6 October 2008

According to a recent research.bm poll, the United Bermuda Party has lost the confidence of almost all Bermudians. Just 4% of Bermudians approve of the job being done by the United Bermuda Party.

"If there's one thing that all Bermudians agree on, it's that the UBP is a failed party," said PLP Chairman David Burt. "Kim Swan said the UBP needed to change tactics. We agree. Instead of always being so confrontational and disagreeable, it would be better for all of Bermuda if the UBP and their friends at the Royal Gazette put the knives away for a while so that we can all work together for a better Bermuda."

Senator Walton Brown, a well respected pollster with Research Innovations who has conducted polls for The Royal Gazette, noted multiple irregularties with the poll. The first was the false comparison of job approval ratings to favourability numbers in the lead article. If you look at favourability numbers, Premier Brown recorded higher favourability ratings (32%) than both Kim Swan (30%) and Cole Simons (27%). It's also worth noting that Premier Brown's favourability rating ticked upward since the last quarter while Swan and Simons saw their ratings plummet.

But, that's not all. According to Senator Brown, "Research.bm does not use internationally recognised standards for measuring approval rating. They ask for participants to provide approval based on a 1-7 scale where 1 is the highest level of disapproval and 7 is the highest level of approval. By international standards, 5, 6 and 7 is deemed positive, 1, 2 and 3 is negative and 4 is neutral. For some unexplained reason, they do not add the score at 5 as positive."

Chairman David Burt agreed, "Research.bm was the only pollster in Bermuda to produce a poll that had the UBP defeating the PLP prior to last year's election. That speaks volumes to both their accuracy and credibility."

Party Leader Ewart Brown responded, "We don't work for the Royal Gazette or pollsters. We work for the people of Bermuda who can see through the offensive that the Daily engages in every October when Tourism produces landmark accomplishments such as the increasingly spectacular Bermuda Music Festival, the Gold Cup and, for the second year in a row, the PGA Grand Slam of Golf."

He continued, "Our PLP government is implementing a comprehensive plan to address anti-social behaviour and reduce crime. We're moving forward with free day care so that hard working mothers and fathers have one less burden to worry about. We've also introduced free public transportation for our students and Tourism's Platinum Period is continuing to produce stunning new developments - such as the Club Med revitalisation - not seen in decades. Make no mistake, the combined Opposition will try to belittle the Progressive Labour Party’s progress just as vigorously as we work to move things forward. We’ve all seen this movie before, and like the other times, I'm confident the Bermudian people will see through these tactics."