Politics.bm

The blight of gesture politics

A reader follows up on the politics of term limits and car restrictions; this shallow insincere politics (gesture politics) will have real consequences for Bermuda, and not just a few votes and another term for short-sighted narrow-minded politicians who can't put country before self:

Due to the reluctant of expats to talk openly about politics, for fear of losing their work permits; Bermudians may not be aware of the new attitude with in the expat community that the island has become unwelcoming to guest workers.

There is a growing consent in the expat community that we are suffering the blight of gesture politics. (i.e. a policy not really meant to achieve anything other than vote winning.) No one is sure how the term rule will give one Bermudian a job, or how the car ownership rule will have any real affect upon traffic congestion.

Normally accountants (I'm not one) are exempt from these policies i.e. the term rule, but recently the government have set their sights a little too high with the car ownership policy and the BIBA spoke out.

It seems that when you have a large section of the community (one third of the working population) who can't vote, its just too tempting to dump some bad new on them. However I think the government have fallen for the misconception that expat don't have a vote.

We do have a vote, and arguably the largest vote of all. Expats can vote with their feet.

I normally get an email every other month from a friend of a friend thinking of moving to Bermuda and while once my replies were always positive, now I've started to mention the chef and construction site manager who lost their jobs. Once Bermuda has the reputation for being unfriendly to guest workers it will be difficult to shake-off. If employers find it difficult to get staff, then those that can, will simply move away.

I've heard LaVerne Furbert repeatedly make the comment "if guest workers don't like it here, then leave." As my mum told me when I was a small boy………. be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.