GOVERNMENT backbencher Dale Butler said yesterday he had enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive reaction from die-hard PLP supporters to his speech this week in which he was fiercely critical of his party colleagues in the Cabinet.

Mr. Butler said "90 percent" of people he had encountered had expressed strong agreement with the points he made in a largely damning assessment of the Progressive Labour Party's four years in power.

But Mr. Butler moved to scotch rumours that he was set to cross the floor of the House of Assembly and join the United Bermuda Party or run as an Independent candidate in this year's General Election by pledging his allegiance to the governing party.

And he denied that his speech had been motivated by sour grapes over never having been offered the Education Minister's job he had been led to believe he would get.

"Ninety percent of the people who have called me since, or who I have seen canvassing or out on the street, said I was correct," said Mr. Butler. "They said they agreed with me and those people are predominantly PLP die-hards."

In the speech to members of his writing group The Writers' Machine at Fourways on Tuesday, Mr. Butler said the PLP hierarchy needed "a reminder, a conscience, and if they do not listen inside, they will hear it on the outside because I will continue to tell it like it is".

In a direct reference to comments made in the House by Tourism & Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb, Mr. Butler said "the road ahead must include all of us and not just people who look like me".

He criticised the sum of more than $10-million spent by the administration on consultants and said he would "cut them all out and use Bermudians".

And in an open disagreement with Warwick running-mate Works & Engineering Minister Alex Scott's suggestion that the position of the Auditor General should be reviewed, Mr. Butler said: "The Auditor General should be allowed to stay in a position for life and not have a contract because he must feel free to tell it like it is without repercussions.

"If you remove the Auditor, corruption will set in. Just ask those countries that have a revolving door until they find a friend who will ignore the truth."

He also called for tougher action against crime and - ironically the same day as gang fights broke out in the Elliott Street and St. Monica's Mission areas of Hamilton - he warned: "Anarchy will rule if we don't tackle crime and violence."

Overseas travelling by Government Ministers also came under Mr. Butler's spotlight.

Mr. Butler gave up his job as a head teacher to run for Parliament in 1998, having been led to believe, he said, that he would become the first Progressive Labour Party Education Minister. But he denied that was a reason for his critical speech.

"It's true that I was asked to give up an $80,000 to take a $35,000 job," said Mr. Butler yesterday. "I had been asked to run on the assumption that I would become the Education Minister.

"The first day after we'd been elected, Jennifer Smith spoke to a teachers' conference in the Ruth Seaton James Centre and said: 'I know you won't be disappointed with the choice of Education Minister'. The teachers were shouting, 'Dale Butler!', and then she said she'd appointed herself.

"I don't have sour grapes about that now. If I had, I would not have given three Education Ministers since then my full support."

Mr. Butler said approaches had been made to prise him away from the PLP.

"I know there are rumours out there that I am going Independent or am going to the UBP - I want to say that I have never even considered it," he said.

"I have been to dinners and lunches where people have tried to encourage this. I am a die-hard PLP supporter and I am not about to leave."

He expanded on the points he made in his speech about excessive travelling by Ministers.

"Before we were elected we said we would cut out waste," said Mr. Butler. "Going to an educational conference in Senegal - I'm talking about Milton Scott - is a complete waste of time. What will we learn from that?

"We were elected saying we would cut out waste and if we're not doing what we said we would, then does that mean I've got sour grapes if I point it out?"

Mr. Butler said he still believed in the basic tenets of PLP philosophy and believed the Government would get re-elected this year on the basis of that philosophy.

In his speech, he had pointed out his disappointment that Government had not made progress in provide low-cost housing for the poor using sites at Morgan's Point and Tudor Hill.

"There is always a priority list and the electorate need to know why we haven't done everything that we wanted to," said Mr. Butler.

"The plan we had when we came into power has changed. There may be good reasons for that; maybe there were projects left over that had to be finished. But whatever the reasons, the public need to know."

Mr. Butler, an advocate of stronger discipline in schools and tougher enforcement of the law, said his fears going back three decades were now being realised.

He said the gang fights this week were symptomatic of society's ills.

"If people are going around carrying baseball bats and machetes, then they feel they're above the law," said Mr. Butler.

"It all goes back to what I've been saying since the 70s when I did a survey that showed there were 10 to 15 areas in which people were sitting on walls.

"At the time people said they were no problem if you left them alone, but some of those people sitting on the wall have now become drug dealers and troublemakers.

"The numbers have grown and I believe from talking to them that many of them feel disenfranchised, that their needs are not being met.

"There is no time now for pussy-footing around. I believe every politician has a responsibility to go out and speak to these people as I have done.

"They may be searching for people they believe have abandoned them - maybe their church leaders, former teachers, even parents.

"We need to find out the root causes of the problems that are leading these people to fall into a minority culture. And we need to let them know that this (crime and violence) can't continue or we have no choice but to use the law to stop it."

Mr. Butler said he could not speak for other backbenchers and whether they shared the reservations pointed out in his speech about the Government's lack of progress with its plans.

"I cannot speak for anyone else," he said. "Why are the other backbenchers silent? Why is it only me who talks about crime and about the need for a National Youth Commission? There is nothing preventing the others from expressing their views."