The Bermuda First Report got its day in Parliament on Friday when MPs debated the controversial report.

But the debate was overshadowed by Immigration Minister Sen. David Burch's criticism days earlier when he said the report's authors had never bothered to interview him or his Ministry before making sweeping recommendations for changes to Immigration laws.

That does seem to be an astonishing omission, made more so by the fact that one of the report's co-chairman was the Premier, who might have been concerned by the fact that one of his key Ministers was ignored.

That fact, unfortunately, will go a long way to reinforcing the notion that this report was never anything more than a very expensive paper exercise. No doubt it will now join its many predecessors of the last 40 or so years to moulder on a shelf in the Government Archives.

That's a shame, because although the report was never going to justify its price tag, there were some good ideas in it which would have gone some way to reversing the economy's downward trend, and at least deserved more discussion than the rather disconnected debate it received in the House.

Instead, Bermuda's economy seems certain to continue its inexorable decline.