Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons was right last week to fault the Government on its lack of action on critical issues ranging from the elderly to health care to housing.

The problem goes back to the Progressive Labour Party?s non-platform in the July election and the leadership fight that followed.

Absent of concrete policy ideas, the PLP campaign degenerated into an us-against-them campaign focused almost entirely on the insecurities and fears surrounding race.

In a way it worked, at least to the extent that the PLP was re-elected.

But it left Alex Scott with an empty policy plate and little time in which to come with new initiatives before the October 31 Throne Speech.

For that, Mr. Scott deserves some sympathy, but he should not be excused for failing to get to grips with these issues, and others, including tourism. That?s because he was a Cabinet Minister in the Jennifer Smith administration and because his party has been in power for five years. It?s not as if the PLP as a whole is just getting its feet wet.

Mr. Scott has said many of the right things and appears to have a genuine and personal commitment to more transparent and open government, in stark contrast to his predecessor. But even here, there seems to be a disconnect between his words and those of some of his colleagues.

While Mr. Scott is promising the release of the long list of reports that were kept secret by Ms Smith, Deputy Premier Ewart Brown was up to the PLP?s old tricks during the Throne Speech debate, denying that the Government was not transparent. Instead, he said, it had a ?sense of time?, a remarkably flippant remark considering some of the reports are almost as old as the Government itself.

Dr. Brown erred again in trying to excuse the racially offensive and insulting remarks made during the PLP?s campaign, saying of the UBP: ?They said some of the things we did in the campaign were negative and not what Bermudians wanted to see, but during the heat of the campaign, things happen. Tensions rise, emotions flare.?

It?s probably fair to say that in Dr. Brown?s case, most of the rising tension and flaring emotion was directed at Ms Smith, who would soon be the victim of his coup. For his own part, he said at the final PLP rally that electing the UBP would mean people had voted their way ?back onto the plantation?.

In the Throne Speech debate, Dr. Brown tried to spin the complaints about that kind of behaviour into the idea that the UBP wants to brush racial problems under the carpet.

Whether that is true or not, there is nothing constructive about accusing a party of having suntans, or about saying that a vote for the UBP will put people back on plantations. It is the cheapest form of rhetoric and does nothing to find a real solution to the problems that racism still poses in Bermuda. It just preys on people?s fears instead of tackling the issues.

Mr. Scott is right to talk about reaching out to the whole community, building trust and getting away from the divisive politics of the past. It is a worthy task, and if he succeeds, he will be among the best of Bermuda?s leaders, both past and present.

But he needs to get his own house in order first and he needs to ensure that the PLP does not fall back into its old ways.