Talk about juxtaposition Mr Editor. Former Premier and astute businessman Sir John Swan thinks we are about to fall off the edge of a cliff. An OBA spokesperson affirms her party’s confidence in a confidence survey of Bermuda businessmen which indicates that we may be turning the corner, and declares that the Government is on the right track.

Confused? Don’t be. They are only opinions and both may be right. We may yet go confidently over that cliff.

Jokes aside, the two views are but another window to some of the discussions that are occurring in Bermuda and the need to reconcile different viewpoints if we are to stand a chance of moving ahead together in tackling our economic challenges.

It’s conflation folks and it’s what we need more of around here. Conflation? The word comes to mind following the apology of Brian Williams, now of suspended news anchor (aweigh) fame, who told viewers how he erred in his recollection when he conflated two events, er, badly — but that’s another story for another time.

The Shorter Oxford dictionary confirms that conflation means to fuse or to put together various elements, to combine or blend two things. I don’t know about you, Mr Editor, but that seems to me to be our perennial challenge, whatever the issue, trying to reconcile the aspirations and the experiences and the views of two races, two political parties, two Bermudas.

I don’t think that’s any exaggeration either. Neither am I playing up or down to any audience. Mind you, there were those who thought I was taking sides in last week’s column, the wrong side in their view. They miss my point.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I do appreciate just how hard it is to manage with a crippling public debt and a government that requires more than it takes in. I appreciate too, the need to regenerate the Bermuda economy, to get more cash into our business arteries, to create more jobs, to make for more employment, to get people back to work. A lot of people just don’t know this, they live it and they feel it. Daily.

Disagreement arises over solutions — and, again, I am not telling anyone anything they do not already know. We know too, the reservations, the concerns and the resistance Bermudians will have to the sudden influx of thousands of people and wholesale abandonment of the 60/40 rule. It is understandable. It looks and feels like we are kissing goodbye to our home and our place in our home.

But disagreement shouldn’t stop us from acting. What is key is how we work through solutions that are put forward and how we can make possible wider community consensus on the difficult issues. This is no Pollyana approach to politics. If what we currently have is broke — and it is in my opinion — let’s fix it. Or at least try.

No one likes to be muscled or strong-armed or bullied into a position or course of action. I go back to the approach adopted by the SAGE Commission. The Commissioners took the time to consult, and to consult widely. They gave people an opportunity to be heard. They shared their findings and their recommendations in a voluminous and comprehensive report. Unfortunately the consultation and the public meetings stopped there. Their remit was at an end.

But the problem, and the need to engage the public on a plan and a glide path for action, remained. Over a year and one Government Budget later, we seem to be still stuck on stuck.

We need a breakthrough alright, but not just in action, in approach. We have seen what happens when solutions are simply brought down from on high for public consumption and review after the fact. The Public Bodies Reform Bill is an obvious recent example, and the PPP proposed for a new airport could turn out to be another.

I don’t want to say that about the America’s Cup, but rather make this observation. It is important to focus in on the local network that brings such a major and significant event to our shores, as well as on that which will oversee the opportunities thereby created. That network should be as broad and as deep as the community that it is expected to help. The end result should also be a plan we can all follow.

The importance of the right approach is never to be underestimated — on and off the Hill. One member up there put his finger on it this week. It is ultimately a question of trust — and trust, Mr Editor, or the absence of it, is a critical factor when it comes to making difficult decisions about matters on which even reasonable people can disagree.