Rise up this mornin'

Smiled with the risin' sun

Three little birds

Pitch by my doorstep

Singin' sweet songs

Of melodies pure and true

Saying, “This is my message to you, oo-oo”

— Bob Marley

The Progressive Labour Party has been given a mandate to run the country for a maximum of five more years, but a message should have been sent that David Burt and Co would be unwise to ignore.

By “and Co”, we mean the PLP Central Committee, that largely faceless, covert group that drives the party-first mentality which contributes to so much of the political divide that is then played out to the wider audiences in the House of Assembly and beyond.

Before, during and since 24-12 became 30-6, sessions in the Lower House have more replicated parlour games featuring middle school children — emphasis on children — not supposedly serious legislators dealing with complex issues in globally challenging times.

There is always a place for fun and games to ease the tension, but those should be few and far between — especially for a country that has so much to be fixed.

National debt, cost of living, healthcare, pensions, violent crime, public education, antisocial and delinquent youth, homelessness, housing, vehicular genocide. Oh, and the roads. How could we forget the roads.

Hopefully, after the events of February 18, 2025, the House of Assembly is going to get its own “education reform” with a view to the people’s business being conducted in a manner befitting of the statesmen and women that the electorate has chosen them to be.

Mr Burt has promised to be more collaborative with those who do not bleed green, and we as a collective must endeavour to hold him to that.

The One Bermuda Alliance, emboldened by gaining five additional seats from the previous General Election — if you count the defection of Vance Campbell, who went on to hold serve against Shomari Talbot-Woolridge in Smith’s West — has an imperative to be twice the Opposition it was eight years ago with one additional MP.

The Premier, as he surveys a slightly altered landscape, heads into his final 18 months still with a substantial battalion, including one or two bright new faces.

But he no longer has the lieutenants who helped him to wipe the floor with the OBA in 2017 and who remained to the fore when the PLP threatened to sweep the table in the Covid Election of 2020.

Gone is his second-in-command, Walter Roban. Gone is the redoubtable Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch. Gone is the governor basher-in-chief Derrick Burgess. And gone is Wayne Caines, widely seen as Mr Burt’s most likely successor before a number of self-inflicted wounds led to him being sidelined and now out of the game.

Those departures we knew about going into the election. There threatened to be blood on the dancefloor after it, but in the end we have to accept that the PLP merely suffered flesh wounds with the defeats of lightweight MPs Anthony Richardson and Crystal Caesar, albeit that the latter was appointed a Cabinet minister for the final trimester of the legislature.

There is nothing to stop Ms Caesar remaining as Minister of the Cabinet Office, especially given that she and Owen Darrell essentially could be trading places in the Houses of Parliament.

That’s one for Mr Burt to determine in the fullness of time. Having announced in the wake of a very spiteful leadership contest against Curtis Dickinson a few years ago that he would step down in October 2026, the clock is ticking on something even more significant.

A decision on deputy leader of the party must be the next big-ticket item, and therein lies the clue as to who the PLP sees as the next premier.

Mr Darrell appears to have the inside track, as seen with his steady promotion through the ranks — far from the prospective chief of staff at the heart of planning for the 2017 election.

His rise has been mercurial and impressive, the only misstep being that stroppy press conference, the conclusion of which was the stuff memes were made of.

Otherwise, you might have thought Jason Hayward would be in line for the nod for the No 1 job given his portfolio, but he has said on more than one occasion that he is not in politics for the long haul, so we have to take him at his word.

Which leaves two mavericks — one real, the other perceived.

Zane DeSilva has let it be clear he would put his hand up to become the next party leader, but it depends largely on who else was in the hunt. Which we take to mean he would want to put the block on the other “maverick”, Curtis Dickinson, whose only crime was to question the inner workings of the Fairmont Southampton deal and then challenge Mr Burt for the leadership.

If Mr Burt is to hold true to his word in his celebration speech to put the country first, even those who do not worship at his altar, he would be wise to take care of business closest to home and get Mr Dickinson back onside.