who would normally support the UBP worked hard to elect Mr. Stuart Hayward in Pembroke West Central. This time many of those people seem to be notably absent from his campaign.

We think they supported Mr. Hayward because they felt in 1989 that he was a man of the middle, a person who could make a difference and an honest broker.

Since then, we think people have been leaving Mr. Hayward because they discovered he was none of those things.

As the last Parliament developed and as the public learned more about Mr.

Hayward, it became clear that he was not a man in the middle but a PLP supporter who had been elected as a green candidate. Mr. Hayward's failure to make a meaningful contribution in the House of Assembly may indicate there is no real place in elected politics for independents to contribute.

Soon after he was elected, it began to be clear that Mr. Hayward could not make a difference. His public hoped he would be a voice of reason. He became a voice which did not impact on the House because he was outside the thinking of the House. Members were unfriendly to him and tended to "hoot and holler'' every time he rose to speak. Bad treatment by "hooting and hollering'' is often seen as fun in the House of Assembly but Mr. Hayward also began to lose his general following. He was elected as an environmentalist but he strayed from his subject and he became the odd voice and the outside voice on all sorts of subjects, like children.

Instead of working at home on environmental problems, of which there are plenty, Mr. Hayward chose to bad mouth Bermuda and Bermudians abroad, first at Earth Summit in Rio and then to the very important Conde Nast Traveler magazine. The things he said were so wide that they made Bermuda sound like a filthy dirty place no-one would want to visit, and made Bermudians sound like terrible people bent on messing up their country and the rest of the globe.

Among other things he said: "Bermuda is an island of crises. Not crisis, crises.'' "Bermuda used to be the isle of rest. Now it's the isle of stress.'' "Bermuda is probably the number one polluter on the globe per capita.....'' The truth is that Bermuda's environment is good and Bermudians are generally more careful than most people but we would all like it to be better because we care. Mr. Hayward was not able to project that truth, even outside Bermuda.

As a person with a strong voice on the environment, he heavily influenced the delay of the Tyne's Bay incinerator. The reality is he carried on his objections to the incinerator long after the Development Applications Board had dealt with the major environmental concerns about the plant and long after there was a public consensus in favour of building it as one part of the Island's total waste management policy. By all means protect the environment, but be sensible. The incinerator had to be built because conditions were becoming intolerable for dump area residents. The dump was full and stinking.

There was no other real alternative. Mr. Hayward's continued objections, which sometimes came close to fear-mongering did nothing to help solve the problem.

That's not a man in the middle.

It emerged over the weekend that Mr. Hayward's political advertising leaves a good deal to be desired. The Mid-Ocean News pointed out, forcefully, that his ads are less than straightforward. During the last election campaign this newspaper was very concerned about some of Mr. Hayward's actions. It does seem from his advertising this time that the best he can do for endorsements is altered quotes from negative editorials. That is not an honest broker.