Airport yesterday. That debate was in the wake of the vote by Members of Parliament to outlaw foreign fast food franchises. The passage of Ann Cartwright DeCouto's bill prevents Grape Bay from opening McDonald's at the Airport, one on the departure check-in level and one upstairs where the present restaurant is. It does not, however, prevent Grape Bay Ltd., owned by former Premier Sir John Swan, UBP MP Maxwell Burgess and others, from opening restaurants at the Airport.

The Cabinet debate is the latest move amid problems surrounding the grant of concession leases at the Airport. From the very beginning there have been complaints about the process and that was followed by the grant of leases to people who no longer wanted them. Surely that was incompetence.

The most serious complaint was from young Bermudians who said their food concession application had been ignored in favour of Grape Bay Ltd. and McDonald's. That complaint was bound to cause deep concern since Grape Bay Ltd. involved Sir John Swan and Maxwell Burgess, whose running mate in Hamilton West is the Minister of Transport in control of the Airport.

Then there was the rather strange and very confusing announcement by the Minister that Grape Bay Ltd. had been granted permission for the Airport concessions. This came just days before the Commission inquiring into franchises recommended that there be no fast food franchises at the Airport.

Clearly the left hand of the Cabinet had no idea what the right hand was doing.

Premier David Saul has said that the McDonald's issue is dead and that Government must move on. We agree but the truth is that Government cannot move on effectively without first repairing its credibility. As a result of the grant to Grape Bay Ltd., and of the strange events at the Airport, there is now deep public suspicion. The people know that McDonald's would have destroyed small Bermudian businesses and wonder why it was to be allowed. The public also knows that just about the only people in favour of franchises were the Cabinet, Sir John Swan, Maxwell Burgess and Renee Webb. Again, the public is deeply suspicious.

The UBP Government made a grave mistake when it tried to put Sir John Swan's Independence movement behind it without first coming clean and declaring who was in favour of Independence and who was not. Because it was never put to rest, the wounds of Independence smouldered into "The Five'' and the whole McDonald's mess. The UBP should not make the same mistake again. There has to be closure of all of this.

The only realistic solution we can see is a genuinely independent inquiry, not another stacked Commission, into the agreement to McDonald's and the grant of Airport concessions. It should probably be conducted by a judge from outside Bermuda.