Opposition Leader Kim Swan got his leadership of the United Bermuda Party off to a good start on Friday when he delivered his Reply to the Throne Speech.

He hit most of the right notes in a speech that suggests he and his party may be bloodied, but they are unbowed and they will not be afraid to criticise the Government where necessary.

Just as importantly, the Opposition also signalled it was prepared to drop partisanship and work with the Government where necessary. This is important. It is easy for an Opposition party to fall into the trap of trying to find a reason to oppose everything that the Government proposes.

In the long run, this is self-defeating, and means that when a real problem arises, the Opposition cannot differentiate it from its every day criticism. So Mr. Swan was right to offer to work with Government on a raft of initiatives, including the youth and crime in particular. In turn, this gives Mr. Swan and the UBP room to rightly criticise Government. Mr. Swam picked two areas in particular where Government has been especially hypocritical.

One is in the area of good governance, where government is proposing reforms of the Corporations of Hamilton and St. George's on the grounds of poor governance and is also proposing to implement a code of conduct for the press. As Mr. Swan pointed out, criticising the Corporations for poor governance when all parliamentary committees meet in secret and when there is a growing conviction that the Westminster system in Bermuda is broken is a bit rich, as is proposing a code of conduct for journalists when Government MPs have steadfastly resisted the idea is equally self-serving.

As Mr. Swan said: "The Government remains at odds with itself on the whole question of good governance, which is about making government more transparent, more accountable and more responsive."

Mr. Swan also was right to criticise the Government over its silence, at least until very recently, on education reforms. Mr. Swan said: "The Interim Board structure has further undermined the reform process. It has been secretive. It has created mistrust in the education community. It has not consulted with the people who matter.

"The Hopkins Report highlighted cronyism, nepotism and secrecy in the Ministry's operations. The current Interim Board seems to be operating under the very same conditions that its consultant deplored less than a year ago."

This is correct. By refusing to open up the reform process, the committee has wasted a lot of goodwill unnecessarily. This does not mean that the Interim Board's ideas are wrong. Many are good, and deserve wide support.

But by rejecting advice or involvement from outside its magic circle, the interim board has needlessly poisoned the process and may well have made its task that much harder. Similarly, a proposal for a joint select committee which had Opposition support last year has disappeared, raising the likelihood that it was only suggested to get the Opposition on side.

All that does is reduce the chances of such a proposal being accepted again. Mr. Swan was right to raise these problems. He needs to continue this policy of working with the Government when it makes sense and rejecting their proposals when they don't or are clear traps. If he can make the United Bermuda Party the honest broker in Bermuda politics, then his party has a chance of surviving and thriving.