Racial Balance

Former UBP premier Sir John Swan has caused a bit of a stir in today's Royal Gazette with his criticism of the UBP and praise for the PLP.

It's hard to fault his assessment that the UBP is perceived as the white man's party and that it would do better at the polls if its racial makeup more closely mirrored that of Bermuda. In a country which, expats aside, is about 70% black, the UBP needs to do more to attract the black vote, particularly the working-class black vote.

But it seems a little one-sided. The PLP is far more racially polarised that the UBP, and deliberately played the race card at the last election. Sir John may take issue with the UBP's black candidates, but where were the PLP's white ones?

It's an unfortunate fact that the racial composition of Bermuda means that the PLP doesn't need to make any attempt to be inclusive to stay in power. Nonetheless, it would have been better if Sir John had called on both political parties to evolve to better reflect the country's demographics. Bermuda needs to move beyond race-based politics before it can consider itself a mature democracy.