THE attainment of social justice is something I strongly believe in. So I will continue to question whether Bermuda's current social milieu has resulted from the way it was governed under the former United Bermuda Party or if stemmed from the social and political struggle which pressured the then Powers That Be to take steps to address inequalities in our society.

Interestingly in his reply to the opinions I expressed on this subject on May 23, when I accused the current raft of UBP politicians and officials of embarking on a revisionist view of social development in this country, party chairman Michael Fahy suggested that he is trying to inject a dose of level-headedness into this debate. He said - to use his words - that he "seeks to correct the distortions of the history of the UBP as Government as perpetuated by some in the Progressive Labour Party."

I can assure Mr. Fahy that I do not write on Bermuda's social conditions in a vacuum. Many of my opinions on this subject derive from real life experiences and observations of my country's social and political development.

I first became politically aware in 1968 as a teenager. Needless to say I was not allowed to vote in the General Election that occurred in that year; the voting age at that time was still 21. However I was a PLP supporter from that time and in the 1970s became a frequent writer of Letters to the Editor in which I discussed any number of issues from Bermuda's racial situation to trade unionism to the political struggles then underway in Bermuda. I listened to hundreds of hours of political debate and spent more time than I can accurately remember in the House of Assembly.

So, given this background, I believe I am well qualified to voice an opinion on the social and political development of Bermuda since I was actually on the scene during the period when many of the most profound changes took place.

If, UBP Chairman Mr. Fahy and his party are now big enough to acknowledge the role that Bermuda's black civil rights struggle played in changing Bermuda - and if he is prepared to give some credit to the Progressive Labour Party in pushing the than United Bermuda Party towards embracing such social reforms - then I submit such acknowledgement has come in a belated fashion and is grudging at best.

For I certainly did not get the impression, judging by other comments made by Mr. Fahy or from earlier opinions expressed by UBP Member of Parliament Bob Richards, that the then PLP Opposition or the black Bermudian civil rights struggle played any role in the bringing about of the Bermuda that we know today.

The United Bermuda Party's biggest claim to advancing the well-being of Bermudians is that it laid the groundwork for the economy that Bermuda enjoys today. But let us examine the precise nature of that economic change and its impact on the people of Bermuda.

In order to do that we must start from the premise that Bermuda has a dual view of its historical and social development. Recently, on Mother's Day in fact, I attended a luncheon and was struck by the fact that in the restaurant where we ate my party was served by all-Bermudian staff. Indeed I thought I had been transferred back into Bermuda's past back to the day that the tourist industry Bermuda was so proud of was in fact built on the goodwill of Bermudians and their gentility.

Both of these homegrown qualities gained world wide reputations during Bermuda's hey-day as a tourism destination. Without that all-important Bermudian component there would not have been the economy for which the UBP has constantly taken credit.

The lion's share of the tourism-generated wealth, of course. went to those who controlled Bermuda's economy at that time, the owners of the shops on prosperous Front Street.

They are the ones who benefitted most directly by providing the goods and services that maintained the tourist industry. The crumbs that fell from this prosperous table landed among ordinary Bermudians, the Bermudians who actually provided the backbone of this industry. That share of the wealth was greatly enhanced with the advent of a strong trade union movement which, through hard bargaining across the negotiating table and often as a result of labour struggles on the picket line, wrenched a fairer share of that tourism bounty out of the hands of those who, very often, were reluctant to give it up.

The United Bermuda Party was never a willing partner with the labour movement and the rank-and-file Bermudian workers. In fact, the UBP often voiced the opinion that labour and, in particular, organised labour led by the Bermudian Industrial Union, was out to destroy Bermuda.

There were many labour wars with Bermuda's employers, backed by their Government supporters within the UBP, before we reached a more equitable balance.

With the development of Bermuda's new economy and the flourishing of international businesses here, it is still not clear whether all of Bermuda's population is going to directly benefit from this boom. Are all Bermudians ever going to be able to work within this sector of the economy?

I remember when the foundations for the off-shore financial services economy were being laid in the 1980s and early '90s and the debate on so-called Bermudianisation grew extremely intense. I also remember some of the comments on the subject that came out of the then UBP Government.

I recall the disappointment of one particular UBP politician who voiced out-loud complaints that the recently built hotel school was not being patronised in sufficient numbers by Bermudians. Instead, he said, young people had their eyes on jobs in the lucrative and growing international business sector.

It was not thought that our population would naturally want to aspire to the highest positions in their country's economy.

But why shouldn't the next generation of Bermudians, just like the children of the European immigrants who migrated to the United States in the early 19th century, want to become doctors, lawyers and captains of industry in America's emerging economy?

Their parents had done the hard work, the jobs no one else wanted, precisely so their children would enjoy a better life than they had.

Mr. Fahy invokes the names of some of Bermuda's icons and national heroes who helped to bring about change in this country, namely the late Dame Lois Browne Evans and the late L. F. Wade. He suggested that they would not like what is going on in this country as far as some of the actions of the current PLP Government are concerned.

This is a frequent fall-back position that members of the UBP have adopted in recent times in an effort to crown themselves in some of the acclaim that surrounds those who took principled positions in the struggle for social change.

But these attempts to steal some of the glory are insulting given that while Mr. Wade and Dame Lois were alive and walking among us, their advocacy for social justice and change were repudiated by this same UBP.

In responding to the comments of the United Bermuda Party's Michael Fahy, I repeat my original statement when I first broached this subject: "One can learn from one's historical experience, but one cannot change historical facts."