ANYONE who has spent an afternoon in a boat a few miles off shore Bermuda, anyone who has hovered over the island in a helicopter, can see the whole island at a glance from end to end. No one in his right mind would describe this volcanic outcrop as a country or a nation ? it is a coral flyspeck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Tiny, isolated and vulnerable, Bermuda will always be at the mercy of both nature's fury and the world's total indifference to our existence. Only politicians who are the most out-and-out egotists ? Pekinese with delusions of being Great Danes ? would talk in terms of Bermuda taking its "rightful place" on the world stage. As what exactly? The most conceited bit player in world history?

A former Member of Parliament, the late Russell Levi Pearman, once told me that Bermudians did not want sovereign Independence because they were already the most independent people on the face of the planet but were sensible enough to recognise the benefits that accrued from having a long-distance relationship with Great Britain. He was right.

But I remember when a young PLP MP attacked Mr. Pearman regarding his anti-Independence stance, accusing him of being "brainwashed".

Without hesitation Mr. Pearman responded: "Yes, I have been brainwashed ? by a detergent called experience."

Let's face the fact, people, that Britain is an absentee constitutional landlord ? they do not interfere in our internal affairs and our association with a superpower does provide substantial fringe benefits that no other micro-state enjoys.

For instance, our international financial services sector, now the only pillar of Bermuda's economy, was built around the fact that companies incorporated here have leave of appeal to the British Privy Council. That would not be the case if the Progressive Labour Party Government pursued its plans to place an Independent Bermuda under the umbrella of a proposed Caribbean Supreme Court.

If it were not so dangerous and destabilising, the present Premier's obsession with Independence would be comical. He keeps on saying that Independence will "bring us together". To some degree it has ? but not in the way Alex Scott would like. He has managed to unite Bermudians from all walks of life his leadership and aspirations for Independence. They have been brought together to prevent him from taking us on a forced march to Independence and the economic decline that would inevitably follow.

Bermudians are shrewd people. Given the PLP record of mismanagement, corruption and overspending, Bermudians can see what is in store for them ? and their wallets ? if the island goes to Independence (the budget surplus the PLP inherited from the former United Bermuda Government has long since been frittered away on follies like the Bermuda Housing Corporation, a fleet of new limousines, Berkeley ? and $750,000 pay-outs to house painters who happen to be friends of the Premier).

The grim but unavoidable reality is that a Government which cannot build a school can hardly be expected to excel at nation-building. You can just imagine what would happen. Independence would mean a mission to the United Nations, new embassies all over the world, politicians and a new, taxpayer-subsidised diplomatic corps jet-setting it all over the world ? with less money, of course, to spend here at home on such routine housekeeping chores as keeping the hospitals and schools running properly.

The PLP is already known as the "Party, Party" Party in some quarters because of its indulgence in the expensive perks of office. Members of this Government already travel enough (at our expense) to qualify for some kind of record in terms of their accumulated frequent flier miles.

Can you imagine what would happen if we were an Independent "nation" and the politicians felt obliged to "represent" us at all manner of glittering international conferences (where their voices would never be heard)? The only possible positive in this that I can see if that at least the MPs would spend even more time out of Bermuda ? and hence could do less harm.

Does Alex Scott really think his Bermuda Independence Commission will really convince anyone to support his sovereignty initiative? This Independence commission is hardly "independent" in terms of its make-up. PLP party hacks, business people who are cosying up to this Government to keep their work permits renewed and those lucrative public contracts flowing in, ageing revolutionaries who could not convince anyone that their radical agendas actually made sense in the zonked-out 1960s (let alone in the 21st century!) ? come on! The whole exercise is another taxpayer-financed sham.

I know the views on Independence of more than half the BIC members ? and I can guess the opinions of the rest. If the Premier thinks he is adding a veneer of objectivity and respectability to his Independence push by creating this committee, he is very much mistaken.

Most Bermudians will simply ignore whatever findings the BIC comes up with ? I, and many others, suspect a draft of the final report recommending Independence will probably already have been written before they hold a single meeting.

It's all so very predictable. The Premier will claim the BIC is a representative body (which it clearly is not) and then attempt to use its all too predictable findings as the green light for Independence.

But the overwhelming majority of Bermudians will not accept this. Bermudians do not trust the Premier and they do not trust his hand-picked BIC ? they do not want either Alex Scott or the BIC deciding their futures.

How can this Premier expect anyone to take him seriously when he describes the Independence "debate" (it's a monologue) he forced upon as "an exercise in democracy"? If Alex Scott was so committed to the basic tenets of democracy why then is he so opposed to a referendum of the issue, the purest form of popular democracy?

Anyone who thinks that either the Premier or this Independence committee is operating without either bias or a hidden agenda should march in lockstep behind them as they walk over the edge of Abbot's Cliff. And that's precisely what Independence under Alex Scott amounts to ? diving off a cliff without knowing how deep the water is below you.