• The following Op-Ed was released by One Bermuda Alliance MP Michael Dunkley…
“If you do not have a record to run on then paint your opponent as someone to run from…” – Former President Barack Obama.
It is so typical of the PLP to try and paint the One Bermuda Alliance in the worst possible light at every opportunity to take the focus off their own failures prior to 2012 and over the past 26 months since winning the election in 2017.
Just look where we stand today with economic statistics portraying a dismal picture, confidence in Bermuda at its lowest point since the inception of the survey and Bermudians emigrating on a regular basis.
The writer of the PLP Op Ed will not face up to these realties just like he would not stand up and take his party to task over the $330 million dollar budget deficit that the OBA inherited in 2012, the astronomical increase in debt under the PLP watch, the doubling of the Berkeley contract from about $70 million to $140 million, the fiasco with the Dame Lois Brown Evans building, the $45 million squandered on the failed Grand Atlantic and the Auditor General’s report outlining serious challenges and potential law breaking in the way the PLP handled the public purse.
The writer also forgets that it was the PLP, under pressure before the 2007 election, who orchestrated the land swap with the principals of Morgan’s Point to get them off the Southlands Property and put them on the brownfield site which required significant remediation.
When the OBA became the government we faced very difficult circumstances with a government that could not meet payroll in January of 2013, deficits that were threatening to drown Bermuda, an economy that was in a tail spin and many other significant challenges.
ET Bob Richards, OBA MP, Former Minister of Finance

As former Finance Minister Richards has said on numerous occasions, we took a two track approach to turn the island around; a plan to balance the budget over the next few years and to attract badly needed inward investment of capital. While we were not perfect, we made mistakes along the way, we did turn around the well-being of the island in spite of the constant headwinds we faced, often manufactured by the PLP to obtain power again.

In fact the only positive signs currently in our economy started under the OBA but what happens when the new airport terminal opens next year, Belco construction ends and St Regis opens in 2021?
Arbitrade is not the answer.
Fintech has not created the jobs promised.
The multitude of MOU’s proudly displayed by Premier Burt are not even worth the paper they were printed on.
The current situation at Morgan’s Point is a concern and not what we envisioned when the guarantee was agreed to by the Government and Parliament. However, while hindsight is 20/20 vision, I am not going to question the decision today, but instead my colleagues and I are willing to work with the Government and Morgan’s Point to turn this situation around, to get the project
going again, make sure creditors are paid, complete the development and open it for business!
Wouldn’t it be a breath of fresh air to work together for Bermuda, put aside the partisan politics and to help the people we serve!
Hon Michael. H. Dunkley JP, MP.