the new prison with UBP politicians is a puzzling political ploy.

We would have taken the whole event as a humorous bit of posturing except that if it was not just a silly mistake, it has dangerous implications.

We hope that there was nothing more involved than a bit of election approaching touchiness and the PLP leadership was simply standing on the rather silly dignity of having its own personal and private guided tour. In itself that is kind of ridiculous because tours are tours no matter who comes along and it is pointless to object to sharing an informative look at a new building.

However, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Frederick Wade, was leading the PLP delegation to Dockyard and his presence changes the incident. Mr. Wade himself insisted that the UBP politicians not join his group. We would have thought that something so simple as a new prison tour was not an occasion for division but rather for togetherness. If the PLP cannot share a tour with paliamentarians and candidates, then what can it ever share and with whom can it ever get together? The Minister of Works, the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto, who is responsible for the new prison, gave the PLP the respect of attending the tour herself rather than sending along a civil servant from the Departmrent of Works to show the PLP around. We doubt if the Minister attends every tour but she probably wanted to avoid listening to PLP complaints if she did not attend.

These tours, which take time and manpower from both the Ministry and the Department of Works and cost the public money, should accommodate as many people as possible or as many as are thought worthwhile. What does it matter who goes along? The aim is to display the facilities and to inform interested people on what the facility offers. That's the purpose of the prison tour.

Surely a government tour of a prison is not intended to be a political photo opportunity. Tours are designed for information. We are concerned because the PLP might well have gone along not to learn but to have its picture taken.

That may be the reason it did not want UBP politicians tagging along because it did not want them to get in on any TV or news photos.

The basic concern has to be the PLP hierarchy's unwillingness to share in the information on the new prison and to go along with other people. It is extremely divisive of any political leadership to refuse cooperation and to exclude other Bermudians. That's not what leadership is about and it's not what politics is about. We have to wonder at political leaders who refuse to share something so simple as a prison tour.

Would they also want to exclude other people if they were running the Country? Are they so intent on dealing only with their own people that everyone else would be left out of life in Bermuda? Is that the way Mr. Wade would lead?