The Progressive Labour Party’s Reply to the Throne Speech is full of ideas but lacks any solid plans to put them in place, according to Mark Pettingill.

The One Bermuda Alliance MP told the House of Assembly on Friday that suggestions by the Opposition such as seabed mining and the legalisation of recreational marijuana to stimulate tourism and bring in revenue were “sound bites” that had not been thought through.

Regarding seabed mining, the former Attorney General emphasised that “I’m not saying these things can’t be done” but asked who would pay for such a “multi-million dollar” project’s research and implementation, and queried whether any thought had been given to the partnerships that would be needed,

“I encourage the Opposition to come up with something of a plan to show how they would begin to go about implementing the idea,” he said.

“We’ve got to get studies and analysis done that tell you it’s worth having a go.

“Somebody is going to have to pay for that.

“Where’s the PLP plan for that? The devil is in the details.

“It’s ideas, always ‘we would do this’. Scratch the surface and ask, ‘how?’. Who are we going to partner with? Give us a list of other jurisdictions [involved in this]. No, nothing there.

“There’s no point in just having vision. We have the ability and team to put them in place.”

Concerning the PLP suggestion to look at recreational cannabis being legalised, Mr Pettingill said it was the OBA who had investigated the benefits and dangers of cannabis use, not the Opposition.

“What did they do about it?” he asked.

“Nothing, is the answer. We researched it, looked at it, had a conversation, came up with the ability to make use of medicinal marijuana — real medicinal marijuana, acknowledging the fact that science says yes, there’s great value, potential in that.

“The topic was researched, the benefits examined by this Government. It was discussed at the highest levels with the most knowledgeable people here and overseas.”

Mr Pettingill said the PLP had not contributed any suggestions as to regulating recreational cannabis, including issues over importing and growing, saying one idea could be, for example, a space of 25 feet being set aside for cultivation.

“Nothing like that [has come from the PLP],” he said. “Just the big idea. That’s a great sound bite. No plan, just ideas.

“I support many of the ideas in the Opposition’s reply but you have to go further if you ever want to be the Government again.

“You have to show the people of this country you’re going to be people of action.”

Shadow Minister of Economic Development Wayne Furbert hit back at the claim the PLP had “laid out ideas without details”.

He said research on sea mining had been carried out, including in a UN report, and claimed the OBA needed more vision.

“This is the most boring Throne Speech over the last 30 years or more,” he said.

“It’s visionless, no inspiration, it doesn’t build hope for our people. It’s a bunch of words that means very little. It hurts, it’s a shame.

“Our people are concerned there’s no vision coming from the Government side.”

Mr Furbert went on to say it was the “weakest Throne Speech I’ve ever heard” and said people were leaving the country because they had “lost hope”.

“You need men of vision, women of vision, and the OBA Government doesn’t have it.”

Deputy Opposition leader David Burt also criticised Mr Pettingill’s claim that the PLP’s reply was “ideas and no details”.

“At least our speech had ideas,” he said. “The OBA speech had few ideas and certainly didn’t have any details.”

Mr Burt then highlighted items promised in last year’s Throne Speech that were never delivered.

“Does that sound like a Government that is doing?”