Opposition leader Patricia Gordon-Pamplin came out fighting in her reply to the Throne Speech, accusing the Progressive Labour Party’s “relentless pursuit of power” of denigrating the political process to unprecedented levels.

She described the Government’s Throne Speech as “short on real solutions and long on studies” and maintained that many of the initiatives proposed by the PLP were already well under way because of the One Bermuda Alliance.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin told the House of Assembly that the OBA had restored much needed confidence in Bermuda before listing the party’s achievements while in office.

“The tenor of the speech suggests that Government has either purposely elected to disregard the country’s tenuous economic position or has chosen to continually misrepresent the achievements of the former OBA government,” Ms Gordon-Pamplin said.

The OBA leader said that the PLP had adopted a “rather Trump-like” approach to undo many of the actions initiated under the previous administration.

She added: “This Throne Speech proposes many initiatives that were well under way. In our view, a ground-zero approach to implementation is costly and time wasting. Many of the committees that have been proposed to examine topics can utilise the work already done to move to the implementation stage.”

In her response to the Throne Speech, she acknowledged that the electorate had made it abundantly clear that some of the OBA’s policies were “disappointing”.

She added: “We take full responsibility and apologise for those disappointments. We note the new administration has decided to approach governance differently, and has determined that people will be better served by consultations and studies and rehashing of things that have already been completed.”

In an at times combative response that prompted government MPs to raise to their feet in protest, the Opposition leader accused the PLP of spreading misinformation and untruths.

“We saw it yet again when the OBA government was accused of pepper-spraying seniors, when it is known that constitutionally, the Government neither gives direction nor orders policing policies.

“We saw the cowardice when the leader of the PLP encouraged through robocalls and blast e-mails for protesters to attend Parliament, then some of the attendees proceeded to push seniors into the line of fire when the police department determined that

lawbreakers should be challenged.

“We, therefore, wholeheartedly support a committee to investigate the occurrences of that dark and unfortunate experience that will surely highlight the substantive part played in the debacle by those now calling for an investigation.

“We noted the PLP’s call for civil disobedience as being an appropriate action, yet threw their hands up in disbelief when the situation they created spun out of control and resulted in physical harm to both protesters and the police.”

Ms Gordon-Pamplin continued: “It is said that politics make strange bedfellows. We will watch closely the developments of the questionable New York trip that was planned by an unlikely quartet with would-be gaming operators to determine the purpose of their meeting at the Four Seasons, and the benefit to Bermuda, if any.”

In a 16-page response to the Government’s Throne Speech, the Opposition leader questioned why legislative proposals relating to the report of the bipartisan Boundaries Commission, absentee balloting and superyachts were missing.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin maintained the plans to provide public schools with wi-fi and implement roadside sobriety checkpoints had already been advanced under the OBA and revealed that a Gang Violence Co-ordinator had already been identified by the previous government.

She did, however, express her party’s support for the introduction of regulations for debt collection agencies and the levelling of the playing field relating to occupational pensions.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin finished her response by saying: “We are committed to a collaborative approach, and trust that the pettiness of politics takes a back seat to co-operative and constructive debate.”

At the end of Ms Gordon-Pamplin’s response to the Throne Speech, newly appointed Speaker Dennis Lister Jnr warned MPs that innuendo would not be tolerated in the House of Assembly.

He acknowledged that there had been back and forth innuendo between rival MPs without any factual base in recent Parliaments, but said: “We are not going to have this, it will not be tolerated.”

• To read Ms Gordon-Pamplin’s speech in full, click on the PDF under “Related Media”