Premier Jennifer Smith sounded satisfied as she reviewed the about to conclude Parliamentary session last Wednesday.

Although she admitted that the new Bermuda remained a work in progress, she cited several achievements during the year of which the Government was proud.

She was joined by Finance Minister Eugene Cox, who gave a relatively upbeat report on the state of the economy, noting that cutbacks in spending in the wake of September 11 had kept public finances healthy.

The government can take some pride in its achievements in this session, especially given that the session began among great uncertainty as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

But there have been failures too.

On the legislative front, two centrepieces of the Government agenda remained undone.

One is the bid for associate membership of the Caribbean Community which ended in confusion with the Government motion on Caricom falling off the order paper before being reinstated on the last day of the session. That was a meaningless decision, since it could not be debated and will now fall off the order paper again under parliamentary rules.

What it did mean was that, again under Parliamentary rules, Caricom could not be debated at all; thus leaving the public no better informed.

The second major legislative move is the Boundaries Commission report, which has still not been submitted to Parliament.

That seems to be because the Commission members cannot agree on the number of seats the new House of Assembly should have, with the Progressive Labour Party sticking with 32 seats and the United Bermuda Party prepared to compromise on 36 after originally proposing 39 elected seats.

Still, the bottom line is that the end of the session has now been reached without a decision on the new boundaries or even the number of MPs who will represent the public.

This was a project that was misconceived from the beginning. With proper public consultation and even a constitutional conference, it is quite possible that a decision could have been made by now which the bulk of the public could accept, even if they did not agree with them.

Instead, a major constitutional decision remains up in the air, and the public, officially at least, still has no idea where the Government stands.

Other marks against Government included the rejection by the Senate of the central dispatch system for taxis, the ongoing Housing Corporation scandal and continued concerns (steadfastly denied by Works Minister Alex Scott) over the progress of the Berkeley Institute project.

These failures overshadow some of the successes the Government can take credit for, including the passage of the long term residents' legislation, the licensing legislation for teachers, the publication of the national transport discussion paper and the City of Hamilton Plan and the introduction of the fast ferries to the Island.

They also tend to overshadow the mixed picture on the economy. While Finance Minister Eugene Cox said a two-quarter recession was to be expected, he was also able to point to continued growth in international business and a tourism industry whose performance is better than expected but still worse than last year's dismal record.

Overshadowing that picture is the continued bashing that Bermuda is taking in the United States. It has reached the point where it feels like the Island is less popular than Iraq "within the Beltway" and is seemingly powerless to do anything about it.

All in all, in spite of the air of confidence displayed by the Premier and the Finance Minister, it is a record that is better than might have been expected after September 11 but is less impressive than they can have hoped for.