best form of government available.

Similarly, there is little debate that broadly speaking, free market economies with few barriers to free trade are the best placed to provide people with the best chance to improve their living standards.

There is little real dispute between the Government and the Opposition in Bermuda on these questions: the devil comes in the details.

Opposition Leader Pamela Gordon has pointed to the irony of British Prime Minister Tony Blair calling for fewer barriers to trade and freedom of movement at the same time that the PLP -- which likes to claim a close relationship with Labour -- is calling for tougher restrictions on work permits and closer scrutiny of the racial make-up of the workplace.

Last week, former Premier Sir John Swan added his voice to the issue, noting that Bermuda can do little to impede the globalisation of trade -- and that to try to do so could lead to the demise of international business and with that widespread economic dislocation.

Sir John's statement, which has been published widely and appears on this page today, infers that initiatives like tighter work permit policies and the CURE initiative, while intended to help Bermudians, could have the opposite effect if they drive business away.

Some Government members have argued that Bermuda has reached its "maximum carrying capacity'' in economic terms. There are already too many people in Bermuda, too many cars, too much demand for housing -- and local labour is under-utilised.

If those Bermudians "sitting on the wall'' could be galvanised into action and limits on growth could be set, a form of sustainable development could be achieved which would meet the needs of Bermudians while retaining the easygoing lifestyle for which Bermuda is famed.

On the other side of the coin, there are those who feel that Bermuda must continue to pursue growth in order for Bermudians to develop and prosper. This will come at some cost -- more houses, more cars -- but the alternative is recession and economic depression.

Mr. Blair's recent statements show that these are not issues which can be easily pigeon-holed into left and right wing boxes. And it may mark a new philosophical divide with great ramifications for the Island's future.

GOOD SERVICE EDT Good service The National Training Board and the Island's retailers should be praised for launching the first diploma course for shop workers.

The scheme reported on Page 6 in today's paper -- to train shop staff to a recognised national standard -- recognises that good service is not innate but can be taught and taught well. Some individual firms already have their own training courses on service, but this is the first time that there has been an effort to do this on a national scale.

Most people in Bermuda will have stories of outstanding service and conflicting horror stories of awful service where staff gave the impression that the shopper's presence in the shop was a profound and unwelcome inconvenience.

The scheme which will soon be underway should go some way to ending the latter practice and should also help those who have potential to be excellent sales staff to be the best they can be.

Given that Bermuda's retail sector already struggles with the problems of high costs, both for goods and service, and will always struggle to provide the variety of goods available in North America, better service is essential and could become a key competitive advantage.

Imagine an advertising campaign which could legitimately claim that Bermuda has the highest standards of service in the world, not just in its shops, but in the hotels, in transport and everywhere else. That would really be something.