Bermuda was a misnomer as the Government's plan to ram through constitutional change was more typical of the old Bermuda.

He said the PLP's goal of one man one vote of equal value could have been achieved in 1979 when the UBP suggested proportional representation but the PLP had opposed it.

He said the Government wanted a blank cheque to change the constitution.

Tourism Minister David Allen said the UBP's gerrymandering had been an act against nature which, in the division of the Devonshire seat, had been so blatant that the boundary had crossed cow pastures in order to ensure white voters were kept together.

He urged the UBP: "Get with the programme and work with us to make this rotten system better.'' On the subject of tourism the minister said hotel occupancy had topped 80 percent from May to August for the first time.

He said it was yield not numbers which mattered and he said Bermuda had been unlucky in having more flight seats but fewer beds available when the reverse had been the case the year before.

He said the jazz festival had brought in 25 percent more visitors this year while a package showing Bermuda's African routes was being worked on to attract African American tourists.

Mr. Allen's opposite number David Dodwell tackled the constitutional changes first. He said concern raised by PLP stalwarts such as Dr. Eva Hodgson, Walton Brown, Gloria McPhee and Ian Kawaley signalled the Government needed to rethink the way it was handled.

He said the PLP's endorsement of Jennifer Smith over challenger Arthur Hodgson signalled the party was in support of the erosion of democracy.

He said this year was an absolute failure as far as tourism was concerned and that David Allen's goal of 80,000 more visitors every year was doomed.

Mr. Dodwell said he gave Mr. Allen an "F - for fiasco and failure.'' Mr. Allen first trumpeted the 100 day rescue plan, but now "we're seven and half times along and we still haven't got there -- it's mission impossible.

Now the minister is saying we are going to take five years. Why didn't I read that in the PLP manifesto? "I think the minister can see it is a bigger job than he can tackle and I believe he is overwhelmed.'' He said there had not been a new hotel in Bermuda or new job for a Bermudian and he questioned whether everything had been revealed about the $50 million Castle Harbour project.

Mr. Dodwell said a recent trade magazine advert for Rosewood Hotels -- the group redeveloping castle Harbour -- does not list Bermuda in its current or future projects.

He said nothing had happened about Morgan's Point, Daniel's Head or the Belmont.

Mr. Dodwell said hotels didn't want to come to Bermuda because it was too expensive. He said hotels were being built all over the Caribbean and claimed the PLP didn't know how to close a deal.

He questioned where the cruise policy was and why there were no figures on the fly, cruise and stay programme.

"The reason is its an abject failure. It was never going to work because it was a red herring because the industries compete,'' he said.

He accused the PLP of having no air service strategy and said he had heard Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown had taken over responsibility.

"If ever there was a flawed vision, it is the minister's. You can't market your way out of a problem by going to roadshows and fancy promotions and wining and dining at mass market events. The problems originate here and we have to get it right.'' He said the Island had no visibility in the year 2000 because the money had been spent on Mr. Allen's overseas promotions.

"We have a minister unwilling and unable to look inward and say maybe our problems are internal. We don't offer value for money and we are not sending people back saying they are getting value for money. They are voting with their wallets and their feet and they are not coming here.

"The minister should be here challenging the country about attitude, service and standards. It's a problem to say that.'' He praised Bermuda Public Services Association general secretary Ed Ball for having the courage to speak out against sloppy standards.

"The minister has no plan. The biggest problem is that after two years we have a minister who still doesn't get it. He is under siege.

"Results are falling and the focus is on travel and promotions and wasting the tax-payers' money. The minister is not here to look at the problems.'' He labelled Mr. Allen a "minister of blame'' for refusing to take "one tiny bit of blame for anything''.

Allen comes under fire He cited Mr. Allen blaming the weakness of the euro and TWA for falling visitor numbers from Europe and the airline pulling out of a route to Bermuda.

Referring to Mr. Allen's alleged "micro-management'' of the Tourist Department, Mr. Dodwell said: "He is paranoid about leaks, he is carrying out witch hunts and intimidating staff''.

He said morale would plummet as a result of Mr. Allen saying only some of his staff were professional.

"How can you trust a minister who won't release an airline strategy? How can you trust a minister who said TWA will be back next year when there was a letter on file from TWA saying they wouldn't be back? "How can you trust a minister who never came to this House and acknowledged his and his department's involvement in an attempt to buy Cragmore?'' He accused Mr. Allen -- who called for hotels to be nationalised in 1993 -- of being the "minister of hypocrisy''.

"He now says air arrivals don't matter. He sat there for 18 years saying arrivals are down, arrivals are down, and now he says it doesn't matter.

"He says we are looking at quality visitors yet he spends $500,000 on a single visit to a mass tourism event in France.

"We are hearing the acts of a desperate man. He wants to shoot the messenger and not take responsibility for what's going on. Bermuda deserves better.'' He said that if Mr. Allen was the chief executive officer of a company, he would be sacked for his performance.

Mr. Dodwell said the UBP would examine the problems of tourism at home and spend $2 million from the marketing budget on an "attitude development plan'' to deal with negative attitudes in the industry.

Mr. Dodwell said he would sack the advertising firm being used by the Tourism Department because they were not competent and didn't have enough travel staff.

The UBP would not chase the mass market, and would go after some specific US airlines.

Mr. Dodwell said the UBP could do nothing to change the past. The UBP was a multi-racial party which had changed, and the PLP knew this.

The party was not the preserve of white people, Front Street, or business, but was in favour of equality for all.

The UBP supported equality and fairness for all and was preparing to come back and govern again.

"We know we will govern well because we will govern fairly for all people,'' he added.

Home Affairs and Public Safety Minister Paula Cox said the work permit policy was still being drafted because further meetings were being held with stake holders.

She said the Serious Crimes Commission was a "signpost of how we can do things better''.

She pointed out that one recommendation in the report -- the introduction of a Police and Criminal Evidence Act -- was in the Throne Speech.

Her department's work was concerned with drawing up a "social pact'' with the community.

Working parties had been working on the alternatives to incarceration initiative and there was not -- as the UBP claimed -- a commitment it would be up and running by the Throne Speech. She said there was a delay in the opening of the Halfway House.

Ms Cox said there were hints that there would be changes to the period of conscription for the Bermuda Regiment, but it required further study.

The Police were now going about their tasks with "renewed vigour'', she added.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Michael Dunkley accused the PLP in the Throne Speech of playing "smoke and mirrors'' with the people.

"A PLP election manifesto that bleated the mantle of openness, transparency and operating in the sunlight of public scrutiny in a new Bermuda has soured to such an extent that the honeymoon is now over for this new Bermuda,'' he said.

"Yet the hopes, the dreams, and many of the promises spoken to voters by PLP candidates remain unfulfilled and lost.'' Mr. Dunkley claimed the PLP leadership was now "shaken'' by Thursday's election, and he said Premier Jennifer Smith was now trying to heal the rift with her backbench MPs who feel closed out.

Mr. Dunkley said the issues of crime, drugs and road rage had not been adequately dealt with, and the housing shortage had not been sufficiently tackled.

He said more people than ever were getting locked up at Westgate, which was a "revolving door'', and called for compulsory rehabilitation programmes.

Judicial system is `shaky at best' claims Dunkley He said he did not blame the Prison Officers Association for threatening legal action over over-crowding and staffing shortages, although he recognised these were not new problems.

"Our judicial system is shaky at best and creaking at all points. There is a lack of judges, a lack of experienced Crown counsels, and allegations of tampering surfacing from time to time.'' He described the Serious Crimes Commission a "soap opera'' and urged Government to do something to deal with the "dark cloud that was passed over Bermuda at that time''.

He complained that pyramid schemes "come and go'' with investigations, yet Government won't take a lead; the Rodney Smith affair was "brushed under the carpet;'' and there were instances of "no prosecution of major cases in spite of the wishes of the plaintiff. That is not acceptable''.

He warned that consolidation of power under the constitutional reforms augured "the beginning stage of some kind of dictatorship''.

Mr. Dunkley claimed no one really knew what Government planned over constitutional change.

He questioned whether Government had made its mind up about long term residents before the public meetings, which were marred, he said by intimidation of long-term residents and of Bermudians who wanted to speak up for them.

"At the third meeting, a couple met me at the door, saying `I was wondering whether you were coming because I was too intimidated to speak and will you speak for me'.

"I thought in the new Bermuda intimidation went out the door, but the intimidation was there.'' Mr. Dunkley said no reference was made to drugs searches at the prison and he mentioned the bungled attempt by Police to search the prison when they were locked out by prison staff.

He wondered whether Government still have the resolve to crack down on drug use in prisons.

Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb took the Opposition to task over criticism of constitutional change. She said claims the PLP had stopped the UBP's bid for proportional representation in 1979 were misleading.

She said: "The British Government didn't agree. They were clearly in control at that time. The UBP put forward PR and didn't get it, we put forward one man, one vote and didn't get it.'' Ms. Webb said all children in senior schools had access to computers which Government wanted to extend to middle and primary schools.

Government favoured on-line voting and hoped to eventually issue encrypted electronic signatures to all voters to allow them to vote by computer.

UBP MP Trevor Moniz said the "plot sickens and thickens'' when it came to Government's constitutional plans.

He accused the PLP of not having the courage of its convictions to trust the people to a referendum.

He said they "rigged'' the public meetings on long-term residents, which were marked by intimidation and apparent overwhelming support for Government and he warned against the PLP using a single public meeting and claiming it was consultation.

Mr. Moniz accused Government of "hypocrisy and double standards'' for "turning a blind eye'' to pyramid schemes. "They shouldn't think they are fooling anyone,'' he added.

He said it was "disgraceful and an embarrassment'' that the publicly-paid for civil service report was being kept secret, as was the report on the Bermuda Regiment.

Mr. Moniz alleged it was part of a "pattern of behaviour that is as far from transparency and accountability than anything I've ever seen''.

Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson rejected suggestions made by the Opposition that he showed favouritism by over-ruling a planning department stop notice to allow PLP MP Arthur Pitcher continue work on the home of Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown.

He said he had used the same process of assessing the situation and making a decision for a UBP candidate the previous week.

Mr. Hodgson said the Health Department and his ministry were carrying out studies to find out why some amphibians were deformed, which could be due to environmental problems.

UBP MP C.V. (Jim) Woolridge called the Throne Speech "lacklustre'' and expressed concern that the Airport was closed between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. He said this should not be done for economic reasons.

St. George's North PLP MP Delaey Robinson said the country was going through a transition period which would not always be comfortable, but he said the PLP was in touch with the "majority of people'' -- which he claimed the UBP had not been.

He said the Throne Speech was progressive and people-centred on issues such as alternatives to incarceration.

He said Government deserved praise for "having the guts'' to tackle the long term residents issue, which the UBP had ignored for years.

Drugs court could be in operation by next month The UBP's Patricia Gordon-Pamplin called on Government to send out an unambiguous message that it was against drugs in sport.

She said there should be "inter-community'' sports activities to foster understanding and national pride.

She reiterated the message of party leader Pamela Gordon that the old racist UBP was dead and buried.

PLP MP Dale Butler said not all change would be easy and he suggested Government may take on some of the UBP's better ideas just as the PLP had accepted some opposition suggestions.

Mr. Butler argued against publishing school exam results because, unlike Britain and the United States, parents in Bermuda had little choice about where to send their children.

Works and Engineering minister Alex Scott revealed that Dellwood Middle School will finally get a gym.

And he said Government was looking at bailing scrap cars to overcome the problems of dumping up to 40 vehicles a week at the Airport.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome said the PLP Government was like Jessie Owen -- it had to run quicker, jump longer and jump higher.

He said that with the Children's Act, Bermuda was realising "we've been a sick society for some time''.

It was disturbing to hear of fathers and even grandfathers abusing family members.

Mr. Bascome said he was still hopeful the new Drugs Court could be in operation next month.

Development, Opportunity and Government Services MP Terry Lister listed the achievements of his department over the year, including the reporting amendments to the CURE legislation.

One initiative coming up next summer would be a programme to allow university students to set up their own businesses.

His shadow minister Allan Marshall said he hoped Government wouldn't spend tax-payers' money on a 750 day report because most of the past achievements were contained in the Throne Speech.

"When we want to make dramatic changes to the country you can't do it under the guise of modernisation. It borders on Stalinism if you don't trust the people,'' he said.

He said the PLP had an appalling record on consulting the people over major issues.

Mr. Marshall attacked the Government's long-winded throne speech which had to repeat pledges from last year which it had not honoured. He said the public were not allowed to see the civil service review even though they had funded it.

Mr. Marshall said the Government had blown $90,000 on the 100 and 500 day reports but he said many on the Government's own side were frozen out from the information process.

He said: "PLP backbencher and Union President Derrick Burgess pleaded with his own cabinet ministers to include backbenchers in their deliberations.'' He said the country was being strangled in a sea of bureaucracy and said it was time small businesses were given help.

Government arrogance would be the PLP's undoing just as it was the UBPs, said Mr. Marshall.

UBP Environment spokesman Gary Pitman called on the Government to move the container dock from Hamilton to the Bermuda Land Development Corporation. He said the vacated Hamilton waterfront could then be used for restaurants and entertainment venues. He said his party was calling for new emission standards for all new vehicles which would match or exceed US and European standards, tax incentives to ease the Bermuda slate crisis and to encourage four-story homes in valleys.

On dangerous dogs Mr. Pitman called for a moratorium on pit bulls and other dangerous breeds, the hiring of an additional warden and more and better Government kennels.

More park rangers and Police were needed to clear the parks of loiterers and drug dealers, he said.

Opposition Health and Housing Spokesman Kim Young blasted the Government for doing little to tackle chronic housing problems. She said: "If the Government would have budgeted enough money to provide housing for those in need we wouldn't have 650 families waiting and 120 on the urgent list for housing.'' David Dodwell