The old joke about how do you know when a politician is lying is no longer a joke after this election campaign. (Answer: his lips are moving...now watch Dr. Brown's closing speech).
The closing rally cry from the PLP is nothing but a big, really big and easily debunked lie.
The latest lie and scare tactic is to grossly distort a minor UBP agenda item and twist it into a threat to give status to up to 8,000 foreigners and dilute "Bermudians'" vote (codeword alert for "Bermudians").
Essentially the UBP have promised to review the specifics of Permanent Residency for a very small number of people, and the PLP predictably blew that into a complete and utter lie of the UBP trying to create 8,000 new Bermudians and play to a xenophobic element.
Patricia Gordon-Pamplin released a statement yesterday addressing the lie.
Let's dispel the 'up to 8,000' lie with some basic math that begins with there being about 9,000 work permits in force:
A few general numbers:
Bermuda's population = approx. 65,000
Bermudian adults = approx. 42,000 (number of reg. voters)
Bermudian children = approx 10,500 (est. of 25% of reg. voters)
Work permit holders = approx 9,000
Dependents of work permit holders = approx 3,500 (diff b/w Bdian adults, children and work permit holders).
So maximum there are about 12,500 non-Bermudians in total, including children and spouses - those who arrived decades ago and those who arrived yesterday.
The UBP suggested conditions would be as follows:
Accordingly, the United Bermuda Party supports the granting of Bermuda Status to long-term residents who were here prior to the moratorium imposed in 1989, who have had 20 years continuous qualifying residency subject to certain conditions.
So of my estimated 12,500 non-Bermudians, you'd have to have been here before 1989 with 20 years continuous residency.
Now, Government's own argument in defence of 6 year term limits was that so few expats make it to 6 years, let alone 20, that term limits would have no impact.
Now they're busy suggesting that about 2/3rds of non-Bermudians have been here pre-1989.
How do you know when a politician is lying?
Reason isn't going to deter them spreading this lie for the next 24 hours. One hopes that the press don't help spread yet another campaign lie.
The headlines on this should read: "PLP grossly distort minor UBP agenda item".
I'm not sure why the UBP Agenda for Change even mentioned immigration at all. Whatever they said would be turned into a xenophobic rallying cry anyway.
But I think that the PLP have run such a shrill campaign for 7 weeks that most people have simply shut it out now. And they've distorted and dissembled so much that I doubt that many voters actually take their statements seriously anymore.
I think this is a desperate last gasp.
Tuesday is going to be close, but there seems to be a growing vocalization that it's time for a change and a move to send a strong message of displeasure with Dr. Brown's nasty election campaign and confrontational style.
