approving or amending legislation. You are right in saying that it is a challenge in a small community like this. We’ve only got 36 members, one of whom is a Speaker, which takes him out of the equation. We have a Deputy Speaker who attends to the affairs of the House and then you’ve got 10 members who are in cabinet plus two junior Ministers. We are now down to 22 backbenchers. You can only have so many committees in a small jurisdiction like this; otherwise Members would be doing things full-time which would be very difficult to achieve a balance. I agree with you, some balance has to be struck so that we don’t have a multiplicity of committees. We have some now that are standing committees, like public accounts, and we don’t want to add to that, but we need to maximize them in terms of making them open to the public and the issues they deal with. To what degree do you think people are well informed as to what goes on in Parliament? They have to rely on the new media
although our proceedings are broadcast live. Mr Butler: I think a digitized Hansard would help. The live radio broadcast has also helped. At the moment the public rely on The Royal Gazette which provides a
You can only have so many committees... otherwise Members would be doing things full-time which would be very difficult to achieve a balance.
synopsis. There are no easy answers to informing the public. Generally speaking the public want to know if what we are doing is going to make life better or more
22 | The Parliamentarian | 2009: Issue One - Bermuda
difficult, so I think that improved communications along that line would be welcomed. Mr Barritt: How do you get your message across to your constituents? Mr Butler: I started using newsletters but it became too expensive and I wondered whether they were being read. I was also mailing out ministerial statements. Mr Barritt: I write a weekly column in a weekend newspaper The Mid-Ocean News reporting what’s going on in the House from my point of view. Mr Butler: That’s the opposition.
We don’t have a government Member doing the same thing, there could be two perspectives. So you’re left with the live broadcast and people do listen to that and you’re also left with the newspaper report. That’s about it. Mr Barritt: We do have people come up to our public gallery but I find but very few do unless it’s a controversial matter. Other people in small jurisdictions will understand when we say that Bermuda is so small that people
Above: An old stone British fortress on the coast of Bermuda;