One Bermuda Alliance [OBA] leader Jarion Richardson has said that he welcomes a snap general election being called by the Progressive Labour Party [PLP], this despite the mountain of the 24 member House deficit that currently exists.
A recent deluge of PLP authored Op-eds negatively critical of the OBA has, to some, indicated the ruling party to be ramping up the propaganda machine to attract support for a potential general election, even as such is not required until late next year.
However, during a recent Town Hall meeting in St George’s Richardson indicated his team to be prepared to take on such a challenge, one he, himself termed as a “mission impossible” … and win.
“I want them to call it as quickly as possible,” said Richardson, in the manner of a former soldier and policeman prepared to clear the decks for battle. “Bermuda cannot sustain more of this and the difference is going to be stark as to what we, as the incoming government is going to do as opposed to the outgoing government.
“I’m so encouraged right now, because we have unique problems. It’s not a question of candidates, but a question of which candidate is best in each community. Our vounteers are increasing. Our membership is increasing. We’re active. You saw it this weekend on Kindley Field Roads. We have tons of ideas.
“But there’s a catch. We’re confident enough to stand in front of the community at a Town Hall and answer questions from the community.
“So, that’s very nice that they’re on this attack plan, but I echo Ben, ‘They have to attack us, because there’s nothing else for them to do’.”
Among a series of commentaries backbencher Jason Wade described the OBA as not caring about the struggles of the average Bermudian and seeking to profit off of such hardship, while Senator Lindsay Simmons highlighted the OBA’s immigration reform plan as one designed to further displace Bermuda natives.
Most recently a column authored by Lauren Bell suggested ineptitude and the use of ChatGPT by OBA Senator Marable in producing a column that mistakenly used the term ‘department’ instead of ‘board’ in referring to feasibility studies carried out by the Bermuda Government Accountability Board relevant to the civil service.
Deputy leader Ben Smith inferred the barrage to be nothing short of a smoke screen to camouflage the PLP’s own failings in delivering on stated promises to the electorate.
“The first thing I would say is that you’re correct, that they’ve been on a bit of a tour,” said Smith, who replaced retired former party head Cole Simons in last October’s Smith’s South by-election. “You’ll notice that they’re attacking the One Bermuda Alliance, who is the Opposition instead of talking about their record. “What they’ve been doing over the last six years, that has put the country in a position that multiple people are getting on a plane and leaving the country forever.
“So, the issue that I have is, ‘When are they actually going to talk about their record? Why do we have to be the one’s that are defending against them? When are they going to talk to the people about the mistakes that they’ve continued to make that have put the country in the position that now the One Bermuda Alliance has to come in to try to fix?’”
Smith was keen to point out the continued use of identity –racial — politics and the painting of the OBA as a re-branded United Bermuda Party [UBP] as familiar elements of PLP strategy, bot of which he sought to debunk in the minds of Bermudians.
“I will repeat he same thing that I said to the audience tonight,” said Smith, who noted there to be three former UBP members, including two one-time party leaders, among the PLP ranks, compared to a single remaining UBP remnant among the current ranks of OBA. “Jarion Richardson and Ben Smith are the first generation of the One Bermuda Alliance, I have never been a member of the UBP.
“The truth of the matter is that a lot of our economy was built by the people that were part of that party. We also have multiple members within our party that were part of the Progressive Labour Party.
“We are an open tap. We make sure that we have a cross-section of our entire community. We will look like our community. We will sound like our community. And because we have those diverse opinions we have the ability to come up with the answers that will best represent all of Bermuda.”