Poor Dr. B

I'd decided to give myself a week to absorb all the joy and goodwill surrounding the BIC report before actually saying anything out loud - well, anything out loud to anyone other than friends and family, of course.

Even after a week's perspective though, I'm still thinking it: Poor Dr. B.

I know this debacle is driving him nuts. It has to be. He must have sat there at that press conference in Cabinet last Thursday and listened to The Man informing us all that, among other things, the Commission found "in no instance" any examples of a country going independent via referendum, and thought: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

Speaking of which, I'm still furious with myself for not asking that question at the press conference. As soon as he said it, I thought, huh? That's not right ... If only I could've thought of an example off the top of my head! (Duh, Bermuda, you idiot.) What a wonderful press conference that could have been had I had before me a list printed off the internet of countries that have gone independent via referendum. Unfortunately I did not expect such a declaration (who would have?), and so was completely unprepared. It just seemed so blatantly dumb that I honestly thought it had to be a typo, or taken completely out of context, or something.

Back to good doctor, though. Here's the thing. Dr. B wants to rule the world. (Ok, just an independent Bermuda.) Actually I shouldn't say that - I've never heard from his own mouth his stance on independence. I would assume he wants it, of course, but I've never actually heard him say it. (Then again I haven't been paying attention for THAT long.) The point is, I know he wants The Man's job. That, I have heard him say.

But unless the Guvment does something uber drastic to turn public perception around - like complete a capital project or educate our workforce for the jobs available to them or start helicoptering West Enders in to town in the mornings so they can avoid traffic - I really don't think they'll be back next time round. (I'm still not convinced the UBP are all that much better, but at least they managed to build a school. I'm also fairly sure they didn't manage to insult 14,000 registered voters at once by stating "they didn't know what they were signing". This from The Man who had the BIC report for an entire month and didn't notice the "in no instance referendum" detail.)

For his faults, the good doctor is a smart man, and surely he must see what damage is being done to his party right now, just as clearly as he sees the process of sovereignty being set back a generation - all under Alex Scott's watch.

Or, maybe he's not that smart. After all, as previously noted the entire Cabinet had the BIC report for an entire month before releasing it to the public, and none of them appeared to pick up on the glaring little details that most people registered the first time they glanced at it. Who's driving this train anyway?

We'll assume he is a smart man, however. Therefore the BIC debacle especially must be driving him nuts because the entire time he's watching it all play out, he's thinking: I could be doing this sooooooooooo much better.

With the clock ticking down on this term though, he only has about two years left - if that - to take over The Man's position and start doing things the Pop and Sizzle way. If they go into an election and lose, Dr. B and the rest of the PLP will be relegated to politcal Siberia once more and he can kiss the Premiership good bye - for another five years at least. And let's not even talk about how long it will be before anyone dares to bring up independence again - if the current push for it fails, that is.

So I'm quite sure Dr. B is feeling very, very frustrated right now.

Party conferences coming up soon ... What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall at both!