Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said yesterday he is disappointed that one of his former ministers, Byran Woodside, cut ties with the Free National Movement (FNM) and joined the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).

"I am disappointed, very much so," said Ingraham in an interview with National Review.

"Byran Woodside was somebody I recruited to the FNM to become our candidate. He was successful against Allyson Maynard, the then attorney general. He was a person who worked hard. He had good judgment and was somebody who I expected would one day move up even further in the FNM, and certainly if I had become prime minister (again) he would have been a portfolio minister.

"So I was very disappointed he is no longer with the party, and one day I will call him and say to him, to ask him why, because I think it was a great loss for the FNM, notwithstanding what anybody else says to the contrary."

In a recent interview with our Travis Cartwright-Carroll, FNM founding member Maurice Moore said the departures of Woodside and former FNM candidate Norris Bain from the party may be a "blessing in disguise".

"That is not a great loss for the party," Moore said. "We are not worried about it. There are many equally as good, if not better, candidates who are ready, willing and able to run and win."

Yesterday, Ingraham said he is also disappointed that Bain, the former FNM candidate for Marco City, left the FNM and joined the PLP. He suggested that Bain had been a definite asset to the FNM.

In our column last week, we pointed out that Woodside once characterized the PLP as a party of "wheelers and dealers" and "all for me baby types" who engage in "nepotism". Woodside had other unkind words for the PLP, its leader, Perry Christie, and Allyson Maynard-Gibson, who formerly held the Pinewood seat, which Woodside snatched from her grips in the 2007 general election.

After an election court battle, Woodside was declared the winner. He thanked Ingraham for his support. When he was introduced to the PLP at its recent council meeting as the newest high-profile member of the party, Woodside declared that he now believes in Christie and the PLP.

Last week, Woodside, no doubt embarrassed that his past criticisms of Christie and the PLP had been resurrected, sought to downplay the matter.

While a guest on the Love 97 FM program "Issues of the Day" with Wendall Jones, Woodside said, "Well, in the first instance I want to thank The Guardian for putting me in such an esteemed group of people. What do I mean? I mean this: If they go into their archives they will see what Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, when he was a PLP, had to say about the United Bahamian Party (UBP). He would then go on as a free PLP and join up with the same people that he trashed."

We also reminded Ingraham about what Woodside had once said about the PLP.

Ingraham responded, "Sometimes people make decisions notwithstanding and in spite of certain other facts and factors, so regard being had to those things that he had said previously about the PLP, there must have been a very strong reason which propelled him to go and join the PLP in spite of what he said against them and many times."

With election season approaching, perhaps the reason for Woodside's new love affair with the PLP will come to light.

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