Christmas Message From Premier David Burt
[Christmas message from Premier David Burt]
Season’s Greetings Bermuda.
I am privileged to address you during this time of reflection, celebration, and hope. This holiday season calls us to cherish family, friendships, and shared moments around our Christmas tree and over cassava pie that define Bermuda’s community spirit and traditions.
For many in our society, Christmas brings the joy of gift-giving—a tradition of showing love and appreciation to those we hold dear. Yet, I recognise that not every family in Bermuda will find it easy to put gifts under the tree this year.
The cost of living, brought on by global events, has created new challenges, and many Bermudians are working harder to make ends meet. This reality highlights the importance of building a fairer Bermuda where every family has the chance to thrive.
This year, the Government has advanced its vision for a fairer Bermuda through bold investments and transformative policies. The Mid-Year Budget Review introduced a $25 million social investment package addressing critical areas like mental health, youth development, and public safety.
The 2024 Throne Speech reinforced this commitment with a comprehensive agenda to promote fairness in housing, healthcare, and financial services while supporting our seniors, removing red tape, and protecting vulnerable populations.
Building on these efforts, the Government has outlined further measures in the 2025/26 Pre-Budget Report to ease financial pressures and ensure economic progress reaches every home. Taxes on energy and mobile phones, as well as car licensing fees, will be reduced.
At the same time, customs duties on vehicle parts, tyres, and building materials will be eliminated to lower everyday costs. Homeowners and renters will benefit from a 50% cut in land tax, and the personal duty-free allowance for returning residents will increase—offering families more breathing room in their budgets.
These measures aren’t just financial policies—they are meaningful steps to address the real pressures Bermudian families feel. Combined with continued investments in healthcare, infrastructure, and housing, they reflect the Government’s dedication to listening, responding, and building A Fairer Bermuda for All. Amidst this work, it is important that we also remember what this season is truly about. For Christians, this holiday is about the Birth of Jesus Christ.
In this season, it is important to reach out to those in need, whether through a kind word, a helping hand, or a simple gesture of sharing what you have with those who may be less fortunate. The true spirit of Christmas lies in uplifting one another and strengthening the bonds that unite us as a community.
As the year comes to a close, it is also a time to reflect on those who we have lost. My heart goes out to all those families who will mourn the loss of a loved one’s presence this Christmas. Let’s keep those families in our thoughts and make a special effort to reach out to them.
As a community, we mourn the loss of cherished leaders who dedicated their lives to service, including Dr Erskine Simmons, Canon Thomas Nisbett, and Canon James Francis. Their contributions have left a legacy of servant leadership that will continue to inspire future generations. We also remember two former members of the legislature, Kenneth Bascome and Leslie Robinson, whose contributions to the fabric of Bermuda will not be forgotten.
Even as we reflect on these losses, we celebrate the achievements that have united us in 2024. Bermudians were filled with immense pride as we watched our flag flown at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. Our athletes served as powerful ambassadors on the world stage, inspiring us all with their excellence and giving us hope.
I pray we all carry that same hope into the new year, as there are many reasons to be hopeful in Bermuda. Our economy continues to grow with increased activity, tourism arrivals, new businesses coming to our shores, and job growth.
And with the addition of the redevelopment of the Fairmont Southampton—the largest hotel project in our history—which will create hundreds more jobs and new opportunities for Bermudians, it is clear that we are striving toward a more prosperous future for our island.
Our work is far from finished, but as we reflect on this progress, I hope it fills us with optimism for a brighter future. Bermuda’s strength has always been rooted in our unity, our ability to support one another, and our pride in shared successes as Bermudians.
Through this unity and continuing to work toward greater fairness on our island, we can ensure that 2025 is a year of continued progress, opportunity, and shared prosperity.
To all the families in Bermuda, I pray that your holiday season is filled with love, joy and peace.
And from my family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
All I want for Christmas is for you to leave.
Yes, that is the message I get every time I hear about a “fairer Bermuda”.
The PLP adverts say that the next election will be about whether we have a “fairer Bermuda” or whether we cater to those with historic wealth.
I do not fit in either category. All I know is that at the rate I am being taxed I will not be able to retire in Bermuda. But maybe that is what the PLP Government wants.
PASSING THE BUCK .
As we look back through the annals of the past from the pronouncement of a ” Fairer Bermuda”, a key note from the throne speech being an atriculated general statement, carefully omitting specifics from the past , can we expect the present to be any better ?
We are well aware of what what small mercies we endured before the before ?
Below the belt taxation , charged against our seniors pension which does no leave much for the preset expenses. say if we include ecscalating food prices and rents.
Aparantly they do not seem to realize , or much care ,how much money over the past 50 years our seniors have paid in suport of the Government which takes all .
When the Government finds it self having to borrows large quantities of money, could it be that we are being under taxed .
Quite the opposite ,caused by lack of accountability, excessive taxation carefully not to omit every thing taxable imaginable , charged to a reduced populations future >> .
Import duty : land tax : Car license: The exploitation of the sugar tax : to name a few being not exactly that which would encourage to voter to take a day off work.
Our votes, are expensive and cost us more than we bargained for when we in reverse pay them with excessive taxation for an over sized Government in support of failed projects and unnecessary services , being out of proportion to the general population income .
Can you guess where all this will eventually wind up as an un welcomed change .
How many walk up to a mile to the nearest bus stop ?
How many snmall children did not get a small chrismas gift this year ?
Where did Santa install this years the childrens FREE toy ” hand me down stall ” ?
What you really want Christmas 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030 and for the next 15 years after is a better Opposition party that’s not afraid of its own shadow. Maybe the OBA will change the name again or maybe just run another surrogate to replace Jarrion. Which one do you think will come first?
Say it louder….So many of us want the same thing….for PLP to all leave
You mean that small circus of obaubp=clowns that don’t decide who wins the next elections.
More hot air! Mm mm
Burt could not get past the third paragraph before blaming his and the PLP’s mismanagement of Bermuda on someone else.
“Global events”. Oh really! If global events are so bad how does he explain away the record successes of our competitors in tourism. How does he explain away the boom in leasure travel within the US?
Burts latest overused phrase is somehting about a “fairer Bermuda”. Where has he and the PLP been since 1998? The PLP more or less ran on UBP autopilot for the first two terms thanks to the wisdom of Eugene Cox as Finance Minister. He didn’t mess much with the controls. Then he passed and DrEB stole the Government and it has been downhill ever since, with the exception of a few years of the OBA when there was false hope of a recovery after the disasterous DrEB and Paula Cox years.
Have no fear. Burt and his gifted followers have a vision for a “fairer
bermuda” and they of course have a “strategy” to make it happen.
Hey, if you use facts in a discussion, you will confuse people. Just blame Trump for Bermuda’s problems.
David, Bermuda’s shop window is Front St, and the resorts and the hotels.
What have you done to us, what a mess.
You may think its crypto and sending your ministers to Africa for trade talks. I just see the mess and the empty buildings.