More than three years after the Housing Corporation scandal erupted and Auditor General Larry Dennis completed his report, the House of Assembly was finally allowed to debate the issue on Friday.

That's a long time to wait, and if part of Government's aim was to allow enough time to allow both memories to lapse and for the BHC to be presented as a model of good management, then it pretty much accomplished what it set out to do ? or it would have done so, had it not been for one MP.

Perhaps surprisingly, he did not come from the Opposition benches, although several United Bermuda Party MPs, having finally received the chance to debate the scandal, did a creditable job.

The MP who really distinguished himself on Friday was Nelson Bascome. Mr. Bascome, who presided over the Housing Ministry when the scandal occurred, later lost the portfolio and was then removed from the Cabinet after the 2003 election, could have remained silent and "laid in the tide".

But he did not and chose to speak.

What he said was in such contrast to the rest of the Government, that it was possible to believe that he had, like Alice, passed through the looking glass. Where Premier Alex Scott kept maintaining that there had been no problems in the Corporation because no one ? with one exception ? had been charged with a criminal offence, and where the rest of the Government's Ministers and MPs tried to forget the past had ever existed or surprise, surprise, played the race card, Mr. Bascome gave a speech that upheld the best traditions of the Westminster system.

He did that, simply, by taking responsibility for the scandal.

Of course, that was no more than a Minister in a Westminster-style system should do. But it has become such a rarity that it was noteworthy.

Mr. Bascome said that, no, he did not know what was going on. He trusted the public officials entrusted with the BHC's management and, yes, he trusted the Audit completed the year before which gave the Corporation a clean bill of health.

When Opposition MP Michael Dunkley made allegations that things were seriously awry in the Corporation, he made inquiries of the then-general manager, who assured him everything was fine.

So when the full scandal was revealed in the Mid-Ocean News days later, he was as shocked as anyone.

"The buck did stop at my desk. There was corruption in my Ministry," he said on Friday. Some of things that happened were "unbelievable" and a "veil of greed had consumed" those responsible.

Now, Mr. Bascome did not explain an allegation made by the former general manager Raymonde Dill that he had personally ordered a maintenance contract to be given to Island Construction in order to settle a separate financial dispute with Dr. Ewart Brown.

But, leaving that omission aside, Mr. Bascome did the honourable thing by taking responsibility for what happened on his watch.

This is so rare under the current Government, that one fears for Mr. Bascome's fate. Certainly this act of honesty has probably destroyed his prospects as a Cabinet Minister ? how would some of his future colleagues look him in the eye now that he has set them such an example of honesty and responsibility?

But he must have risen in the estimation of the general public. It is fair to say that he was neither the best nor the worst Minister Bermuda has ever seen, and he can certainly be accused of being too trusting, at least where the BHC was concerned.

He has also had is share of personal travails, for some of which, although not all, he must take personal responsibility. But if all of us are sinners to some degree or another, then at least Mr. Bascome is willing to admit it. And that's no bad thing.