Friday's Throne Speech - leaving aside the unscheduled visit from the members of the Bermuda Public Service Union - was always likely to be something of an anticlimax given that most Government plans had already been well flagged in the general election campaign and the November Throne Speech.

On that basis, it was more notable for what was not in it than for what was.

That includes labour relations, given that ferry workers are staging a work to rule in protest over the dismissal of a pilot who crashed a ferry while under the influence, and the protest by the BPSU, which is seeking a better pay package for its members.

But labour relations did not receive a mention in the speech, despite ominous signs that all is not well between the Government itself and its unions.

Two other signature programmes - which presumably went a long way to getting the Progressive Labour Party re-elected - were also missing. One was the promise to make Bermuda College tuition free, while the other was the move to make bus and ferry fares free.

It may be that these announcements are being saved for the Budget Statement, which occurs in less than two weeks, but it is still surprising that there was no mention of them at all in Friday's speech.

These are two relatively easy and cheap proposals to put in place. Free public transport will cost the Government somewhere around $10 million, while the free college tuition will cost less than $1 million, according to estimates. That's not a lot of money in a $1 billion Budget.

The two programmes that did get mentioned are unlikely to take place this year. Health Minister Nelson Bascome has said a huge amount of work needs to be done on Future Care, the "Medicare" style health insurance plan being proposed by Government, while free day care to qualified families also requires a lot of work in finding locations and staff to carry it out.

Dr. Brown's announcement that Future Care will be similar to the US system of Medicare should make budget hawks nervous. Medicare and the prescription drugs benefit tacked onto it by the Bush Administration is one of the reasons the US budget deficit is ballooning.

Also missing from the year's plans is the Bermuda Development Plan promised by former Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield. This is especially worrying given that the flow of special development orders is turning into a torrent.

What should be clear by now is that the current Planning Statement is not worth the paper it is written on. If existing zonings do not suit the Government or its favoured developers, the planning process is simply bypassed, along with the opportunity for residents to object. Only when there are mass protests as with Southlands or the Botanical Gardens does Government rethink its plans.

It may be that Government is not planning a new Development Plan at all because it will be an exercise in futility, but that may be overly cynical.

Government does seem committed to continuing with its education reforms, but there is still wide concern about the complete lack of public consultation on these plans, which are being done almost solely at Cabinet level or by the secretive committee which has yet to hold a news conference of substance, let alone a public meeting.

Finally, of course, this newspaper must note that there was no mention of a Freedom of Information Act despite wide bipartisan support for it. But there are plans for a Press Council -one of just two initiatives in the Throne Speech which were not part of the PLP's election platform - and that's no surprise given the Government's antipathy for the media.