The economy has boomed under the PLP but not everyone has prospered and the strains have been evident – from choked roads, higher living costs and a growing underclass.

While relations with international business have prospered during the PLP years, former environment Minister Arthur Hodgson said there had been a downside.

He explained: "I think one of the failings of the PLP is to not have harnessed development to improve the quality of life as opposed to allowing developments to drag us along."

And he said the PLP had failed to seriously address the imbalance of wealth between the races to ensure black people get more, although the empowerment zone in North East Hamilton was a start.

"I think it is far too little far too late and hopefully it can get a momentum."

Bermuda College economist Craig Simmons said working class incomes had barely kept up with inflation under the PLP.

Since 1999, real incomes in the construction industry have fallen and it was a similar story for the transportation sector, hotels and restaurants, said Mr. Simmons.

"Relative to the female-dominated international business sector, where incomes have grown appreciably, working class men have seen their incomes decrease."

The PLP has distinguished itself as having presided over a period of expanding job opportunities for non-Bermudians at the expense of Bermudians, said Mr. Simmons.

According to The Arnold Group, a human resource consultancy retained by the PLP, between 2000 and 2004, 1,784 non-Bermudians jobs were created, whist 1,438 Bermudian jobs were lost, said Mr. Simmons.

That trend has continued; it is the consequence of excessive average GDP growth, within the context of a constant local population.

The demand for workers is made trickier by declining numbers of Bermudians available for the workforce.

So work permit numbers have risen. In 1998 there were a total of 9,352 – in that figure there were 7,947 permits for a year or more and 1,405 three-month permits.

In 2007 18,131 work permits were issued but 6,917 of those were three-month permits and 11,214 were for a year or more.

Former Chamber of Commerce head Charles Gosling said: "Bermuda's birthrate is going down, there are fewer Bermudians entering the workforce each year through various ways. When we send our kids overseas not 100 percent come back, a fair number of them stay abroad and get work experience.

"And yet we have had a very, very active reinsurance industry and all the other overseas business which have very, very particular demands."

He said it was time Bermuda looked again at its immigration policy which effectively bars new grants of status unless by way of marriage.

"We have our cake and eat it too. It is a little unfair that we do ask people to come in to create the boom for us and don't treat them too well – before, during and afterwards.

"There needs to be a look at this – the US has a green paper policy which limits the amount of people who are able to come in from around the world.

"Bermuda should be looking at that and saying 'Yes, this individual is of value to us and we want to keep them on the island' – whether that's a set number by the end of the year or by a case-by-case basis."

He said such selections would have to be done without political bias. "God knows how you would to that. But we need to do something more than just rewarding someone through their pay cheque and then saying 'Times up, out you go'.

"We really need to look at their value to the overall community not only the businesses they serve but other criteria they need to judged on."

He suggested rather than arbitrary term limits Government could judge how employees had performed by studying performance appraisals from bosses.

"I am concerned that businesses are having to prove themselves innocent rather than being innocent until proven guilty."

He said more Government interference in business wasn't ideal.

"But in lieu of anything else – just looking at a stop watch and saying both hands are on the 12 and you are out of here, that is not only grossly unfair to the expat but grossly unfair to an employer who may have created a whole team around that individual."

Bermuda Employers Council executive director Martin Law said the 18,000 work permit figure distorts the picture due to the large number of temporary three-month work permits as employees wait for longer permits to be processed.

"What we should look at is the number of jobs that these work permit holders are in, which is close to 12,500.

"The work permit figure is not surprising given that the number of jobs in the economy has grown steadily since 1994 and the number of Bermudians available to fill them has not grown at all.

"Bermuda has moved significantly in the last 15 years to a knowledge-based economy that requires more people with specialised skills than can ever be fully met from within Bermuda, and these people are in increasing demand worldwide.

"The relationship between Bermudian-held jobs and work permit jobs is complex, with Bermudian-held jobs being largely dependent on work permit jobs.

"This is not a situation that needs 'dealing with' so much as it is an economic reality that needs to be understood by everyone.

"For Bermuda's economy to remain healthy and high Bermudian employment levels to continue, we absolutely need and will continue to need, large numbers of work permit holders."

Environmentalist Stuart Hayward, a former independent MP, has deep concerns about some of the changes in the past decade, saying the environment was under siege following Dr. Brown's dismantling of the Sustainable Development Initiative begun by former Premier Alex Scott.

And he is worried about the increased use of SDO's, appeals to overturn well-reasoned DAB decisions and the shredding of protective covenants under Section 34 of Planning Act have signalled that the environment is again under siege.

Clogged roads groan under the weight of larger and more powerful vehicles, from motorbikes to gargantuan truck-dumpsters, said Mr. Hayward.

And he said while incomes in some stratas of the community have increased, the overall level of job and life satisfaction appear to have deteriorated.

"There seems to be greater rancor and discord, heightened racial tension and xenophobia, all of which have a negative effect on the comfort of tourist and business visitors – in short, the quality of life for Bermudians has declined."

The PLP approach to race has not been helpful said Mr. Hayward, who said the party had fanned the flames of racial discord to boost election results and were operating from a mindset of "payback time".

Former Chamber of Commerce head Gosling also expressed some disappointment about the atmosphere under the PLP.

He said: "They got in through discord in the community and in some respects they have continued that discord and delicately sidestepped being accountable for it.

"I do believe it is to their advantage to continue the feeling of discord. It is a shame because when they came in there was this feeling of at last, this a major thing that we can cross of the list.

"When the PLP came in you really couldn't say Bermuda was being led by a bunch of Oreos, no we had a party that very much had its roots in the black Bermuda community and this was going to empower people, look what can be accomplished. No one is holding me back anymore.

"It would have been so, so nice if they could have ridden that wave and extended that from this what black Bermudians can do to 'this is what we can do, collectively."