On Friday, the Premier accused the Opposition of playing politics over the Bolden allegations of illegality and impropriety involving a former Premier and a Government minister.What had we said that prompted the Premier's outburst?One Bermuda Alliance Leader John Barritt described the allegations as “extremely serious” and called for an immediate Police investigation.I followed his comments saying the allegations, “if true, and taken together with other matters, including those being investigated by the Auditor General, raise serious questions about possible systemic corruption at the highest levels of government”.Our concerns are nothing new. In recent years, there have been numerous instances where questions and doubts have been raised about Government activities, particularly in the awarding of contracts and massive cost overruns on capital projects all occurring against the backdrop of mushrooming government debt, now well over a billion dollars and counting.The Government has never cleared the air on these matters and we wait the findings of the Auditor General's current investigations as well as reviews by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. In the meantime, it is no small thing that Government actions or the suspicion of Government actions has cast doubt on its integrity.I suspect my comment on the Bolden allegations was what triggered the Premier's extreme response. My words were strong words, sure, but are they wrong? Did the Premier disagree or was it just a case of the best defence being a good offence?The “loose-lipped”, “lily-livered” Opposition was playing politics, she said outside to television; taking it to a “new low” and engaging in “partisan rancour … to impugn the integrity of the Government.”If the Opposition continued this way, she would call a snap election “so that we can put all of this behind us.”I'm sure the Premier would love to put “all of this” behind her so would we, for the sake of Bermuda but we'll have to wait for the Police report as well as other investigations into Government's management of the public purse.In the meantime, I would like to take issue with one aspect of the Premier's response to our calls for a Police investigation, which, let's not forget, she too called for.The undercurrent in her attack on the Opposition for “playing politics' was that she herself was above politics. But a closer look at her comments that day, suggest she was in full, cynical political flight.Political operators use various tricks to put an opponent on the defensive; to seize the high ground. “Bait and switch” is probably the most commonly known technique.In this instance, the Premier used her call for a Police investigation to condemn the Opposition's call for an investigation as “playing politics”. She was then off to the races, launching a day-long attack on the One Bermuda Alliance, complete with the threat of a snap election.When challenged before a television camera for her attack and her threat of an election, the Premier demurred. She expressed regret and coyly said it was just a girlish tease. (Meanwhile there is an ongoing telephone survey in train before the Bolden controversy to test the waters for an election call).Key to the Premier's ‘bait and switch' politics was to position her Government as innocent bystander to the implications in the Bolden allegations and all the other matters. She told television that it was the job of the Police not hers to investigate not just illegality but also impropriety in the Cabinet.I am sure the Police were very surprised to learn it is their job to investigate and report to the public not just on illegality but also on ministerial impropriety. The Premier absolves herself from dealing with any suspected wrongdoing by her own colleagues, past and present. Some pundits use the boxing term “ducking and weaving” to describe this political practice.We remember that the DPP and the Police walked away from the Bermuda Housing Corp. scandal saying, ‘unethical but not illegal'. So if that area is not the responsibility of the police or the DPP or the Premier then whose responsibility is it?Whatever label you choose, Bermuda saw the Premier play politics to the hilt last Friday. The Opposition statements she used to kick off her attack were perfectly in line with our constitutional role to “challenge” and “hold accountable” (to quote the Premier's description of the Opposition's role); we must put Bermuda first.We continue to have serious concerns about the conduct of the Government and the handling of the public purse. So when serious allegations touch on these concerns, it is our duty to draw attention to them.We think the public would agree. Is that politics? Inevitably so, but it's not politrix. That's the Premier's thing.Trevor Moniz is Shadow Justice Minister and a One Bermuda Alliance MP