NICE work if you can get it, Mr. Editor, sitting in the House on the Hill. The Man in charge, and that would be the Premier, told MPs late last Friday night that we would be going on an eight-week sojourn from debate and not return until Friday, May 6 ? and this, Mr. Editor, follows the ten-week break he sent us on over Christmas.

If you ask me, and you should, it's beginning to look like Parliament has little role to play in the New Bermuda under the PLP.

Pity that. Accountability only comes about when governments, their decisions, and their actions, are subject to scrutiny in the form of questions and criticism and, yes, disagreement, in the open forum we know as Parliament and to which I affectionately refer as the House on the Hill (but which, to be accurate, also includes the Upper House which is down the Hill).

It gets worse too, Mr. Editor, when you also take into account how archaic we are in the way in which we run our Legislature ? and the PLP, which calls itself Progressive, shows absolutely no inclination for reform.

Instead, we get a push to Independence when their own surveys show a majority of Bermudians, a strong majority, are not interested (but that's another story, Mr. Editor ? see story at right). Meanwhile, the more we seem to learn about Big BIC and their activities, the more the 'I' is starting to look and sound like it stands for 'indoctrination' and the 'C' for 'conditioning', and the unwitting and the unwilling are their target.

But let me come back to my point, Mr. Editor, working in the House on the Hill. What we need there is some long overdue reform.

If you've been following the Budget Debate closely ? and God bless those who have ? you will know that, with very exceptions, Ministers take to reading ? and in some cases not very well either ? very lengthy statements put together by their top swivel servants, designed it seems not so much as to illuminate but to dominate. The more time the Minister can take, the less time there is for the Opposition to comment, criticise and question. It's a blunt but effective strategy.

Questions? If you want answers to questions on the record you have to ask them in writing ten days in advance ? and even then the Minister can delay answering them without penalty. If there isn't time to ask them before 11 o'clock in the morning on the day the House meets, the answers are reduced to writing and the opportunity to ask follow-up questions is lost. In most modern parliamentary systems, a specific period of time is set aside and questions are asked with and without prior notice.

Modern parliamentary systems also feature far more select committees (select in parliamentary language, Mr. Editor, means bipartisan) which are established to consider, review and report on major issues and matters, and all of which work is conducted in full public view.

Not so in Bermuda. Old Bermuda. New Bermuda. Take your pick.

The current most important committee, the Public Accounts Committee, charged as it is with reviewing Government's accounts and expenditure, continues to meet in private, notwithstanding the practice in other parliamentary democracies, and recommendations from Government's own advisers that its proceedings be open to the public.

The most recent call for committee work came from those who prepared the report "Untangling Bermuda's Quangos" for the PLP Government at the PLP Government's request.

Here's what they had to say in black and white:

"

Spot on, Mr. Editor.

But, but . . . isn't anybody in the PLP listening?

Making cents of it all

OKAY, to be fair, Mr. Editor, while we may not meet that often in the House on the Hill when we do meet we do tend to go long. Last week was a prime example. We were there until at least midnight Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and that's rough going, Mr. Editor, when you're trying to hold down a second job - and anyhow, sitting in the House is but part of the job as MP.

Not surprisingly though, salaries came up for discussion once again when Finance Minister Paula Cox piloted through the usual annual increase. The formula emerged ten years ago out of the recommendation of ? wait for it ? a select committee of the House: Annual increases were to be tied to the Retail Price Index.

Opposition spokesman for Finance and Leader Dr. Grant Gibbons did some calculations of his own and discovered that the proposed 4.5 per cent increases were running ahead of the annual rate of inflation, and questioned then why Government was only proposing 3.5 per cent increases for seniors' pensions commencing in August.

But the increases this time around may be modest compared to what might be around the corner. Ms Cox reaffirmed Government's intention to introduce legislation to establish a committee to review parliamentary salaries.

Interestingly, Mr. Editor, this too was a recommendation that arose out of the same select committee some ten years ago ? but at that time the call for an independent review panel came in a minority report which was co-authored by your correspondent on the Hill along with Dame Pamela Gordon, both of us then rookie MPs.

The shape and form of the new committee won't be known until the legislation comes to light, but in the meantime we know it will feature a reassessment of what the jobs are worth: An extra $657,000.00 has been set aside in the 2005 Budget for 'Ministers and Members'.

Top of the Class, Minister

ONE of my colleagues on the Hill, Mr. Editor, joked that maybe we ought to be paid by the word. Forget the midnight hour. We would never get out of there if that were the case. Government Ministers would also have cleaned up in the Budget Debate these past two weeks.

We set aside two hours on Friday for an examination of the Department of Planning and Minister Neletha Butterfield gave her Shadow Cole Simons ? and the rest of us ? less than half an hour. Naturally, the rest of us didn't get a word in.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Education Minister Terry Lister gave his colleagues a better lesson. He took no more than two hours of the five hours which the Opposition had allotted for debate on his Ministry; in turn, his Shadow Neville Darrell spoke for no more than an hour.

There were actually two hours for the rest of the House to engage in a real debate, and there was no shortage of speakers as we heard from Maxwell Burgess, Dean Foggo, Louise Jackson, Randy Horton, Suzann Roberts-Holshouser, Michael Scott, Pat Gordon Pamplin and Jon Brunson . . . and there was a small window at the end for the Minister to recap the debate. It was, Mr. Editor, some kind of a record.

Hats off then to the Education Minister who goes to the top of the class for his contribution to the Budget Debate. It wasn't just the time which he gave everyone else that earns him top marks. It was also the class which he showed when he (1) shared his ministerial brief with Mr. Darrell prior to debate and (2) acknowledged his Shadow's contribution to the advancement of public education in Bermuda, notwithstanding their differences.

At the time of writing, I had not heard of one other Government Minister sharing with their Shadows their briefs ? either before or after the debate. That, sadly, Mr Editor, reveals all.

D?j? vu all over again

DISCLOSURE is not a strong suit of the PLP. We have still to see the Annual Reports of the Bermuda Housing Corporation for the years 2002, 2003 and 2004, despite the fact that they have been completed.

The law requires that they be tabled in the Legislature and the Speaker disallowed an Opposition motion last year deploring the fact they had not been tabled. The Speaker told us that he understood the reports were on their way.

From where? China? By slow boat? This tactic is nothing new either. You will recall, Mr. Editor, the Auditor General's special report into the Housing Corporation scandal, the one the Opposition wanted debated, which the Speaker would not let us present for debate because it was a Government report, and which the Premier then subsequently introduced just before Christmas, but which he has not taken up and cannot now until we come back in early May.

Accountability. Good governance. Transparency. The PLP continue to redefine the words in ways neither you, Mr. Editor, nor George Orwell, could ever have imagined.

Coming and Going

WE whisked through the legislation pretty quickly last Friday night, and not just because we were tired at the end of a long week. There was also agreement. The best example was the introduction of the stamp duty exemption for 'the primary family homestead' upon death.

It was something which the Opposition UBP campaigned on at the last election and Finance Minister Paula Cox said it was something which the PLP had been urged to implement by their Central Council. In any event, the people are about to benefit starting on April 1.

The exemption has to be applied for and we were told that the Tax Commissioner's Office has the necessary forms ready for completion. Meanwhile, the cost of purchasing a home in Bermuda is about to go up. The stamp duty rates for mortgages, all kinds, will also be increasing effective April 1.

If they don't get you going, Mr. Editor, they get you coming.

Provision for Sunday shopping also breezed through without too much debate. As Dr. Gibbons pointed out, times sure have changed. Ten years ago, the then-Opposition PLP were dead set against. But as Ms Cox observed those opposed for religious reasons have "sort of accepted it, without a lot of hoopla".

Backbencher Wayne Perinchief lauded the initiative. It was about time, he said, as Sunday shopping would take Bermuda from "a sleepy backwater of commerce into the 21st century" and was just the kick-start businesses need to put some sizzle and pop into tourism.

That all sounded very nice, Mr. Editor, until we got to the next item on the agenda, Government Fees. If you want to open on Sunday it is going to cost you: $320.00 more a year if you are a small business with less than 2500 square feet of floor space, and $1,000 a year for those over 2,500 square feet. There is also a single day flat rate of $80.

YOU may recall, Mr. Editor, that we were told that it was a thirst for knowledge which prompted the establishment of Big BIC. There was reference to a survey which had been carried out for Government in June of last year which confirmed that to be the case.

Well, it's amazing what you can find out when you dig around a little bit. Turns out that wasn't even half the story.

Here's what the survey also told the Bermuda Government which they in turn didn't tell us:

- Seven in ten residents either strongly (45 per cent, down three points over the last quarter) or generally (23 per cent, up seven points) oppose an Independent Bermuda and, moreover, it isn't just a majority of white folks opposed. Opposition is reported to have grown among black residents to the point where more than half of Bermuda's black residents were expressing some level of opposition towards an Independent Bermuda.

- A majority of residents consider themselves either generally (51 per cent) or very well (19 per cent) informed on the issue of Independence.

Holy smokes, Mr. Editor, those are impressive majorities. No need to wonder why Government won't commit to a referendum. They've got a lot of minds to change on the issue first.

Yes, eight in ten residents were also reported as having expressed a strong interest in learning more about the impact of Independence on Bermuda: 47 per cent were said to be very interested and 33 per cent somewhat interested.

But as the survey summary also observed: "While the level of interest in additional information is generally high across the population, it is worth noting that those who support an Independent Bermuda express a greater level of interest than those who oppose the idea in learning more about the impact of an Independent Bermuda."

What's also interesting are the sources of information which people find most credible. The media came out on top (30 per cent) and the Government "in general" came second at 21 per cent, "distantly followed by public meetings (seven per cent) and the United Bermuda Party (six per cent)".

Go figure, Mr. Editor.