Independence, both pro and con. Some of the comments are emotional, some are scary and some are downright silly but one man seems to us to have made good sense.

Mr. Peter Lloyd has wide experience as a former Deputy Governor of Bermuda and Governor of one of Bermuda's major competitors, the Cayman Islands. He now lives in Bermuda with his Bermudian wife. Mr. Lloyd has concerned himself with the political and legal realities of Bermuda after Independence rather than with the emotional arguments or the international business arguments which have concerned so many of us.

Mr. Lloyd has said that the Green Paper on Independence failed to go into detail on preserving the Island's democratic safeguards, such as judicial appointments, if ties with Great Britain are severed.

Mr. Lloyd has been quoted as saying that proven lack of co-operation between Bermuda's two political parties would hinder the protection of those safeguards, which included the voting system and appointment of the judiciary.

For example, he said there had "virtually never been any form of co-operation -- even over matters both parties agreed were of national concern such as drug abuse''.

And Government and the Opposition's suspicion of each other would not change after Independence, he said.

"If you are going to become Independent, you should build safeguards against abuses into the Independence constitution. The Green Paper had plenty of fine words and ... stressed the need to maintain existing democratic safeguards by entrenchment in the constitution, but it was remarkably silent or at best vague on details as to how those safeguards were to be effected,'' he said.

He noted the longstanding dispute over the size of voting constituencies. Yet "there was no easy way to remedy the unequal size of the constituencies''.

He went on to note that the majority of judicial appointments were currently made by the Governor in certain cases in consultation with the Premier who must consult with the Opposition Leader.

However, Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade was on record as saying the consultation process was totally worthless.

"Again there is no easy answer and I do think it is something that needs to be thought about carefully,'' he said.

Then there was the question of how to remove a judge, say, from office. And also acting appointments. Even if it was concluded a foreign judge was necessary until a suitable Bermudian was found, the acting appointee would have no security of tenure "so the person would be liable to be influenced by political pressure''.

He noted the Green Paper indeed says the British Privy Council final appeal process should be preserved, especially since it was important to international businesses headquartered here. However, the paper did not say how provision for it would be entrenched in the new constitution.

"So really, my conclusion is there were quite a lot of gaps in the Green Paper,'' he said.