can be agreed on now. The National Liberal Party will not form the next Government and Mr. Gilbert Darrell will not be the next Premier. With only eight NLP candidates running and most of them undertaking a lost cause, a vote for the NLP can be little more than a protest, at best, or simply a throw-away.

The NLP was born of a major split in the Progressive Labour Party when the more moderate PLP parliamentarians decided they could no longer endure the rigid dictates of the PLP. Since then the NLP has steadily declined. Those who hoped that it might grow into a moderate replacement for the socialism of the Progressive Labour Party have been disappointed. Over the years the NLP has only managed to attract a few additional people, most of whom have little credibility and personal causes which they use the NLP to express. Some of the NLP supporters would probably be happier in another more viable party but find it difficult to swallow their pride and join up.

It is obvious that the NLP has difficulty finding candidates or causes. Maybe people do not want to work for a party which has no hope of success or maybe they do not believe strongly enough in the NLP as a party. Whatever the reasons, the NLP seems to be steadily declining. The leader of the party has said that this election is "do or die'' for the NLP.

It is often difficult to understand the NLP's purpose and what it wants for Bermuda. Because it is a party of personalities more than a party of policies, the messages the NLP sends often conflict. It seems to us that individual NLP candidates "do their own thing'' and that the party's message is incidental.

That seems to be why we had the leader, Mr. Gilbert Darrell, welcoming the election date as "finally'' taking place, at the same time Mr. Geoff Parker was announcing a party legal injunction to stop the election. Clearly Mr.

Parker had not studied the party's constitution because he subsequently announced that the party constitution did not allow for an injunction to be taken out. Whatever went on, the whole TV event was a rather sad comedy act.

It would seem to us that Election 1993 is probably more than Mr. Darrell's "do or die''. It is the last gasp of the NLP. It may re-elect Mr. Gilbert Darrell in marginal Hamilton East but that is by no means certain. In any case, the Hamilton East seat is no real credit to the NLP because it has long been Mr. Darrell's seat rather than a PLP or, more recently, an NLP seat.

Mr. Graeme Outerbridge has done well in previous Smith's South contests but we see his votes as protests against a poor UBP candidate rather than pro-NLP voting. A new Smith's South UBP candidate may change that.

As we see it, the very best the NLP can hope for, once again, is to hold Mr.

Darrell's lone and uncertain seat. It is very difficult for people to believe in a political party without seats or any solid public support. It must also be difficult for the eight candidates or the party to ask people to vote for a cause which is lost before it begins.