like uncertainty, is today confused, angry and jittery.

Many people began to lose confidence when Independence was raised by Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan in the wake of a United Bermuda Party "blueprint for the future'' and a very close General Election which never mentioned Independence. The public, even those who are pro-Independence, thought Sir John had a personal agenda which he was prepared to enact as the crowning glory of his long political career. Surely Sir John knew that nothing was as likely as the suggestion of Independence to split his own party.

This move to a referendum on Independence was followed by a Green Paper which further eroded public confidence by giving every appearance of being a whitewash produced by an intentionally biased committee to fool the public into voting in favour of Independence. Now the public sees some of these same people, plus the anti-Independence rebels, playing with political fire in a Country which is already at risk. Threats to prevent the democratic process of a promised referendum, plus threats by unnamed people to resign their seats, plus threats to dissolve the Government have left the people of Bermuda angry, very angry.

If the UBP were to get itself in a position during the next few days where a General Election was necessary we doubt if the UBP would muster a dozen House of Assembly seats. Clearly a split and rudderless UBP would now lose Warwick West, Warwick East, Hamilton West and, probably, St. George's South. Yet the UBP's dance of death goes on. There are many people in Bermuda today who think that the UBP has "lost its mind''. In the wake of a very close General Election the UBP should have gone to work to strengthen itself. Instead it began tearing itself apart.

The Country is already at risk because the hidden ramifications of the recent Budget are beginning to emerge. The taxes on international companies in a Country which led these companies to believe it was tax free, are causing most of them to, at the least, look at other domiciles. The retroactive capital gains tax on the sale of non-Bermudian-owned houses has caused nothing short of alarm in the resident non-Bermudian community and killed the top of the real estate market. This, of course, has come at a time when Bermuda should be boosting its economy during a slow recovery from the recession.

The worst effect of these taxes is that individuals and companies feel they have been lied to by "tax free'' Bermuda and now have doubts about their future here. There is a real danger that these people will stop the millions of dollars they give to Bermudian charities, leaving someone else to make up the difference or leaving Bermuda bereft.

When the ramifications of the Budget are combined with the present political instability, international business, which constitutes half Bermuda's income, becomes very, very nervous. Clearly there are prominent people in Bermuda today who do not care about that but surely most Bermudians must care about a threat to half of their income.