He said, he said, all right: a good headline, Mr Editor, and a fair summation of what has become a sad, sorry spectacle. Sordid too: disclosure of the existence of a surreptitious tape recording by one MP of another, the contents of which we have yet to hear, and an open mic the contents of which were there for all to hear. No question that all of this has become a talking point up and down Bermuda, I’m sure, and most probably abroad as well, and regardless of whatever we think or whomever we believe, it is no commendation for those at the centre of the controversy. Or for Bermuda either.

Okay, okay. I hear you, this we know already, Barritt. What we now want to know is where do we go from here? Good question. Let me say first that it is not my intention to use this column to pile on. Neither do I want to be sanctimonious. As many of you know, I’ve been there and done that in the sandbox we know as the House on the Hill.

This politics. It isn’t physics, yet Newton’s third law of motion easily applies: To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual action of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts. Include overreaction as well — and so it spirals as we can wonder what’s coming next and watch in awe as parties dig for higher ground.

Like you, I don’t believe it has to be this way. We can modify or change the system under which we are governed, and I have long been an advocate for reform on the Hill. It is a first step, a very necessary first step, if we are to have any hope of changing the political culture around here. That said, I am not entirely naive. Ultimately it will always come down to the people who are elected to serve us on the Hill, and down to their strength of character, their honesty and their integrity.

What we require are people at the centre who are prepared to break the cycle, whether by way of reform and changing the way we do business in the House on the Hill, or by changing behaviours — or better still both.

This is not going to be easy. That much is clear from recent events, now one year into a new Government that came in to power with the promise and expectation of a change.

The politics of parties interferes. Here’s how: I start with what columnist Charles Krauthammer describes as the “central axiom of partisan politics”. He is generally regarded as a conservative thinker who is also known and respected for his uncompromising honesty about politics. Here’s how he put it in his recently published book “Things That Matter”:

“To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”

He goes on to explain how time, money and energy are spent enforcing and reinforcing and making these labels stick; and it works for the two major parties in the States. Sound familiar? Of course it does. Here in Bermuda we have our own labels that are bandied about frequently by party partisans: rich, poor; black, white; labour, business; competent, incompetent; honest, dishonest. That’s only the shortlist; indeed, you may have your own.

These are mostly allegations that often come in the form of accusations, sometimes accurate, sometimes not. They feature prominently in political discourse, sometimes expressed, sometimes not, but always understood. We keep doing it apparently because it works. As in the US we the voters buy into it.

Parties are about manoeuvres and one upmanship. The cancellation of the referendum on gaming is a case in point. The OBA Government found a way to reverse its position (after a full year of promising but failing to deliver on a referendum) when the Premier came forward with his take on a private telephone conversation he had with the Opposition Leader, on which he had allowed two of his Ministers to listen in. When the disclosure was made the Opposition Leader wasn’t in the House to defend himself and to present his party’s position. Christmas may have intervened but it escalated from there, from one shocking allegation to another, culminating now in legal action. The added irony is that we also now know that the reversal appeared to follow almost to the letter the confidential playbook on how to manage a reversal that had been produced for the Tourism Minister that subsequently emerged.

A referendum wasn’t the only casualty here. Trust was another.

You have to wonder too, about the continued efficacy of private conversations among our elected leaders, unless of course you are ‘wired’ and/or have an independent witness or two. Mind you, the latter should in fact be standard operating procedure, most especially when it involves Government business.

We have also learned from disclosures about behind the scenes meetings which apparently featured attempts to secure cross party agreement to abandon a referendum and push for gaming for Bermuda with a united front, which was countered by the suggestion that they form some kind of coalition government instead. You have to wonder: where do the people, the voters, fit in all this? That Swahili proverb, a favourite of mine, pertains: whether the elephants make war or make love, the grass always suffers.

We are the grass and the grass has been seriously burned around here — and in more ways than one.

Next up The Budget which should prove a distraction, although not necessarily a welcome one given all that we know about the state of Government finances. It is also difficult to see how the one issue will not bleed into the next. Brace yourselves people

*Share your views on The Royal Gazette website or write jbarritt@ibl.bm.