So what will an emboldened and empowered Dr. Brown do next?
Independence is the big fear for many people but maybe there’s another option up his sleeve. I’m not normally in the business of publishing rumours but I have now heard this one from credible non-UBP sources so I’ll put it up here and see who salutes. I’m genuinely interested to hear what people think, not stir up anything.
I understand that the PLP has been exploring the option of Bermuda becoming a US territory like Puerto Rico as an alternative to independence from Britain. I don’t know if this is something that is on the agenda now or something that has been looked at and discarded.
But if – and I stress “if” – it is true, it might explain many of the unashamedly pro-American Dr. Brown’s recent actions and with his special relationship with President Obama, it might be something he feels he could push forward. It might also explain the increasing number of references I see in recent published pieces by PLP supporters like Alvin Williams and Walton Brown about how Bermuda has a closer and more dependent relationship with the US than Britain.
There’s no denying that – Bermuda looks to the US for business, and much of its education and healthcare, for example – but what would be the pros and cons of being a US territory? We might lose the offshore tax haven stigma and benefit from more investment from the US government than Britain provides. But Bermudians would lose their British passports and the EU benefits they bring.
I’m interested to know if this is a serious consideration of the Brown Government and what people think about it.
So if there was a referendum where the question was posed: do you want Bermuda to be, a) independent, or b) a US territory, what would you choose?
Breezeblog 
WOW….very interesting to say the least
Interesting thought. However, would we want to have all the taxes, etc. that would be levied on us? One thing for sure, Brown would not be able to get away with his antics if this were to come about. Bermuda would lose more that it could ever gain. Someone should wake up and smell the coffee. It would be hard to find any other 21 sq mile country with as much freedom and as high an income as we have.
I would muuuuch rather be a US territory than Independent, but is that really much of a difference than what we have now with the UK?
From the PLP point of view that would be trading one colonial overlord for another.
From everyone else’s point of view, we give the offshore business the last reason to leave(if I understand the reason they are located here in the first place). Which would just have us lining up for some of that bailout money like the rest of the US.
This is the first I’ve heard of this. However, it makes a helluva lot more sense than Independence. One could argue that we are a lot more dependent on the US and indeed have closer ties, than with Britain. However, I think it would be a stab in the heart for IB. And I have to agree with Jerry, I would not be happy to see taxes introduced, but having said that, I’d rather have taxes introduced by the US and know they would go to proper use, than have taxes introduced by The Brown One and have them go into the Friends and Family Plan.
Independence would be better than becoming the next Puerto Rico. For one, hello income tax, coupled with IB likely migrating elsewhere (shoot even Delaware would have an edge on us), negative outcome.
Don’t even need a #2 reason after that.
Maybe if we switched our economic pillar to being a 100% military outpost then the country could survive.
Otherwise, fuggaddebaattit.
[…] ever anxious Bermuda rumour mill is floating the idea that King Ewart and the PLP have been toying with the idea of “changing teams” from the UK to the US. (I have no idea if the rumour has any […]
As a citizen of the good ol’ (in some people’s opinions) US of A, the idea of Bermuda being a colony aka not having self government or proper representation is false. Any territory with a population over 60,000 can be a state with full representation in congress. Last I checked Bermuda has 63,000. Also Puerto Rico is voting on statehood right now. And with the republican domination of the house of representatives, income tax is bound to go down (hopefully).