Premier Paula Cox's busy week culminates today with the Throne Speech.

It is likely that it will be very similar to what's contained in the national plan she presented to delegates at last week's Progressive Labour Party Conference and, if that's the case, it will be a mixture of a solid commitment to more transparent government combined with some fairly populist measures, with a particular emphasis on black and Bermudian empowerment.

To some degree, the new administration is trying to enjoy the best of both worlds.

It wants a line drawn between the perceptions of financial mismanagement and opacity under the previous administration at the same time that it wants credit for all of the positive accomplishments of the last 12 years.

This fails to acknowledge that all but one of the Ministers who served under Dr. Ewart Brown, including Ms Cox, continue in the Cabinet.

Still, everything hangs on the economy and getting Government's finances in order.

Ms Cox's spending review and commitment to pruning capital projects is welcome. Whether she can cut spending by 15 percent as she says, without reducing jobs is another matter, however.

And the "rigorous pruning of capital projects to the necessary" is also welcome, with the caveat that infrastructure spending is necessary for Bermuda to enhance its competitive position and can boost the economy when it is lagging. But the cost overruns seen under the Brown administration are not.

Still, Ms Cox's goals for deficit reduction do not see any paydown on debt until 2014 and 2016 when $200 million will be paid off. That is not very ambitious and also seems to assume that there will be no increase in debt between now and then, which is optimistic unless she can find her $150 million in spending cuts.

Elsewhere, a great deal is being promised in terms of empowerment, from an Equal Pay Act, an action plan to redress inequities in access to jobs and opportunities for the expansion of economic empowerment zones.

Some of these measures may be controversial, especially in a faltering economy. But there is also no doubt that narrowing the wealth gap between whites and blacks in Bermuda will do more for this community than almost anything else. It's how you get there that's the challenge.

But there are some positive, good government measures here which are long overdue. That includes publishing tenders and long-awaited whistleblower protection laws.

Ms Cox's policies are a mixture of the conservative and the populist.To some degree, she is a representative of her generation, like President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, who are less ideologically committed than their predecessors to either big government or unfettered free markets, and more interested in what works, regardless of its source.

There's a streak of self-help in Ms Cox's platform too, including tying financial aid to willingness to work, while prison inmates may find themselves seeing their earnings garnished for both victim compensation and to offset the cost of their accommodation.

But she also promises empowerment programmes and populism in terms of trying to curb health insurance premiums and to prevent companies from imposing "unreasonable and extortionate" price increases. The best way Government can help to reduce premium increases is to control cost increases at the hospitals, but in fact these will rise to pay for the new one. So these measures may be easier said than done. In any event, Government efforts to control prices often distort economies. A sound monetary policy with an emphasis on low inflation is the best way to keep prices down.

It is too early to judge some of the other business initiatives. It's disappointing that Ms Cox promises to be "tax neutral" going forward. What business needs at this point is a tax cut with the goal of increasing economic growth, but that may be unpalatable to the PLP now.

In all, Ms Cox's plan, which is said to have guaranteed her election at the PLP conference and received the warmest applause on the night, is a mixture of the positive and the popular.

How these promises are kept will now be the means by which the Premier is measured, beginning today.