to include plans to free exchange controls and interest rates in its Throne Speech last week.

But Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul hit back at the accusations, saying the comments had been made in May and Government had not discussed them recently.

Mr. Wade made his statement while discussing the Progressive Labour Party's reply to the Throne Speech which will be delivered in the House of Assembly today.

"A lot of these promises are just the same promises from before,'' Mr. Wade said of Government's legislative programme announced last week.

The United Bermuda Party had promised before to deal with the drug problem and education, but did not appear to "have the will to carry out these promises.'' Mr. Wade said he wanted to save most of his remarks for the floor of the House of Assembly. But it was an omission from the Throne Speech that most angered him.

"I find it reprehensible that the Government could have planned to remove the exchange controls and ceilings on interest rates before the election and to have written the Throne Speech and not included it,'' Mr. Wade said. "It's deceptive.'' Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul said in an interview with The Bottom Line magazine that in the next year Government would free up interest rates, reduce foreign currency purchase tax, and virtually abolish foreign exchange controls.

The measures, which the PLP opposes, should have been spelled out not only in the Throne Speech, but in the UBP election platform, Blueprint for the Future, Mr. Wade said.

"It's not a programme that they would have a mandate to carry out,'' he said.

"It's just this kind of deviousness that the electorate is trying to get rid of.'' Mr. Wade said he was particularly incensed that Dr. Saul announced the measures not on the floor of the House of Assembly, but in the news media.

In response, Dr. Saul said the interview that appeared in The Bottom Line was based on comments he made in May or June to a reporter who was working on an article for a Cayman Islands magazine. The magazine went broke before the interview was published.

"I have made no comments recently, nor have I discussed them with my Cabinet colleagues since giving that interview many months ago,'' Dr. Saul told The Royal Gazette . "However, it is my intention to discuss these matters in some depth with my Cabinet colleagues, and something will be mentioned in the Budget Speech in February.'' The initiatives mentioned in the interview had been publicly discussed for at least five years, and a review was promised in last year's Budget Speech. It was not necessary to repeat that in the Throne Speech, and the Blueprint emphasised "social issues,'' he said.

The exchange and interest rate matters were under constant review, and it was not clear whether all three would be addressed in the Budget Speech, he said.

Interest rates were "basically taking care of themselves, by virtue of what's happening in the world at large,'' and the Bermuda Monetary Authority had been making exchange controls "more user-friendly for Bermudians.'' Mr. Wade said that in criticising the Throne Speech, the PLP intended "to indicate what we might have done, had we won the election''. However, "it is the Government's Throne Speech we have to deal with''.

It was expected the Throne Speech debate would be prefaced with opening remarks by Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan.

Social issues dominated the speech delivered by Governor Lord Waddington.

Government said it wanted a just society with equal opportunities for blacks, women, and youth. A renewed effort to fight drugs was also promised.

The Throne Speech debate was expected to be the only item on the order paper dealt with today.

Meanwhile, Government Whip Mr. John Barritt said there was no decision made at a UBP caucus meeting Wednesday about whether MPs Mrs. Grace Bell and Mr.

Trevor Moniz would be disciplined for voting against Government in electing a new Speaker last week.