So apt is commentator Julian Hall's description of Sen. David Burch as a slow motion public relations train wreck that it is now almost a cliché. Nonetheless, the Home Affairs Minister once again earned the sobriquet last week as he once again appeared to demonstrate his tin ear for public sentiment when he unveiled his plans for expatriates to carry photo identification cards.

And as with many politicians who like to blame the media when their policies come in for criticism, he also claimed this newspaper's coverage of the issue was sensationalist, when it was anything but. But that's another story.

To be fair to Sen. Burch, he did at least show he knew the idea might be controversial when he said it was not a "Gestapo tactic" and tried to explain why not.

In fact, he is right. The idea is not a harbinger of the arrival of the Nazi party in Bermuda. Sen. Burch tried to compare it to senior citizens' cards and the like. The better comparison is the US "green card" issued to immigrant workers in the US. That ID card also carries a photograph. If the proposed card replaced the current work permit, then it is unlikely there would be any real concern about it. It would be more useful and durable than the current peace of paper with photo attached. Having said that, Sen. Burch's stated rationale for the card – to crack down on illegal foreign workers – turns the policy into the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Government estimates that there are around 200 illegal workers on the Island. Just how issuing 10,000 ID cards to the people who are working in Bermuda legally will help to find them is difficult to understand, particularly when an Immigration inspector can now determine if an individual has a work permit about as easily as asking for an ID card.

What Sen. Burch suffers from is a failure to communicate: work permits with photos attached already exist and would be more practical in the form of an ID card that could be renewed when permission to work is.

In the meantime, the way to put an end to the employment of illegal workers is to hike the penalties on employers. Since employers hire primarily non-Bermudians illegally to make money, the way to deter the practice is to hit them in the pocket book.

MPs salaries

A much better example of a potential tin ear lies within the confines of the independent committee that makes recommendations for MPs salaries and the Members of Parliament who will shortly vote on the proposals.

In fairness, the slow pace of committees and bureaucracies means that, no doubt, when the recommendations were made, the world and Bermuda economies were not staring recession in the face. And the roots of the current proposed pay hikes for backbench MPs and Senators lay in the big increases given to Cabinet Ministers three years ago.

This newspaper generally supported those increases, although the failure to determine the difference between full-time and part-time Ministers continues to cause problems, as the committee admitted. Still, having given huge increases to Ministers created a wider than necessary gap with MPs and especially Senators who now have some reason to feel aggrieved. The problem is that now is not the time to vote oneself a 15 percent pay increase over two years at a time when many people are fearing for their jobs.

Now is the time to turn down the increase – and it would not be a bad time for Ministers to voluntarily cut their salaries as they lead by example in the current economic downturn.