we will continue to encourage tolerance and constructive engagement on the things with potential to divide us.'' These words in the Progressive Labour Party's 1998 platform were a great encouragement to voters in the run-up to November 9, especially for those who felt they had no stake in the community.

It also suggested that a new era was dawning in Bermuda; one in which the talents of all Bermudians would be utilised to make a better Bermuda, free of the rancour and divisiveness which had increasingly marked the Island's politics.

That, rightly, did not mean that United Bermuda Party MPs would continue to chair Government boards after losing the election. But there was an expectation that people who might have been UBP supporters would still be able to give service to the community. To some extent that has happened, although there were occasions when the Government boards were selected when very good and relatively politically neutral people were removed from boards to make way for Government backbenchers.

In other instances, it has not happened at all, and in the case of the recently-appointed Parish Councils, quite the reverse has occurred with wholesale changes and the appointments of members, almost all of whom have strong PLP allegiances. In some cases, that seems to have been the only qualification.

Health and Social Services Minister Nelson Bascome, who is responsible for the Parish Councils, has stated that the Councils were appointed on the advice of Government MPs, and where there were no Government MPs in a particular parish, on the advice of PLP branch committees.

It is true that the Parish Councils were previously dominated by UBP supporters and friends. That was wrong, although the PLP was to blame to some extent because of its longstanding refusal to sit on Government boards. Of course, where the PLP did have a statutory right to advice on appointments, it was often ignored, so it may have believed any effort was futile. The fact is that we will never know what would have happened.

But it can be argued, especially where a parish does not have a rest home, that the councils served little purpose anyway.

But Government rightly intends to give the Councils more power and, possibly as soon as next year, to make them elected offices. Those are measures that most people will support.

At best, the current slate of appointments looks like business as usual. At worst it gives the appearance of an attempt to stack the deck before the local elections to assure the PLP of majorities.

This may not have been the intention of Mr. Bascome, who has a a reputation for straight-dealing and honesty.

Nonetheless, it is hard not to agree with Opposition MP John Barritt, who said Mr. Bascome should at the very least have consulted with UBP MPs for their advice on leading members in their constituencies. That would have resulted in fairer and more balanced Councils.

Instead, an opportunity for true inclusion has been lost.