The Shadow Finance Minister accused the Premier of being "Spender-in-Chief" last night as he berated Government for overheating the economy.

Accusing Government of being caught out by the recession due to "complacency" to the global economic crisis, Bob Richards also pointed the finger at spending.

The Opposition MP said Government had been forced to raise taxes this year due to over-spending.

"Spending has been a big problem and Government had to raise taxes at exactly the wrong time," he said.

"When the economy is in recession, the last thing you want to do is raise taxes, because this prolongs the recession. It's not rocket science.

"Miss (Paula) Cox (Finance Minister) couldn't do anything else (in the 2010-11 Budget) because they had blown all the money anyway."

He said: "Premier (Ewart) Brown would like to think he is Commander-in-Chief, but if he is not Commander-in-Chief he is certainly Spender-in Chief."

Mr. Richards made the remarks at a public meeting held by the United Bermuda Party at the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce last night.

Addressing the recession, Mr. Richards said the people of Bermuda had been "complacent" to changes in the world economy, believing the Island was "another world".

"It's one thing for people to be complacent but it's quite another thing for the Government to be complacent and oblivious to what is going on in the rest of the world," he said.

"They didn't see it coming and when they finally admitted it was going to be a problem they wanted to blame all of their problems on the great global recession.

"Since the PLP has come to Government it has been a decade-long spending spree," said Mr. Richards.

He also raised concerns about the construction industry and the surplus of new office buildings.

"We have a huge number of unoccupied office buildings in Hamilton," he said.

"The construction industry is our life-support along with Tourism, so if and when the US economy starts to come back it's going to be a long time before we actually start to follow, because we have excess assets which have been created during the overheating economy.

"We will have to wait for these buildings to fill up, including Sir John Swan's. We will have to fill all of those up before anyone contemplates building another office block.

"So it means we will still be in a recession here. The construction industry will still be in recession because we've been overbuilding. It means there's going to be a longer time before employment is going to increase when the world economy comes back."

Mr. Richards said: "I think we have a long way to go with recession on this island. People are still losing jobs as we speak.

"I think we are looking at a slow economy for another 18 months to two years."

Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz also spoke on the rise in violent crime on the Island.

"We have to face up to the fact we have a crisis in law enforcement in this country. We have an escalation of violence," said Mr. Moniz.

He said the criminal justice system was failing and this was only serving to "embolden" criminals.

"There are a number of parts and none of them is working properly," he said.

He pointed to a public who had a "lack of confidence" in the Police and therefore did not cooperate as they should in helping the fight against crime.

A "lack of funding" for the Bermuda Police Service was also a problem, while Crown prosecutors "don't have the tools they need".

Mr. Moniz added: "And the judges and juries don't seem to be able to convict when to members of the public it seems there is overwhelming evidence."

He said Westgate Correctional Facility was also a joke.

"Everyone laughs about it being more like a hotel than a prison," he said.

The image this created was, "we are lax, we are easy, we are soft."

Mr. Moniz said: "We've got a whole generation who, all they know is the law of the gang and the law of the gun. And we're going to have to stamp on it."