The following is independent MP Shawn Crockwell’s last speech in the House of Assembly, on May 19, courtesy of the official Hansard report:

Thank you, Mr Speaker (Randy Horton). I had not planned to speak. (The Speaker: Everybody says that, Honourable Member.) I certainly planned to have been in my bed a long time ago, Mr Speaker, tonight. Certainly, the Minister of Sport (Nandi Outerbridge) made some references and, let me say, did a fabulous job in her presentation. I think we can all recognise the growth of that Minister in this House. (Desk thumping)

Mr Speaker, however, I do want to address a few things, particularly what the Honourable Member (Sylvan Richards) who just took his seat said. But before I do that, Mr Speaker, I was sitting there saying to myself, looking at the gallery, and I am always marvelled when it is around one o’clock or two o’clock in the morning and there are people in the gallery. And I am saying to myself, “Wow! You know, if I did not have to be here, would I be here?”

And then I see these young people in the gallery, and now I see the Honourable Deputy Speaker sitting next to one, and I realise who that young man is. And he does not know, he may not remember, but I used to throw that young man up in the air when he was a little boy and it is so good to see him growing into a fine young man. So when I saw that, and recognised him, I said, “Oh God, I cannot believe that is little Dillon.”

But, Mr Speaker, I want to say to the Honourable Member (Sylvan Richards) who was just making the references about the American election, first of all, let me say I hope he does not get put on the stop list now after his comments. (Laughter) But I will just leave that for him when he next goes through immigration! Mr Speaker, hopefully no one is listening.

The likelihood is, whether or not there are many people listening tonight, I still think that I have the responsibility to set the record straight. I am going to explain a few things, and I do not think I have to for some of the Members on that side (the One Bermuda Alliance), Mr Speaker, but another reason why Donald Trump won that election was because Hillary Clinton had a trust issue.

Now, I felt that Hillary Clinton should have won. If I were able to vote, I would have voted for Hillary Clinton. But what they (the Republicans) exploited in that election was a huge challenge that she had. And that challenge was whether or not the people of the United States trusted her because of various things that happened in her political history.

Mr Speaker, I said before that I sit on the committee for trying to investigate a living wage for this country. And it has been an eye-opening experience for me. I will let the Honourable Minister know that sometimes, to my criticism of the chairman of that committee [Rolfe Commissiong], we have had a broad section of the community come. It felt like ... I got an e-mail from the Honourable Member from Constituency 34, the Honourable Member, Ms (Kim) Wilson, who is chairman of another committee that I sit on. She was asking the Members if we enjoyed the break. I was wondering what break she was talking about because the chairman for this committee has not stopped.

And I glory in his commitment to this issue. And the information that has been coming before this committee paints the picture of that other Bermuda that we hear about. And if the Honourable Member (Sylvan Richards) who just took his seat really does not believe that there are Two Bermudas, then he has been enjoying the good life a little too long, Mr Speaker.

I am just saying ... I am not saying that ... OK, I am glad he was not saying that because it is very clear and palpable that we have two distinct Bermudas in this country, Mr Speaker.

The information that came to me, and I would invite the Honourable Minister (Nandi Outerbridge) ... and I am glad she read my comments from Hansard because when I made that statement I was repeating what we were told by a very reputable individual, and it will be interesting to know whether or not you add the “able-bodied persons” to the “earning low” individuals what that figure would be in comparison to. But the gentleman who said ... what he said was that there was concern that this number had increased. Now, if there is a decrease ... if we are seeing a decrease in able-bodied persons coming off of financial assistance, that is a good thing.

And when that Honourable Minister was speaking and when she was enumerating all of the wonderful achievements ... and I am not here to beat my chest, but a lot of them came under my remit, Mr Speaker. They came under my remit while I was there, with the support of the Government, because it is not just one particular minister who can do everything. But it came under my remit. And I can recall the hard work that was put into it.

I liked where she said when we were being attacked on the Bermuda Tourism Authority ... but I can tell you, I remember when that fire was coming. I was looking left and right; I had to deal with the fire, Mr Speaker. And that is life in politics. Sometimes when things look like it could go south, sometimes you have to hold your own and do well. And things worked out well for the Bermuda Tourism Authority because we recognised and understood what it could and will do.

And the hard work that went into the negotiations to get the hotel in St George’s. And we know even harder negotiations happened even more recently to get that achieved, and all the other things that we have heard.

I am not disputing any of the good news so that the Government, rightfully so, should get on their feet and say, “Look at we have done during our term.”

But what I want to remind the Government of is that this is not going to decide the next election. The OBA may very well get re-elected. That is what the electorate is for. That is what going to the polls is all about. Let the people decide. And I think this is going to be a very interesting election, but it is not going to be about, “This is what we’ve done”. It is not.

The next election is going to be decided upon whether or not the people of this country, the majority of those who will cast their vote, believe that the OBA government cares about them, if the OBA government’s focus and priority is the people of Bermuda, the average Bermudian. And that is the decision that the people will have to make. And that is going to be where the challenge will lie with the Government.

And I think that the Opposition ... because it will be interesting to see how this next campaign pans out, Mr Speaker. I am going to enjoy watching it. But the problems are these, Mr Speaker. And I am going to share a story with you.

The problems are that when the Government had to make difficult decisions, like impose a furlough day, let us share the pain. We all have to share the pain. The average civil servant ... and some of them are my family members. This happened to me when I was at a family function. This is when I knew that there were some problems with the Government because when the Government gets up and says, “You have to take a furlough day, and your income has to be reduced, and they enforce that, because we have no money ... we have no money. The mantra of the Government is that the Government is broke.

We have to do things like shut down the clinic in St George’s, which was reversed. But it was an economic decision because we have no money. So when that decision was made, which caused all sorts of disquiet in St David’s and St George’s, and the Government had to reverse its decision; the decision that was made, as small as not having an exhibition because we have no money ... you have to understand that the Government is broke, so we cannot do these things.

This is what we are telling the people — we’re broke. We are telling the people, “You have to cut back; you have to take less. We are going to cut your salary.”

And then, just like that, irrespective of the justification, just like that you can find $70 million for an America’s Cup event.

Some say you have to spend money to make money. But if you ain’t got money, Mr Speaker, how can you spend it? It does not make sense. You cannot tell the country that you are broke ... and I am just trying to break it down so people can understand. We can get into the whole investment and what type of economic activity it is going to generate in the community. But when you tell somebody you are broke and [they] have to take less money home and then you can find $70 million for a sporting event, it creates a problem for those people.

So when I am at this event and this person says to me, “I don’t understand how the Government is trying to take money from me, telling me to sacrifice, but yet they can find this money so easily for this event” ... those are the types of explanations the Government is going to have to provide.

They have to explain to those folks who made those sacrifices. Why was it you were broke then, but all of a sudden you can find $70 million. Do you know what ... to some people in the House $70 million is not that big of a deal. Some people in this community cannot even comprehend that.

So wait a minute. You had $70 million somewhere to bring the America’s Cup to Bermuda ... now, I am hoping that it is a great success. I am hoping that it creates the economic boon that the Government hopes it will. But I am just creating the picture of why some people, as that Honourable Member (Diallo Rabain) said, do not get it.

When you have a situation where the Honourable Member came here and we had a debate on land grabs, Mr Speaker. And he was inviting this House to establish a Commission of Inquiry. The explanation given as to why we could not support that was because we had no money. We had no money. Who is going to pay for the Commission of Inquiry, we said. Why would we have a Commission of Inquiry when we cannot afford it?

But then, somehow or the other, money comes from out of nowhere for a Commission of Inquiry into the fiscal years 2010, 2011, 2012. (House disturbance and Speaker’s gavel) I do not know what the final figure is going to be. It is going to be in the millions. One or two million, I don’t know. But the point is these are the issues that the Government is going to have to deal with.

How can you have no money one day for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate a very serious issue in the black community of this country about historical loss of land ... you have no money for that. But yet we can find money for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the PLP.

It becomes an issue. That is why some people do not get it. They do not understand. They do not understand how those two things can be compatible, Mr Speaker.

I will tell you that I am now here as an independent Member. Clearly, I have supported the Opposition for a few of their initiatives in this House. And, yes, people say I am a founding member. The Honourable Finance Minister ... and I heard what the Honourable Member who just took his seat said, Well, that is the Minister for the right time.

He may recall the speech I gave in this House during one Budget Debate. “The right man at the right time for the right job.”

I will never have any criticism for the Finance Minister and the job he has had to do. I have said from Day 1 in this House that he has the most difficult job. And he has gone about it, in my view, in a dignified way. Stuck to the wicket, Mr Speaker.

And although he said to me in private once about who actually came up with the genesis of the OBA ... I hope he has had some time to reflect on that, Mr Speaker. I am not going to go down that history trail. But I can tell you there was a time when the OBA, that whole merger was in serious jeopardy. And that Honourable Member called me and said, “We cannot afford this to happen. Come to my office, I have a presentation for you.”

And I went. And he showed me a very good presentation. You know how he likes his presentations and graphs, and it showed, “This is what we can do, and this is how we can win.”

I said: “You know what? You’re right.” And we got that whole thing back on track.

But you know, Mr Speaker, the problem is that the OBA government has not ... they came into this, and what troubles me is that I remember when I was in the United Bermuda Party. I left the United Bermuda Party for certain reasons. We came and we formed the One Bermuda Alliance and why ... my goal and vision was that this has to be an all-inclusive party.

It has to be a party that is not just going to understand the economy, the economics, what we need to do to turn the economy around, such and such. It also has to understand the social sensitivities in this country. It also has to understand how we can bring people along and make people feel included. And they have dropped that ball.

I had an experience in a caucus meeting once. This was the first caucus after the double homicide that happened up at Belvin’s. I will never forget this, Mr Speaker. And this is when I started thinking to myself, “You know what? Am I in the wrong room?”

The room has not changed, because in that caucus meeting after that double homicide, I remember the Premier now (Michael Dunkley) was the Minister of National Security at the time, and we were sitting next to each other. And he said to me: “I might be in some trouble tonight.”

And he should have been. He should have been grilled hard. What’s going on? What are we going to do?

But do you know what, Mr Speaker? When it came time to opening up for individuals to ask questions, there were three white gentlemen in the caucus, the only three that spoke, on motion to adjourn ... or, not motion to adjourn, [but] on any other business. Now, I am sitting next to the Minister of National Security right after a double homicide. The first question was directed towards me concerning dumpster trucks. The second question was concerning trucks that did not have an H licence but was doing hauling. And the third question was about loud bikes. And then that meeting concluded, and the Premier, the Minister of National Security at the time, turned to me and said: “Wow, I got off easy.”

But I said to him privately after (not right after, sometime after then) ... I had numerous conversations with him about how are we going to turn around the mindset of the party. I said to him: “How can we have a double homicide on a Saturday — or whatever day it was, I believe it was a weekend — and here we are on a Tuesday night in caucus, and not one person brought it up.”

Not one person was concerned about this issue. Not one person was discussing the fact that two young black men lost their lives. That is the problem with the OBA party.

And do you know what, Mr Speaker? There are some Members in the Government ... because I sat there, during the Pathways to Status when we almost came to civil war in this country, and I saw and heard the mindset and the posture and the feelings towards Bermudians, the disrespect that was shown towards Bermudians.

And other issues ... we had the recent issue here (December 2) when we had the protesters down on the street, Mr Speaker. No, it is not all about me mate! (in response to OBA Member) That is the problem. And that is what the next election is going to be about.

I have friends of mine who I know voted for the OBA in 2012. Then I have family members ... when I had my sister, Mr Speaker, ... I had to start looking at myself in the mirror when my sister was down here protesting every day during the Pathways to Status. My sister! And there were conversations in the room about going up here and arresting them. And I am saying: “What’s going to happen if a riot breaks out?”

Because my sister was up there. And I know that other Members in that room had family members up here. That is what it is going to be about. So, you can interpolate. You can say things about me or anything else. Until the OBA party and Government addresses that issue, the issue that black Bermudians do not believe the party has their interests at heart. That is the issue. Not whether or not a hotel gets started in St George’s, or if the tourism numbers are going up, or the retail sales.

I am glad all of that is happening, Mr Speaker. I am glad it is all happening. But if the people at the end of the day do not feel that you care about them, that is how they are going to vote.