After seeing so many sworn opponents jump on board their bandwagon, some in the Progressive Labour Party are starting to wonder whether there's such a thing as political ideology in Bermuda any more.Gone are the days when everyone knew where they stood, with the PLP on the left flying the green flag for the working man and the United Bermuda Party on the right focusing on growing the Country's economy.In recent times former Opposition leader Wayne Furbert, chairwoman Gwyneth Rawlins and MPs Maxwell Burgess and Jamahl Simmons have joined the side they couldn't beat with none of them declaring they've had an epiphany.Mr Furbert, Ms Rawlins and Mr Burgess all insisted the PLP's the only place they can serve Bermuda after growing frustrated with a UBP seemingly doomed to repeat its mistakes; Mr Simmons completed the same journey after seeing he couldn't achieve anything as an Independent.And all four say they've received overwhelmingly warm welcomes from their new colleagues, with chairman Anthony Santucci stressing anyone is free to join as long as they support the party's objectives.But while their integration into the party machinery may have been smooth, some PLP members worry the party's ideology could be in terminal demise.At least one supporter is borderline livid about what's going on.Jonathan Starling, who has long complained that the PLP is evolving into a new version of the old UBP, said: “Sure, people can change. They can have honest conversions of principle based on careful reflection.“I'm actually willing to give Jamahl the benefit of the doubt there, but I don't think he should be considered as a possible PLP candidate; I think it's only fair that turncoats are considered with a degree of suspicion, and I don't think it benefits the PLP to parade them as if it is some sort of coup.“Having a former UBP leader as a PLP MP is repugnant to me. I have absolutely no respect, politically, for Mr Furbert.“I think he is a political opportunist, understandably upset by how his former party used and abused him, who came to the conclusion that his political survival could not be guaranteed in the sinking ship that is the UBP.“That he was willing to join the PLP, whose members had quite liberally mocked him when he was UBP leader, is impressive, I agree. His actions reek of opportunism and desperation.“He does not represent what the PLP stood for labour values although he does arguably represent what the PLP has become, the party of power, interested only in keeping power.“The problem is that the whole point of obtaining power was to realise labour values. Instead we have power, realised a few crumbs of labour values, and then become a black UBP: a party interested only in power for power's sake, and realising only the values of a new oligarchy.”Mr Furbert argues he can serve the PLP just as well as he served the UBP for so long, as a Minister, Shadow Minister and Opposition leader.“My view has always been to serve,” he said. “It's not like I had an epiphany one evening. It's like I always said, I want just to serve. I can still serve in the PLP. I'm still the same Wayne Furbert in the PLP that I was in the UBP.”He said his own views remain the same as always, and just as in the UBP he would often toe the party line even if he disagreed with it, now he can do the same in the PLP.“Some of the UBP ideas were opposed to me,” he said. “It's just I was in the group and I was a person that believed in consensus. When a party believes in something I go along with the group despite me disagreeing with the party.”Mr Furbert says his calls for the UBP to reform based on research showing it had consistently lost support since the early 1980s and had no chance of winning under in its current guise were repeatedly ignored, leaving him no choice other than to leave.He says third parties never work in Bermuda and it's impossible to achieve anything as the lone voice of an Independent; his only other option was joining his former enemy.That others have since mirrored his move only reinforces his belief he made the right decision, he says.Mr Burgess, the running mate of Mr Furbert in their UBP days, insists despite scepticism he's “here to help this Country” and will help Premier Paula Cox any way he can.But Mr Starling said: “That the PLP so attacked him when he was a UBP Minister and a lackey for Sir John Swan, and to now welcome him with open arms? Either these UBPers have been won over to labour values or the PLP has been won over by UBP values.“That the PLP has barely been a labour party now for the better part of its rule, I think the chances are the PLP is now sufficiently UBP-esque that such high-profile UBP names have no qualms about joining it.“That the PLP is increasingly the last refuge of the UBP old guard should set alarm bells ringing. What's Left these days? How does one reconcile one's opposition to what these people represented then, with their joining one now?“What makes it worse is that we need an actual labour party more now than ever before.”Other UBP figures to have brought expertise and experience to the PLP ranks include Larry Scott, Llewellyn Peniston, Julian Hall, Wendell Hollis and Grace Bell.Mr Santucci, another former UBP candidate, said: “Clearly the PLP is a party that welcomes all Bermudians if those individuals are comfortable supporting the objectives of the party and its constitution.“I appreciate there's a degree of scepticism but that's healthy. Democracy has a way of working things out in the end and the PLP is a very democratic party. Bermudian people have a good dose of solid common sense and things have a way of working out.”But Pembroke MP Ashfield DeVent urges the PLP to remember its working class roots.“It would seem politics in Bermuda for some is more who happens to be in power at the time as opposed to an inborn feeling of ideology,” said Mr DeVent.“My membership is to the Progressive Labour Party because I come from a labour background, a union background, my family came from the same background and there's no way I could see myself being affiliated with a right wing UBP Government, particularly as a black man.“It's the easiest thing in the world to support the winning team. There were many people, including myself, who were staunch supporters of the PLP when we were in Opposition for many, many years without power.“Now that's changed, my question is: Do people in Bermuda really have a political ideology?”Mr Simmons says those departing UBPers have leaned towards the PLP school of thought in any case.“Generally those who have left the UBP have tended to be from the left of centre philosophically,” he said.“Consequently, on social issues, race and economic opportunity they have tended to already have a closer ideological orientation to the PLP.“Combine this with the UBP's benign neglect of those specific issues, the transition from being an individual on the political/philosophical fringes of the UBP to being in the centre philosophically in the PLP is not a difficult one.”PLP supporter Guilden Gilbert argues it's more about joining a winning team, pointing out Mr Furbert and Mr Burgess had long careers “espousing the ideals of the UBP”.“I just do not believe one's ideals can change like that. Call me a cynic,” said Mr Gilbert.“Unfortunately I think the reality in Bermuda is that most people do not consider their own ideals when it comes to which political party they join or support.“They tend to follow friends and family and/or which party makes the most noise. I think if a poll were conducted today simply asking what is your politics ideology, most people would be unable to answer because most do not know what their political ideology is.“It is not necessarily out of ignorance, it is more because people generally are fed up with politics and the back and forth between the parties.”Khalid Wasi, who has called for all Opposition MPs to join the PLP, says the recent moves are no surprise considering the reasons many blacks joined the UBP in the first place.Mr Burgess was among a wave of young blacks who switched from PLP to UBP under Sir John's leadership.“Middle class blacks, many of whom have aspirations for business and opportunity, recognise their prospects as aligned with having a decent relationship with the Government,” he said.“It's not unholy if you consider that, in the past, particularly before the days of HSBC, there was real and perceived intimidation for blacks who wanted real involvement in business and hence they either kept politically quiet or joined the UBP for the comfort of social and economic networking.”Mr Wasi said after things didn't pan out the way they hoped, many blacks are no longer kept in the UBP by fear and have no emotional ties to the party.“Many blacks see the PLP political position as unassailable and recognise that it needs help to move from an organisation formed initially like a protest or pressure group, towards the kind of organisation that can actually be a governing organisation for all the people of Bermuda,” he said.“Sitting on the sidelines, unhappy or complaining about Government, while wasting years of experience is increasingly being felt by many as non-productive.“Any change or political developments in the Country will happen from within the PLP and not from outside. The future will be told in how the PLP responds to change from within.”l Useful websites: www.ubp.bm, www.plp.bm, www.jonnystar.wordpress.com