There’s a fine old Churchillism about the inconsistency of officialdom — “so they (the government) go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent” — which can’t help but be close to mind in these days of serial flip-flopping.

An on-again, off-again Agricultural Exhibition. A recycling plant which is closed one day as a cost-saving measure, re-opened the next in response to community griping but which still faces an entirely uncertain future. And now a Bermuda Hospitals Board we had repeatedly been reassured was back on a firm fiscal footing turns out to be looking at a $40 million shortfall in the coming financial year.

According to some of our more sardonic commentators, there have been enough abrupt Government reversals in recent weeks to induce a collective case of whiplash in an increasingly jaundiced electorate.

But balancing the Island’s red ink-saturated books with public opinion and expectations is one of the less enviable tasks this — or any — Government faces in these perilous economic times.

Today’s priority will likely become tomorrow’s secondary consideration on an increasingly frequent basis as ever-shifting demands are placed on the public purse but the Government’s revenue stream remains stubbornly stagnant.

The full extent of the Island’s ongoing economic malaise was made abundantly clear this week when the portfolio of Bermuda First Investment Company (BFIC) — a firm created with the specific mandate of buying stock in local enterprises — recorded a $12.3 million year-over-year decline.

BFIC was incorporated when the economy was already thought to have reached rock bottom and local share prices were seen as bargains ripe for the picking.

But investments worth $40 million in 2013 had plunged in value to just $27.6 million by the end of last year.

Principals of the company, putting on the bravest face possible, maintained Bermuda companies remain historically undervalued and are well-positioned for future growth.

Like so many other individuals and businesses in Bermuda, BFIC is optimistic preparations for the upcoming America’s Cup yachting championship the Island will be hosting in 2017 would help boost the local market over the long-term.

But when asked if the Island’s economy had actually now bottomed out, one of BFIC‘s directors said: “I don’t know is the honest answer.

“You probably only know when you’ve hit the bottom when you look back with hindsight. It’s a very brave man to say you’ve hit the bottom.

“Is the worst behind Bermuda? Probably, but do I think we will have a speedy recovery? No. It will be a long, slow process, would be my guess.”

And as long as the Island’s recovery remains sluggish, it’s likely Government’s capricious actions will reflect the fickle nature of the electorate itself.

For even when strong cases can be made to defend short-term actions which will have the greatest and most beneficial consequences for the future, Governments tend to bow to the public mood when any immediate cost or risk is perceived to out-weigh the perceived longer-term gains.

This would be as true under a Progressive Labour Party administration or a coalition as it is under the One Bermuda Alliance.

Frankly, never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow might as well be the guiding principle of any Government answerable to Bermuda voters who traditionally prefer their reality sugar-coated, their hard-truths wrapped in soft packaging and any disruptions in routine to be carried out in the most protracted and incremental of fashions.

Hence the ongoing reluctance of successive administrations to begin making even the most necessary and unavoidable changes to Bermuda’s crippled economic infrastructure except in a fragmented and unsystematic manner.

Bermuda does not like sacrifices, does not like to hear bad news and certainly does not like to think about a short-term future in which our prospects may actually go from bad to worse.

Indeed, the Bermuda electorate sometimes brings to mind another Churchillism relating to fickleness. Namely, that the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.