From: "A. Hogan" <ahogan@CapAccess.org>

McD's Banned In British Colony

From A. Hogan <ahogan@CapAccess.org>, 23 June 1997

[Note--This paraphrases and greatly condenses the Reuter dispatch. AH]

Bermuda's elected House voted 22-13 Friday night (20 June 1997) to ban McDonald's restaurants from the British island colony, the Reuter wire service reported Saturday from Hamilton.

The bill, though not mentioning McD's by name, was intended to block former Bermuda Premier John Swan from opening McD's restaurants on the island. The House voted similarly a year ago, but the unelected Senate rejected the ban, which Bermuda's constitution lets the upper chamber do only once.

Swan reportedly will challenge (in Bermuda's Supreme Court) the legality of the law, which new governor Thorold Masefield is expected to sign by month's end.

Premier David Saul, who had approved Swan's plans in December 1995, resigned last March after an uproar ensued over his decision and Swan's intentions.

Great-grandmother Phyllis Harron, 83, who led an anti-McD's petition drive on Bermuda, remarked of the fast-food giant, "It is not Bermudian. McDonald's cheapens wherever it goes." Harron, whose family has lived on Bermuda since the 17th century, criticized the "proliferation of litter and the poor quality of food" associated with the chain.

A McD's operated on a US military base on the isolated Northwest Atlantic Ocean island for some years, but closed as US troops left in September 1995. About 20 years ago, after a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet opened, an attempt to stop a McD's succeeded.

Bermuda already bans billboards and neon signs.

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