and objectives of the PLP.
It has been my personal honor and privilege to serve in the Senate Chamber to critically assess and forcefully debate the multitude of Bills that have been passed into law by the One Bermuda Alliance Government from 2013 until present date.
I pray that my few years of service have been of value to the Party and its legacy as the Party continues to fulfill its mandate on behalf of the People of Bermuda.
It is clear that our internal issues have once again caused a rift of division that cannot be overcome with mere token words of “functional unity”. For over one year we have all witnessed a small, but vocal, group of MPs engage in acts of subterfuge and deceit to usurp and malign not only our Party Leader, but also our Executive branch, for their own political purposes.
We are all aware that confidential information has been leaked to the press, public statements have been made withdrawing support for our Party leadership, and a campaign has been initiated to remove the leader, notwithstanding such protagonists could not secure the minimum requirement of one third of our branches’ support to constitute a SDC to discuss and/or challenge the leadership appropriately, without holding the party to ransom and stagnating our vital work in the community.
The conduct of those MPs is wholly contrary to my principles, values, character, and integrity such that I can no longer continue to serve, in the Leader’s absence, in my present capacity as a Senator.
I could not in good conscience even continue to serve on an interim basis under the temporary leadership of the Deputy [Acting] Leader and his band of rebel MPs, as they acted with the utmost deceit to undermine the former Party Leader’s twice confirmed duly elected position.
Without a doubt I regret the present circumstances as my heart remains loyal to the Party and to its future success. But I cannot endorse those that have acted so unscrupulously to tarnish one of our own so callously, in order to satisfy their own desire.
My hope for the future is that the Party recognizes the wealth of talent at its disposal and that it does all that it can to nurture generations of public servants and grassroots community participation to sustain the legacy of our illustrious Party. Simply put, we must do better to exude principles of justice, fairness, but most of all; honesty.
In this regard, I express my humble thanks to every member and supporter of the PLP for your words of encouragement, support in my political journey. I will always treasure the awesome responsibility that was afforded to me and I shall remain indebted for the platform to express my views and affect change on matters of national importance.
Get the popcorn ready,the show is about to start
Mr. Daniels I read you’re statement. As an educated black Bermudian who works in the Corporate Business World Mr. Bean had no chance in hell securing my swing vote and that of my friends and colleagues. This is not the year 1960 and he was too radical for my taste. If you think the business executives in Bermuda were going to trust him with running of this country and thier money you must be drinking herb tea. His tone was making us to divide and as a people we stand stronger together. Your professions as a lawyer makes you blind for you defend the guilty and the innocent.
If Marc was to remain as leader I was voting OBA.
I guess you would vote for Trump too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope so!
I hope so! Hillary is not an option!
My third truly to “Onion Juice”……
So everything out of context!
Still safe.
Well if Marc remained as leader for the PLP I wasn’t voting PLP or the fake OBA. We would have the 2012 election all over again when black Bermudians stayed home.
Just how many black bermudians do you think stayed home??? There was only 1000 fewer voters in the last election than in the previous election…even if they were all black so what?? The PLP lost by over 2000 combined votes…do the math and stop ya ignorance!!
Combine votes do not win or lose an election. Winning constituencies do.
And several constituencies were decided by few votes.
Constituency 2- OBA won by 4 votes.
Constituency 4- OBA won by 50 votes.
Constituency 27- OBA won by 10 votes.
And two other constituencies had less than 90 votes wins by the OBA.
There’s the math, now you stop being ignorant.
The oba needs to call the election NOW the PLP are weak!!! No lets wait for them to bounce back and become stronger in 2017.
Do you play chess or checkers Premier?
The sad thing is that a large part of the electorate who have already swallowed tons of propaganda on how untrustworthy the OBA are and already hate them would consider a snap election tantamount to kicking a dog while while it was down .
It would probably make them even more resentful and cause them to come out in droves and vote for the PLP regardless of their lack of togetherness.
Plus , M Dunkley has already stated on numerous occasions that he would not call an early election and to renege on his words would make the aforesaid already angry people even angrier and less trusting .
People are far more cynical about such things now than they were back in ’85 (or whatever the year was) that JWS took advantage of the PLP’s disarray and called a snap election.
The irony of it all is that as a ruthless political machine incapable of running the island but capable of running ‘political circles’ around the OBA the PLP wouldn’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of the situation if the shoe was on the other foot.
Bean said he is cleaning house!!!!!
U.B.P. are not comfortable enough to call an election, it will be political suicide. They need to do something to entice de Black disillusioned voters and get a Surrogate Black Leader, until then they will hold off.
Yes. That is correct. The colour of the OBA leaders skin means everything to the swing voter from the PLP. OBA performance means nothing.
PLP have always been weak.
I really hope you go for Marc’s seat my friend. Never give up never surrender.
Karl Marx once said: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” This must be the farce as days after the 2003 election we were told by Dr. Ewart Brown: “We did mislead you before Thursday by posing as a united front on Tuesday. We did mislead you — individually and collectively — on Thursday at the polls by smiling and being quiet about our level of discontent with the leadership and our intended action on Thursday evening. We misled you because we had to — because our greatest goal before Thursday was for the party to win the election.”
As Mr. Daniels has pointed out: “It is clear that our internal issues have once again caused a rift of division that cannot be overcome with mere token words of “functional unity”. For over one year we have all witnessed a small, but vocal, group of MPs engage in acts of subterfuge and deceit to usurp and malign not only our Party Leader, but also our Executive branch, for their own political purposes.”
In short – the PLP are clearly unfit to govern Bermuda anytime soon.
“In short – the PLP are clearly unfit to govern Bermuda anytime soon.”
Did you take this same view, on the OBA, when issues caused a sitting Premier to get booted out of office and resignation of the Party Chairman? The outcome of the investigation was never revealed as the succeeding Premier retracted on this promise?
wow… the fact that followers of BOTH Party’s can throw up “what about when your Party did it”…. show how really screwed out politics are…. Guess like the good old USA….. it comes down to voting for the least evil….
Are you referring to the case where a few people went on a free private jet ride and the guy who owned the jet never got anything in return for it but a whole lot of local yokels acted jealous of not being able to ride on a private jet ? (It’s nothing that great , really)
Flips side , a different premier rides on his ace boy’s private jet a few times and his ace boy gets BIG contracts for zero returns but no-one sees anything wrong with that because it’s ‘my people’ ?
The report was released, do a search on this site.
Perhaps the OBA thought differently when it was learnt that the PLP also had their own Jetgate incident when DB took a jetride on a private plane belonging to the same person that he later awarded our Tourism contract too.
But that was all shhhhh. Probably the kind of double talk that Marc and Marc grew tired of,
“In short – the PLP are clearly unfit to govern Bermuda anytime soon.”
With the PLP, you have the resignation of the party leader and a senator.
With the OBA, you had the resignation of a sitting Premier, over possible scandalous activities, and later, the resignation of a Minister in charge of a very significant portfolio.
If the PLP is unfit to lead, the OBA is certainly unfit to lead.
Well we clearly saw negative results from the PLP and continue to see positive results from the OBA, so clearly more fit to lead than than the PLP.
Name de positive results.
Look around man. Things are way better. Its bad attitudes and sore losers that are holding Bermuda down
Onion Juice- you really have to ask? Here are a few.
Tourism Up
Cruise Ships in St Georges
Economy is doing much better
Hotels Being Built not blown up
Unemployment on the decline
Serious crimes down
$0 unaccounted for vs $800mil
Housing market rebounding
Companies moving to Bermuda instead of leaving.
Positive for which segment black, white or neither.
All Bermudians.
You mean all expats who have taken jobs from Bermudians.
Like Rev Tweed?
If you want a job and you’re qualified apply. If you are qualified and were not considered and have good references and a solid resume contact immigration and complain. They are on your side. If you are not qualified – do something with your time and upgrade your education and certifications so that next year you will be ready.
If you are just one of those individuals that likes to complain and thinks they are owed something but does nothing to upgrade qualifications well too bad for you. You are owed nothing in life – not even in Bermuda. You want it work for it. You want something to change in your life change it. You don’t like the way business is done here, be your own boss. Just don’t be another hand open complainer. We have enough of those here,
Say what.? Cousin?
This message is from the party …the comments from Daniels on Burt etc were much more Scathing.
I agree.
Lots more in store folks.
Here is a riddle…..
How many Marcs in a currency
How many Marcs does it take to undo something that is broken
How many Marcs does it……………..
Mark my words; it’s only just begun.
On your Marc, get set……………………….GO………………….
Ooooo sounds remarkable!
could it be that Marc Daniels is going to run in Marc Beans old seat in warwick
Who wants to bet that Marc Daniels is going to make a play for the bye-election?
Frankly that should have been everybody’s first reaction, surprised others are jumping the gun.
More money to be made from the practising law when you are not in power?
This guy is one of the shameful 21 anti simply anti equality & unprogressive
I would imagine that Marc Daniels is preparing for another position. Contrary to the Party being in disarray, I would think they are actually getting aligned due to the upcoming change in Party leadership.
Before commenting on the impact of Sen. Daniels resignation, the public (especially OBA supporters) should review the scathing comments from MP Crockwell when he resigned from the OBA to become an independent MP.
Basically, both parties have big issues that they need to resolve as a matter of importance.
However, right now, even with their problems, the OBA are making headway in making things happen in Bermuda.
He did say he was gone if Bean is. Guess he meant it
Abandoning ship while there is still some dignity?
How terrifying that someone would be a “life member” of a political party. Really illustrates how the party was able to go so rotten.
Note this was a “tendered” resignation! No one was begging him to stay and his fake humility drove him to quit rather than be fired as was inevitable once the new leader took over. There was no way he could have supported Bean at every turn like he did, totally p*ss of his colleagues with all the conspiracy theories and legalize weed every other paragraph and expect to stay around! Talked a lot, on and on, writes rambling missives usually focusing on himself, and says nothing of substance! Truth be told, PLP are in a far better position with Bean and Daniels out of the picture!
Barring something extraordinary happening, the PLP will form the next government. Calling an election right now would be silly because the PLP is not down and out. I’m an OBA supporter and even I know they will lose the next election.
Then we can all go back to how things were before 2012.