a major London conference and insulting the people of Bermuda.

Opposition leader Pamela Gordon hit out after Ms Smith gave a report on the UK/Caribbean Forum, which was almost the same as a joint report issued at the end of the meeting and released earlier this month.

Ms Gordon said: "It's very apparent that it was a direct lift of the joint communique from the forum.

"It's an insult to the intelligence of the Members of this Honourable House as well as to the people of this Country that the Premier would not acknowledge the source.

"She made the statement as though it was her own. It's lifted word for word from the Internet.

"If that is the degree of accountability when they have a full delegation paid for by the taxpayers of Bermuda, the bottom line is they must be going for the social events.

"If that's all they're going to do, they could have stayed at home and lifted it off the Internet.

"And -- while it was informative -- it really didn't give us the specifics of what the Bermuda Government raised in the meeting and how these issues were addressed by the meeting or by the UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

"It's almost as though the Premier didn't open her mouth. We're getting an idea of what happened through someone else's eyes and the Premier doesn't think fit to tell the people of Bermuda what she and her delegation has done to represent the people of Bermuda. That's sad.'' The forum brought together Commonwealth countries and Overseas Territories from the Caribbean/Atlantic area, as well as other Caribbean countries and invited guests from elsewhere.

The UK announced it would not stand in the way of Territories and Commonwealth Caribbean countries who wanted to axe London's Privy Council as their final court of appeal and set up a Caribbean Court to replace it.

And the Island could reap a share of an extra $800,000 in UK cash to boost the regional Police war on drugs and help pay for overseas students to study in the UK. Mr. Cook also promised to look at setting up an inward investment office in his Ministry aimed at attracting investors to the Caribbean area -- which includes Bermuda.

Britain also promised to help boost e-commerce through partnership deals involving the Overseas Territories and to team up with the one-time colonies to tackle drugs and money laundering.

Ms Gordon said: "We have difficulty in getting the Premier to understand that we're not interested in which receptions they went to and who they ate dinner with.

"But we are interested in the future of this Country and what this Government is doing to represent the people of Bermuda.

"We're very concerned when we don't get kind of responses we're looking for.

That's why we're asking the questions we're asking.'' CONFERENCE CON