Premier Alex Scott?s visit to Washington last week is being heralded as a success, and there will no doubt be more trumpeting about the trip as Government?s public relations machine gets rolling.

Mr. Scott and his colleagues ? especially Finance Minister Paula Cox ? should be making these visits regularly and should also be involved in reciprocal trips to Bermuda, not only with US officials but with politicians and diplomats from around the world.

Since the Progressive Labour Party came to power, this has been an area that has been neglected, and nowhere was that clearer than when the Bermuda Government turned over responsibility for the US baselands negotiations to the British Government.

So the decision to make this trip was an important one, and it is good to see Government recognising the importance of good relations with the Island?s major trading partners. It is times like now, when there are few pressing issues between the two countries, when good relations need to be developed, not when there is a crisis.

Still, it is important not to make more out of this trip than it warrants. Mr. Scott did not get a hoped for meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, let alone a meeting with President George W. Bush. That?s a far cry from the days of the United Bermuda Party governments when such meetings were de rigueur.

Instead, observers could be forgiven for thinking that the Bermuda delegation was being fobbed off with meetings with various ?assistants to deputies? at the White House and the other great US federal departments.

Whether this was a message to Bermuda that it had not been sufficiently respectful to the Bush Administration over Cuba and other issues, or simply a realistic assessment of where an Island of 65,000 people stands in the pecking order is not clear. But it does show that Bermuda is not very high on the order of priorities with the current administration.

Bermuda had much more luck on Capitol Hill, where meetings with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senators George Allen and John McCain, all of whom may be seeking the Presidency in 2008, were valuable and important.

A meeting with Rep. Charles Rangel, a long-time friend of Bermuda who started criticising the Island?s tax policies in 2002 and 2004 was important as well. Rep. Rangel is a leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the senior Democrat on the influential tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and an important friend to have, especially if the Democrats recapture the House of Representatives.

The delegation also met with Democratic Senator Barack Obama, who may well be a leading light for decades to come.

So this visit can be seen as a good start to a renewed effort at diplomacy by Bermuda after years of neglect. But it should also be clear that there is more work to be done.

It would have been nice to see meetings with higher level administration officials and with the Senators and Congressmen like Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles Grassley and ranking minority member Max Baucus and House Ways and Means chairman Bill Thomas. Maybe next time.