Community Affairs Minister Dale Butler has branded the United Bermuda Party's Louise Jackson a "hypocrite" for attacking him on the Island's memorandum with Cuba when she refused to question him on it when she had the chance.

Mrs. Jackson, the Shadow Cultural Affairs Minister, has said she has been bombarded with calls from Bermudians who want to organise a march in protest at the memorandum on cultural matters - whose contents remain secret.

Mr. Butler has hit back saying the contents of the memorandum cannot be made public until they go before Parliament.

And he said he met Mrs. Jackson after he signed the memorandum and he raised the issue with her to give her the chance to ask questions, but she declined.

But Mrs. Jackson said last night it was only a courtesy to the Opposition that memoranda are not released when Parliament is not in session and there was nothing to stop Government making it public.

And she said the reason she did not question Mr. Butler about the memorandum when they met was because she had no information on it, so she did not know what to ask.

Mr. Butler said Mrs. Jackson had attacked him in the media about the memorandum, so he assumed she would raise the issue with him when they met "and I would have the opportunity give her whatever information she needed. However, this was not to be.

"A staff member of the Ministry who was present at the meeting with Mrs. Jackson can verify that despite my prompting, Mrs. Jackson raised absolutely no questions no quetions about the Ministry.

"Furthermore, I was even more surprised when she did not use this opportunity to ask me anything about the cultural memorandum.

"So, I decided to broach the subject first and I asked her if she had any questions about the 'Cuban memorandum'.

"Needless to say, I was quite taken aback when Mrs. Jackson responded by simply raising both hands in the air and saying nothing.

"I was more than prepared to answer her questions on the cultural memorandum but she chose to say nothing.

"To this day, Mrs. Jackson has never asked me if the memorandum will be released to the public.

"If she had, I could have informed her that documents of this sort are first released through Parliament.

"It would have been against standard parliamentary procedure, unprofessional and unethical for me to release this memorandum to Mrs. Jackson, or even to the media before it is released in Parliament first.

"But, as Parliament has been closed, there has not been an opportunity for the cultural memorandum to be released.

"I note that Mrs. Jackson continues to use every opportunity to assassinate my character over this issue, and I find it quite hypocritical considering that she has never initiated any discussions on this matter with me, and not once has bothered to telephone me.

"As Mrs. Jackson's home telephone number is unlisted, I found it even more interesting that The Mid-Ocean News quotes Mrs Jackson as saying people are phoning her at home night and day.

"Perhaps the time has come for the real Louise Jackson to please stand up."

Mrs. Jackson said last night: "I am sure Mr. Butler must know that when the House isn't sitting, there is no rule preventing the document being made public.

"It is a courtesy to the Opposition, generally speaking, that the paper must be held over, but in this case, the Opposition is asking for it to be released and there is a public outcry for it to be released.

"As there has been an outcry from the public demanding it be released, there is the expectation of my constituents, and Mr. Butler's constituents, that they want to know what we have been signed up for.

"As for me being asked if I had any questions about the memorandum, I could not ask questions of Mr. Butler as I had not seen it, and the point of it is not for this to happen behind closed doors when the public is demanding it be released.

"I have never assassinated Mr. Butler's character. If he goes back and re-reads the articles, all I have done is is quote him on what he has said in his speech in May (opposing links to Cuba because of the regime's human rights record) and ask how he has done this complete turnaround.

"If this was just a cultural exchange between teachers and students in Bermuda and Cuba and that's it, why can't it be released?

"What is all the secrecy about it? People are becoming very uneasy about this and asking what have we been signed up for.

"I don't believe it is in the best interests of this country at this time, but the way this is developing, it makes me wonder what's in it.

"And as for my home number not being listed, it is under my husband's name and there is the Jackson School of Music. My God, everyone knows how to reach me."