It is amazing really, Mr. Editor, what people can come up with when their backs are against the wall.

One of the things we learned from last week’s events was that when Cabinet sat around the table for four hours in the early evening hours of Day One of the protests they were reportedly able to agree on $4 million dollars in savings in the Government Budget. Pretty good that. We can all do the arithmetic, which most of us probably did, and figure out that’s $1-million an hour.

The exercise got people to thinking, I’m sure: why not take a break, go home, get a good night’s sleep, come back, and give us eight more? And why stop there?

Okay, okay, I am exaggerating a tad. It isn’t that easy. In fact, we are told that cutting back is quite difficult and that whatever cuts are made, and wherever they are made, they are going to hurt. Not to mention the potential political consequences to whatever they do.

Nonetheless, after three days of tense negotiation, and on the precipice of a potentially crippling general strike, agreement was reached that saw the two working groups (an apt description, you think?) from Government and the unions have another intense go at reviewing the Budget to make even further cuts. This time in the tens of millions of dollars and this they did without taking a break, and decompressing, and getting a night’s rest first.

It appears that there may still be some disagreement on what the final figures are — and perhaps that isn’t so surprising given the pressure and the way in which they were achieved. Putting the Annual Budget together can’t be that easy, can it?

You can be forgiven if you are no longer so sure. Mind you, I also remember well what my former colleague C.V. used to remind us around the Cabinet table and on the Hill: no bull in a hurry never made a calf. Except by accident, Jim, maybe.

But we get the picture, and if the picture doesn’t work for you, the point. Doing these things by design instead is likely to net a better result.

It gets people to thinking – and wondering, out loud, I bet:

- The Ag Show for $400,000? The annual showcase for homegrown talent and one of the few. Wonder if the Bermuda Tourism Authority will have anything to say about that given their/our latest marketing drive and emphasis on local culture? Or to contribute maybe?

- A $5-million “cap” on Financial Assistance: is that padded or wishful thinking? Or the likely subject of subsequent supplementaries?

- $1-million off the travel budget and only now the implementation of a hiring freeze?

On the bright side folks, we now have some insight into what is required and what is coming under the microscope: everything presumably, or so we would like to think.

SAGE undertook a lot of this work and the Commissioners ran with the idea of consulting with stakeholders, including the public, keeping them informed and involved every step of the way, and ultimately producing a plan we could all understand and follow.

It was a welcome approach to the problem and one that should have continued after publication of their report and suggested recommendations.

Still, there is a potential silver lining to last week’s events. We may have stumbled on to a new and better way to approach preparation of the annual Government Budget: the need to establish something far more consultative and transparent than has been the traditional practice to date.

Circumstances and events have once again converged and presented us with the opportunity for change and, if you like, to start to make lemonade out of lemons. Fancy that, Mr. Editor.