political event. It has to be remembered that the election was a change of Government and that while 55 percent of the voters voted in favour of that change, 45 percent did not. It seems to us that public holidays should be used to mark generally accepted national events along with the usual religious calendar. Today that historical usage presents some problem because not all Bermudians join in the religious holidays.

We do not wish to "pour cold water'' on the PLP victory and we recognise that in the heat of victory the new Premier promised her voters a holiday to celebrate. However a PLP victory is just that and indeed there are Bermudians who may be buying into togetherness but are not celebrating.

Public holidays inevitably cause a good deal of disruption unless they are the kind celebrated by much of the rest of the world which means many other countries are also closed for the day. Holidays are also very expensive for those organisations which have no choice but to work on the holiday and thus become involved in staff overtime and staff benefits.

Bermuda is no longer a simple place and many of the large businesses, including the banks and international businesses, trade internationally and are unable to simply close the doors and tell world financial markets that Bermuda is having a one off day off.

This is also very much true of small Bermudian businesses which keep their doors open to get in every penny they can and need every penny they can get, especially in the slow winter months. The money they sacrifice to a public holiday they have little chance of getting back again.

The Premier's declaration of January 4 as a public holiday appears to have been done without consultation with the business sector which bears the burden of such day. We also think that public holidays should be approved by Parliament. If this is the new Bermuda of cooperation, transparency and accountability that we have been promised, that would seem to require consultation especially since business has tried hard at welcoming the new Government.

Government is not the least of those hit by costs. We think the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will cost Government in overtime pay to keep public services operating at public holiday rates could have been better spent on a public project such as a special facility at CedarBridge or the revamping of the Pembroke Rest Home. It would even make sense to us if the holiday had been devoted to a "Clean Bermuda for the New Year Day'' to mark the "new Bermuda'' and the new broom.