October 5, 2012Dear Sir,I am commenting on the letter from “Vote PLP” on Friday Oct 5th …. The writer asked, “What does voting for the Progressive Labour Party mean …” She goes on to say:Ÿ “Social programmes will continue and the middle and lower class will continue to benefit.” No they will not. This Government will not have the funds to continue many of these programmes, any more than they have the funds now to continue to support the Sunshine League, Mirrors, Salvation Army and other organisations they have previously supported. Our Government is broke …. You can’t squeeze blood from a stone. The only way they can continue programmes is to borrow more money, which we and our children and their children, the taxpayers for generations to come, will have to repay.Ÿ “…PLP will continue to weather the storm and work daily for the betterment of Bermuda”…. Can anyone honestly say that Bermuda is better today than it was five years ago? Better for who? Oh, I know, friends and family of high ranking Government members. And “weather the storm” — how? More borrowing???Ÿ “…PLP will continue to support the EEZ …” How? With what money? More borrowing? See my comment above. Our Government is broke.Take a look around you. Potholes in the roads, weeds everywhere, insufficient and outdated textbooks and equipment for our public schools, paint peeling off the ferry boats, unrepaired ferry/public docks and playground equipment (bandaided “temporarily” — care to guess how long it’ll be before it is properly repaired??), paycheques for teachers and civil service at the last minute, numerous “out of order” and unrepaired buses, trash piled up on the sides of roads due to reduced collection schedule, cruise ships that won’t return because Bermuda can’t provide services they need to keep their passengers happy … and more …. But the MP and GP cars are shiny, clean, insured, filled with gas (who pays for that, by the way?)…. and there are hundreds of them!!Regarding the recession and associated misfortune. Yes, there is a global recession, but Bermuda has historically been fairly immune to recession, due in large part to diligent planning and foresight by astute and wise leaders, who saved for a rainy day and ensured the Government had surplus funds to carry Bermuda through these difficult times. That is not what the current Government did. They recklessly spent and overspent. There are millions of our dollars that are unaccounted for. There was no transparency …. Government’s interest payments alone on that debt amounts to $232,000 per day! That money sure could be helping a lot of people right now!There was no need for so many Bermudian jobs to be made redundant. Companies did not outsource their business due to cost factors. The International Companies that are here are very successful (still!), and have enjoyed many benefits from being domiciled in Bermuda. They outsourced and downsized because of the PLP Government’s hostile attitude and negativity towards the necessary expatriate professionals (who hired and were supported by Bermudian staff, who were given ongoing training and opportunity for advancement). They sent staff away from Bermuda because they could not trust the current Government to honour their word to communicate their intentions regarding payroll taxes and other issues directly affecting these companies. Once that trust was lost, the exodus began with a vengeance. And many Bermudians in positions supporting those staff members were laid off/made redundant. This did not have to happen, and hundreds of Bermudians would have still have their jobs, the expatriate and Bermudian staff members would still be receiving salaries, paying payroll taxes and insurances, and the local economy would still have these people shopping, hiring staff at home, renting apartments and homes, sending their children to school, having friends fly in to visit, dine out, shop and enjoy Bermuda. This is what drives our economy, not government handouts.So, my dear writer, that is what has happened under the current Government, and we can only anticipate more of the same downward spiral if we vote this inept and dishonourable Government back into power.Time for change!D MARTINWarwick