The Progressive Labour Party has always had form for infighting. Protest, at the bedrock of its foundation in 1963, has been such a familiar bedfellow that it surprises no one six decades later when ructions from within spill into the public domain.

Those you take with a grain of salt — same old, same old.

But when they are followed by the retirements/resignations of senior figures, with the prospect of more to come, it would be foolhardy to dismiss news of such developments as “complete fiction, bearing no resemblance to the truth”.

That is what the PLP would have you believe in initially responding to news that all is not well inside the halls of the Reginald A Burrows Building.

Shouting matches in Cabinet and at Central Committee level are one thing, but a deputy premier retiring at the tender age of 57 less than two years after fighting a feverish leadership battle does raise eyebrows.

Walter Roban was said by observers to have cut a dejected figure in the midst of the most recent internal bust-up. Like, do I really need this? And on the evidence of what looked to be a hastily prepared resignation letter to the people of Bermuda on Monday, those rumours have proved to be on point.

Were Mr Roban to signal his intentions amid the heat of some high-profile controversies he has been involved in — think the municipalities of Hamilton and St George, Shark Hole Hill, Fairmont Southampton special development order, Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme — one might not be taken so off-guard.

But now? What gives?

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And the ring of fire here revolves around the Honourable E. David Burt, JP MP, Premier of Bermuda and Leader of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party.

Mr Burt’s leadership is under pressure like at no time before since he seized — err, assumed — the reins of power from Marc Bean officially in November 2016.

Already he is the third longest-serving leader in party history, and its longest-serving premier. However, his determination to stay on until October 2026, at the end of his second four-year term but critically after the next General Election, has ruffled some feathers among loyalists.

Not those in the Central Committee, where Mr Burt retains significant support from the delegates, but rather his bloated cast of backbenchers — those who are on the ground canvassing opinion from an increasingly disaffected electorate.

Quite unlike October 1, 2020, when the Premier was riding on the coat-tails of his commendable handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and swept the PLP to a stunning 30-6 election triumph, the public mood has changed.

There is sentiment that Mr Burt’s leadership has run its course, opening the possibility for sea change when the electorate is next called to the polls — which must happen before the end of next year. Many of the 30 seats the PLP holds can be considered to be marginal, which means swing voters or the disaffected who vote with their feet could replicate the results of December 2012, when a fledgeling One Bermuda Alliance was brought to power.

Add to that the real prospect of campaign donors keeping their hands out of their pockets in protest at the present regime, and that is enough to engender feeling that Mr Burt should go now in the “best interests of the party and the country” before re-election concern turns to re-election peril.

Mr Burt has the backing of his caucus publicly — Mr Roban’s flowery endorsement of “my leader, friend and colleague” the most recent example of such — but privately?

Aside from two heavy hitters in Mr Roban and Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch confirmed as heading off into the sunset, there are strong murmurings also about health minister Kim Wilson, attorney-general Kathy Lynn Simmons and backbencher Lovitta Foggo calling it a day — and whispers about one or two others dependent on whether or not Mr Burt remains leader when the election is called.

We already know that Curtis Dickinson and Renée Ming are not big fans.

Perhaps it is the imminent departures of any or all of the above that might give the party pause before entertaining any call for a special delegates conference to discuss Mr Burt’s future — because losing the ultimate heavy hitter would be a blow that could have far-reaching implications.

As it is, the vultures are circling.

The OBA is stronger now with six representatives in the Lower House than it ever was with 12, while the Free Democratic Movement has had four years to get across its message and ideology, and grow a cabal of prospective candidates. But the greatest political shift has been in a movement caused by a former premier and undoubtedly one of the country’s greatest leaders.

A National Hero, no less.

Sir John Swan, despite falling short in the Smith’s North by-election in May, has been emboldened by the sustained support he has received in the wake of finishing runner-up to Robert King, of the OBA.

The grand old man’s 89th birthday today might as well be his 49th, such is his vigour to see change in Bermuda’s politics.

Apparently, he is not alone and the independents movement — not to be confused with an independence movement — does appear to be gathering pace.

If the OBA and FDM are not aware of this, most certainly the PLP is, given the turns its leaders have taken to denigrate Sir John whenever given the opportunity — in particular for his opposition to the increased appetite for gaining full membership in Caricom, and for having the temerity to get back on the political stage after a 29-year absence.

Politics is politics, so much of the thrust and counterthrust is to be expected. But where the thrust cuts to the quick is when a National Hero can be snubbed at an event put on to honour him and those who came before.

The Premier’s Concert pays homage by way of video tribute to those who have made Bermuda better: Dame Lois Browne-Evans, E.F. Gordon, Pauulu Kamarakafego, Sir Henry Tucker, Mary Prince, Gladys Missick Morrell, Sir E.T. Richards. And Sir John Swan.

On Sunday, though, the only living National Hero was treated as an afterthought, his tribute presented after the Closing Remarks given by culture minister Owen Darrell — notably as per the programme.

That’s cold!

“Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten you, Sir John,” a sheepish Mr Darrell said from the stage.

But by then, as the credits were rolling and the curtains about to be drawn, the insult had set in.

Sir John, his pride bruised, will have to take under consideration whether he will put himself in such a position next year to be publicly shamed. But, otherwise, there is no quit in the senior statesman.

The same cannot be said at the ruling party. No matter how the Premier wishes to spin it, losing your No 2 with a whiff of an election in the air is a blow.

Shortly after that October 2022 leadership race, the keynote speaker at the PLP’s black-tie gala dinner gave warning that internal divisions could cost the party its rule.

Mind, former beauty queen Imani Duncan-Price was speaking of her own experiences as a senator in Jamaica where her People’s National Party imploded largely through infighting.

She need not have bothered, as dissension is woven deep inside the PLP’s DNA — been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And so we wait.