BERMUDA is a rumour mongering country and I think gossip is probably our number one national pastime. I don't think that too many people will disagree with this statement. But there are problems associated with all of these half-truths that are passed off as fact: there are serious real world consequences when the unreal world of rumour and gossip begins to routinely get accepted as fact.

This, essentially, is the crux of the public relations problem faced by Premier Dr. Ewart Brown when it comes to the growing perception that he lacks political support within the Progressive Labour Party.

In the wake of the unfulfilled predictions by various political pundits that his position as leaders of the PLP (and, by extension, the Government) was going to be challenged at the recently concluded PLP party conference, one can only conclude that such opinions fell squarely into the rumour-mongering category..

One can only surmise that much of the talk of a supposed move against the Premiership of Dr. Brown was, in fact, media-driven despite the critical comments emanating from so-called PLP political insiders and even delegates from the party conference itself.

As regards one particularly outspoken PLP conference delegate who was certain that Premier Brown's leadership was going to be challenged, one can only say that at least Judas hung himself on the tree of iniquity. If this person lacks the courage to follow a similar path than he or she should at the very least return the 30 pieces of silver to whoever paid him to publicly betray and denounce Dr. Brown.

But there was one aspect of the run-up to the PLP conference that was based in reality. But I am sure that most PLP supporters were hoping this particular matter could have been left in the past where it belongs. Of course, I am referring to all of the bitter invective exchanged between supporters and opponents of Dr. Brown, the finger-pointing and mutual recriminations between those who backed his predecessors and those who back him.

I am sure that political detractors of Premier Brown outside the party have a long-term desire to see the removal of not just him but the Progressive Labour Party from Government. They must have been rubbing their hands with glee at the thought that this could conceivably come about given the internecine squabbling the Press picked up on.

I was too young to be a part of the bitter in-fighting that took place in the PLP in the early '60s which resulted in the first-round of expulsions of some MPs and the formation of the short-lived Bermuda Democratic Party (effectively wiped out after the 1968 General Election). This internal rift no doubt played a big part in the PLP's failure to win the Government at that first election held under the Universal Franchise. The PLP's confidence was shaken by the drubbing it experienced that year (losing an election it thought it could easily win by a lopsided 30 Parliamentary seats to 10) and it remained in the political wilderness for the next 30 years, experiencing successive political defeats at the polls before finally winning the Government in 1998.

Of course I was well aware of the bitter divisions which broke out in the PLP in the 1980s over the question of the continuing leadership of Dame Lois Browne-Evans. The in-house squabbling resulted in the expulsions of several long-time PLP Members of Parliament who took their supporters with them and formed the National Liberal Party (NLP).

Premier Sir John Swan, leader of the United Bermuda Party Government at that time, took full political advantage of the situation, calling two back-to-back elections which resulted in the greatest political setbacks the PLP had ever experienced. It seems the PLP supporters punished their own party by staying away from the polls in 1983 and 1985.

I remember my own role in the bitter in-fighting. I wrote an article which attempted to provide the ideological reasons for not supporting the dissidents in favour of the continued leadership of Dame Lois Browne-Evans. It was a stance that I would later regret. This in reality was not a struggle based wholly and principally on ideology, but a struggle for the control of the PLP.

I remember approaching Dame Lois, calling upon her to confront her political detractors and step down and face a leadership election. I was sure she would win any such election hands-down.

But she refused, stating the party had a mechanism for leadership challenges which led through the party's delegate conference. And until the next one was convened she was the duly elected leader.

I would never again take sides in a political civil war within the PLP, for I had learned the lesson of the utter futility in engaging in such in-fighting without looking at the big picture.

I've had my differences with the party, of course. I would later be at odds with the party's stance over the John Swan's referendum on Independence, which the PLP called on its supporters to boycott (a call I ignored and argued forcefully against).

And then, a few years back, there were those who wanted me to do hatchet jobs in print on Dame Jennifer Smith. but apart from giving what I thought was some good advice on where I thought she was going wrong as Premier, I refused to take sides. I only commented on the end results of her tenure as Premier when she lost the leadership.

So it is in this context that I regret the failed effort to unseat Premier Brown from his position as leader of the PLP and Government: from the position of understanding just how crippling self-inflicted wounds can be to a political party's credibility and electability.

This is not to say that I would blindly follow any leader, even Premier Brown. But any suggestion that there is going to be a wholesale withdrawal of support from our sitting leader has to be based on something more substantial than rumour mongering.