Dear Sir,

It is a sad reality that most Bermudians have selective, short-term memory loss. They pick and choose what they wish to remember.

No one wishes to forget United Bermuda Party wrongdoing, and rightfully they should not. Clearly, some actions of the One Bermuda Alliance showed some in power did forget, and they paid for it dearly at the polls.

However, many quickly disregard and forget the Progressive Labour Party’s wrongdoings that are not so long ago. In fact, it was the PLP’s financial blundering that landed Bermuda in the financial chaos in which we find ourselves.

It was its labelling of economists and opposition finance minister Bob Richards as scaremongers/doomsayers, and ignorance of the warnings of impending world recession that also led to economic woes.

This brings me to the point of my letter. Here we have the PLP back in power, and already up to the same tricks as before. I am still waiting for justification for the attack on Alan Dunch as head of the gaming commission. What cause did they have to be calling for his removal?

Why are they ignoring many experts in gaming around the world, advising that direct government rule over gaming is not a good idea and is frowned upon? How many millions of dollars were drastically overspent on projects and in some cases truly unaccounted for during the PLP tenure? And now they want to sink their teeth into the cash cow of gaming with no true independent oversight ... how very convenient.

The original plan to have gaming set apart from any party’s political interference was the best plan. Having the minister involved without clear evidence of wrongdoing by the commission is not common practice. Given the financial history, I don’t trust such in the hands of anyone on either side of the House. Keep it as free of political mismanagement as possible.

Bermuda finally tossed off the yoke of having the Church oppose such gaming. Let the Church worry about filling its halls, let the politicians worry about fixing this island and let the gaming commission operate independent of both entities so that it can try to bring in much needed tourists, fresh revenue, jobs and nightlife to Bermuda, and so we can compete against our Caribbean neighbours to the south.

ROBERT DAVIES JR