Bermuda Party MPs who fought former Premier Sir John Swan's efforts to bring McDonald's franchises to Bermuda.

Recently, the legality of the Prohibited Restaurants Act was upheld in the highest court in the land, and was held to overrule the contracts signed by Sir John and his colleagues with McDonald's.

The bill was brought by former Environment Minister Ann Cartwright DeCouto, who was supported Dr. Clarence Terceira and Dr. David Dyer and C.V. (Jim) Woolridge and Trevor Moniz. Only the latter two remain in the House of Assembly.

The Privy Council decision should bring the whole "burger battle'' to an end at last. Bermuda will not have fast food franchises, apart from Kentucky Fried Chicken, unless Parliament decides otherwise.

The same five MPs -- joined by a number of others, notably John Barritt -- had fought successfully against the Independence Referendum but had seen their man, Mr. Woolridge, lose the leadership race to David Saul following Sir John's departure.

Few received the rewards they expected after the Referendum for having stood up for what they believed and been proven correct.

Refusing to take lesser Cabinet posts than they thought they deserved, they made a cadre of experienced Cabinet Ministers on the backbenches -- and Sir John's bid to bring McDonald's -- which looked like a reward for being on the wrong end of the political equation -- was tailor-made for more party infighting.

There are lessons to be learned from the saga, which in many ways helped to bring the former Government down, and certainly exposed rifts within the UBP which could not be healed while it remained in power.

One is that the majority, no matter how large, is not always right. Sometimes a minority which believes strongly in principle, as opposed to what seems practicable, will win.

This point is important: The PLP recently saw four MPs abstain over the plan to let funeral homes operate limousine services. They abstained because they opposed the bill, but were not prepared to vote against the Government.

The "funeral limo'', despite its seedy undertones, is a relatively minor issue. But unhappy MPs, even in a Government with a 12-seat majority, can make life difficult for its leadership. Indeed, large majorities can often be disastrous for party discipline.

The leadership has to listen to its backbenches; Sir John Swan gambled that he could persuade the public of the benefits of Independence over the strong views of his own MPs, and later the UBP's leadership gambled that insisting on a narrow definition of the legality of the fast food restaurants would win out over the strong public distaste for the idea.

Both were proven wrong and helped lead to the destruction of the UBP in 1998.

The current Government needs to take care that it does not fall into the same trap.