During Friday's debate on the Boundary Commission's report Dame Lois Browne Evans defended the Premier from accusations that she had been deceptive when asked whether there were plans to change the Constitution in 2001.

"Who knows in January what you are going to do in August? Ask ourselves, how many times you think you wouldn't be doing something in January and you find later in the year you would have to do it."

She said once the UK issued its White Paper on a new partnership with its colonies, "What else was our Premier to do? " Ms Smith had, as an apprentice of late leader Frederick Wade and herself, been well versed on the party's goals for reform, Dame Lois said.

"We maddened a lot of our young people in the PLP because they wanted to go gung ho on Independence but ours was the belief that you have got to do it in stages" and achieve electoral reform first.

The party lost members and took a lot of criticism for its gradualist approach, she said. "But we know that if you are going to Britain, just take one little bite at a time. Don't put so much that you choke yourself because you get nothing."

She and other leaders of the then Opposition had approached three Governors to push for constitutional changes. Richard Sharples, who was later murdered, told her that Bermuda was moving too fast and that it couldn't have any more conferences because they were too costly for Britain, but another conference would be held only if the Island was prepared to go to Independence.

Britain's 1999 White Paper was "divine intervention", she said, because it paved the way for Ms Smith to move on electoral reform.

"We could have said okay let's drum the beat up, let's talk about Independence. But that would have been ridiculous, we haven't prepared the people for it. Lots of people are over-prepared for it but the majority are not prepared. So you ask for constitutional changes... To give to this Country the right that each vote would have an equal value."

She recalled the Government House meetings on the reforms, when a number of proposals were discussed. "Then suddenly a new organisation (Association for Due Process and the Constitution) sprang into being and everything was blown out of proportion," she said.

"They became the new people that was making a lot of noise" and succeeded in making a lot of people excited "because between them and the UBP, the next I heard was they had 8,000 signatures and a petition going over to Great Britain".

She said that FCO officials who had come to the Island to head up the Government House meetings in 2001 had still not recovered from the experience and had implored her to make sure the process was done properly so they would not have to go through it all again.

"When you put it in the context of world events - Blair is out there deciding whether he is going to go to war on Iraq and you lot bothering about this little debate, and he's got to go through the tapes to see that you all had a democratic chance to say what you want to say...

"Please say all you want because it's free democracy in Bermuda and we want them to know it. That if you think that you have been unjustly treated by the Government of Bermuda, this is the time to speak now or forever hold your peace. Because we have tried to be as fair as possible."

Dame Lois dismissed the idea of an independent Speaker, saying that it would be difficult to find a local who could be independent. "And can you imagine that there's somebody out there that really wants the job? To come here on a Friday morning and listen to us for a small reward? I think it would drive them to the loony bin, all right but that's what is being suggested."

She told of how previous Governors had had difficulty finding independents to appoint to the Senate.

"I see no reason why... we can't at least try the system out before we go looking to bring in outside speakers because there's none in the community."

And she dismissed as "ridiculous" the suggestion that people be asked to ratify the recommended electoral map. "The two foreign members of the team dismissed that out of hand."

She then went through the Opposition's motion and said that the most of the items had nothing to do with a constitutional conference.

Bermuda could have an independent speaker or reregistration of voters by amending local laws, she said. "We have had an elected Speaker for a couple of hundred years."

And on the future role of the Boundaries Commission, she said: "How do we know what the future holds? And why should we put it in the Constitution? Obviously if you have to go on adjusting your boundaries because of changes, it is something unfortunately we will have to do all over again each time," she said.

"You can't expect to have the pomp and circumstance and grand majesty of a conference for something as simple as that."

And she reminded the House that it would be impossible for a colony to be allowed to amend the constitution "willy nilly". "We are a British colony. Until the British has decided that it's colonies are going to become national countries, there is nothing in the constitution that says how you can go an amend it... You will not get it until one is ready to move on to another stage. So you will dream with me, obviously."

And she scoffed at the idea of referendum to ratify the number of seats chosen as a waste of money and unnecessary because the members of the Commission, which included MPs from both political parties and two independents, were unanimous in their endorsement of the Report which was now the subject of the House debate.

"It is presumed that the democracy is represented by the Government and the Opposition in the House and if any other independents were here, that they are the people's representatives and they speak for the people on such matters. This is really nonsense... And I would hope that even the other members of the Opposition would have the good sense to say they can't support this motion because it takes it no further than what the majority report has done."