Even an angry tongue-lashing from Premier Jennifer Smith did not distract Opposition politicians from questioning Government's plan regarding Cuba yesterday.

Opposition leader Grant Gibbons brought up the topic of Bermuda's relationship with Cuba during the motion to adjourn in the House of Assembly yesterday. He discussed the issue in the wake of a story by the Mid-Ocean News yesterday which claimed Government had a "secret pact" with Fidel Castro.

However after Opposition members referred to the memorandum as "secret" several times, Ms Smith lashed out.

She told people not to believe the misinformation regarding Bermuda's relationship with Cuba, repeatedly referring to the Mid-Ocean News as The Royal Gazette.

"We have not signed a memorandum of understanding," she stated. "We are not going to bring it to the House if we are in negotiations. That side never did.

"It is wrong to say it's secret, it's wrong to say it's signed. Those two points are incorrect."

She angrily denounced the Opposition's criticism of developing a relationship with Cuba as "making a mountain out of a molehill" and said that talk of a formal relationship between the Bermuda government and the Cuban government were a nonsense.

"It's easy to make a mountain out of a molehill. All you have to do is shovel a little dirt," the Premier said.

"Those members should not have forgotten that we are still a colony and the United Kingdom Government deals with foreign relations."

To protests from the Opposition benches, the Premier said that the UBP had "vilified" the United States when Government signed a memorandum of understanding over the hand-over of the baselands.

She said that the Cuban memorandum dealt specifically with cultural exchange and the UBP's criticism was incorrect and misleading the country.

"They know better and should know that it is a culture to culture exchange. They can stand and act like fools if they want."

"Well there's still not a great deal of detail but we are now told negotiations are going on," said Opposition MP John Barritt.

However he and other members of the UBP, including Dr. Gibbons, pressed Government for details.

"What is the plan?" asked Mr. Barritt. "You must have a plan. Goodness gracious, I hope there's a plan."

Although the idea of Bermuda sending old buses and ferries to the cash-strapped communist country has been discussed, Dr. Gibbons said at no time did Government say they were arranging a formal understanding with Cuba.

"This obviously raises the question of what else they may be hiding," he said.

This will not just be about members of the Cabinet, he said - a relationship with Cuba commits all of Bermuda.

"If the Smith Government is going to commit a rights suicide the rest of us don't want our names attached to it."

He said that, with all of Bermuda impacted the matter should be a subject of public debate.

"There are any number of issues on which we depend on the goodwill of the United States on being seen as a cooperative and good neighbour to the US."

Bermuda has only just dodged a bullet regarding tax exemptions for expatriate Americans, he said, and it is very clear that the US can have an impact on business, trade and tourism in Bermuda.

Relations with Cuba could damage the US perception of Bermuda, he said, citing US Consul General Denis Coleman's views that such relations would be unfavourable.

"It just doesn't make sense," he said. "Why hasn't this memorandum been released? It's not the first time this Government hasn't released information. The people have a right not to be kept in the dark. They have a right, because it is going to have an impact on them, to have a say in the matter."

UBP MP Patricia Gordon-Pamplin agreed. "Individuals can do what you want but when Government does it, it is binding every single individual," she said. "Effectively what the Premier is saying is you Bermudians are too stupid, too dumb, too blind and too ignorant to know."

Like Dr. Gibbons before him and Opposition MP Michael Dunkley after him, Mr. Barritt wondered why - of all the nations in the world that could use help - Government picked Cuba. "It's not a good enough answer to say `Why not'," he added.

And Bermuda's economic success depends on the ability to stay beneath the radar, he added. "Don't be provocative for the sake of being provocative.

"I am not defending Bush - I am defending Bermuda and its interests. The risk is greater as it appears than anything we stand to gain by forging closer ties with Cuba."

"How low can you go?" asked Minister of Youth and Sport Randy Horton. Saying the issue was not a relationship between the Cuban government and the Bermuda Government, he stated it was about developing a relationship between the Ministries of Culture in the two countries.

"They're not part of Government?" laughed members of the Opposition.

However Mr. Horton continued to explain Government's position, citing the benefits of cultural and sports exchanges between the two islands. "We can develop our culture through an experiential relationship with Cuba," he said.

The PLP's Wayne Perinchief added that Cubans were excellent examples of the heights individuals can raise themselves to by their bootstraps, adding that he hoped bringing the two cultures together would be beneficial to both.

The UBP's Jamahl Simmons pointed out that Bermuda can get such experiences from relationships with Jamaica, Barbados, or any of the other islands in the Caribbean. However he said Government was supporting a country where the population, 60 percent of which is black, are being repressed.

"How can we say we want to be friends with a government that, if we say we're a government for people like us, oppresses people like us?" he wondered.

And he seized on PLP whip Ottiwell Simmons' suggestion for a metaphor: "Turn the bus around, turn the ferry around!"

Government MPs such as Delaey Robinson and Ashfield Devent agreed with the Premier that the matter was simply not important, saying it was a "red herring", a "non-issue" and a "joke issue". Countries much larger than Bermuda - such as Canada and Britain - have much more significant relationships with Cuba, Mr. Robinson pointed out - and Canada, for example, was the US's largest trading partner.

However the UBP's Trevor Moniz pointed out that the Cuba issue was particularly sensitive at this time because of Fidel Castro's recent crackdowns in dissent in his regime.

"We haven't seen concern from the (Bermuda) Government over the issue of rights," he said. "All it would take is them standing up to say that. Don't tell us what's not true, tell us what is true!"

UBP's Alan Marshall said that the report in the Mid Ocean News was the first he had heard of a memorandum on Cuba.

"There have been months long discussions with the UK on the relationship with Cuba and this is the first we get to hear about it," he said. "You would have thought that something so important that's going to bind us to another country would have been brought to the House.

"Government to Government dealings is certainly legitimising that regime. You don't help people by giving them little ferries and buses. What you are doing is legitimising that government and perpetuating that whole modus operandi in Cuba."

And he reiterated points made by ruling party backbencher Dale Butler who said that the PLP government had a history of standing up against human rights abuses.

Government's moves toward Cuba "speaks to hypocrisy and it's almost a sell-out," he continued.

Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell said that he was struck by the contrast between Dale Butler's position and that of his colleagues.

But he lamented that Mr. Butler's comments would have no impact on the Government whatsoever. And he questioned why some of his other colleagues who felt the same way were not speaking out.

Mr. Dodwell also scoffed at Transport Minister Ewart Brown's idea of having Cubana Air use the Island as a hub between Europe and Cuba.

Few people would want to fly from Europe to Bermuda and then onto Cuba on an airline with a questionable safety record, he said.

A similar plan, spearheaded by a UBP government, which had Condor airlines fly to Dominican Republic via Bermuda from Frankfurt, had failed, he said.

"It didn't work because it went on to the Dominican Republic," a totally different market.

"And if it didn't work with Dominican Republic it certainly wouldn't work with Cuba."

Backbencher Reginald Burrows defended Government and noted that while the UBP was now "ranting and raving about Cuba" they had effectively supported the racist apartheid regime of South Africa when his party was trying to draw attention to their excesses.

"We all know that South Africa under apartheid is probably far worse than Cuba will ever be. And the previous Government basically endorsed South Africa."

Attorney General Dame Lois Browne-Evans said the UBP was afraid to touch the issue of Cuba for fear they themselves would turn into fascists. "Hitler started off fussing about the royalty," she pointed out.

Saying she was often told her calling was to be a stand-up comedian, she declared she was now speaking seriously in trying to "debunk this nonsense". She asked the UBP "babes in politics" to listen. "Your forte is business, not politics, Grant," she said to Dr. Gibbons, who replied: "You have no idea what my forte is."

"That's why your members are now trying to remove you," Dame Lois continued, to the laughter of the Opposition. "I read it in The Gazette, it must be true!

"It's not necessary for the UBP to win (an election) that they have to sink that low to bug a bear about communism," she said.