Labour's election win in Britain is good news for Bermuda, says Attorney General Dame Lois Brown Evans.

But Independence advocate Walton Brown fears the UK government will continue to force Bermuda to follow its lead.

Labour recorded a whopping win against the Opposition Conservative Party on Thursday.

Before polls closed Dame Lois said: "If Labour win I will be very happy having lived over there. I sympathise with Labour and if I had a vote I would vote for them."

She said Labour, who won power in 1997 after 18 years of Conservative rule, were easy to do business with.

"They have finally started the process of being much more open and having a dialogue with the overseas territories. I am happy that will continue."

Last year Labour MP Oona King spoke at the Progressive Labour Party's banquet and blasted the United Bermuda Party for boycotting the opening of Parliament and she gave strong backing for the PLP Government's plans to change the constitution by ending twin-member constituencies.

And last year UBP leader Pamela Gordon attacked the PLP for spending thousands of dollars on putting a Bermuda stand at the British Labour Party's annual conference.

Dame Lois denied the PLP had any special relationship with the UK's Labour party.

She said: "It's the same relationship we have with other Labour parties elsewhere.

"Our strength is with constitutional matters. I just think they are more open air, they have an understanding of our problems. I never had the same feelings with the Conservatives."

Independence advocate Walton Brown said the PLP had a good relationship with the British Labour Party but he said the UK government had given Scotland and Wales more autonomy while taking away rights from its colonies.

Asked about Labour's election win he said: "It's just more of the same as far as the territories are concerned.

"It represents no progress towards self-government. It represents a diminishing power."

His said the UK Government's 1999 document Partnership for Progress had taken away power from the overseas territories at a time when the opposite should have been happening.

And Mr. Brown said for the first time Britain had started to take an involvement in development and control of financial affairs in the territories.

"That's a significant departure and a retrograde step. It's surprising, it's not what I would have expected from a British Labour government which should be more concerned with devolving power."

He said the KPMG report into the financial affairs of the territories allowed the British Government to suggest changes.

"The British electorate don't care what happens in the colonies. It doesn't come on to the electoral radar.

"They should have looked at devolving power, not just in Wales and Scotland, as they are obliged to do under the UN Charter. The UN charter has an obligation to take the territories towards greater and greater self government but they are doing the reverse.

"You can't be a democracy unless you have the ability to govern society fully. There no such thing as a partial democracy."

UBP Legislative Affairs spokesman John Barritt said: "Considering the PLP's investment of taxpayers money in the British Labour Party conference, I am not surprised they wanted to see Labour returned."

The UBP have been appealing to the UK Government to insist on a constitutional conference on the PLP's plan to change Bermuda's electoral set-up.

Mr. Barritt said: "With Labour getting in again it's more of the same. Any change might have brought a fresh look at constitutional change but that's speculation."

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