Yesterday's Throne Speech, as promised, was heavily focused on the family and youth, and few would dispute that these are two pressing long-term problems for the community.

Dysfunctional families and poor child rearing, even among a small minority of the community, produce a series of problems from youth violence and alienation, to poor educational attainment, drug abuse and crime. These don't just cause problems for the individuals concerned, but for the community as a whole.

So Government deserves credit for planning a range of policies and legislation to deal with the problem. These ideas are outlined in the Speech, albeit not in a great deal of depth, and presumably there will be a good deal more debate on these ideas in the months to come.

Perhaps the single biggest surprise in the Speech was the promise to go ahead with plans for a new hospital, and at half the $500 million cost of the previous plan, which collapsed amid controversy over the use of the Botanical Gardens for the new building.

While it is far from clear how Government plans to reduce the cost, apart from a line about partnering with overseas hospitals for some services, the commitment to build on the existing site is welcome.

But the Speech was surprisingly thin on the biggest issue facing the Island – the economy.

Just two paragraphs in the Speech tackle it directly. One concedes that the economy "will dominate our discourse in this Session" but states confidence in the Island's ability to weather the storm while the Government still delivers services.

The second says that "out of an abundance of caution and prudence, the pace of capital projects and scope of operational spending must be reviewed and in some cases deferred" ... "but the Ministry of Finance is keenly able to manage this economy with sound fiscal policies and sensible delivery of services".

That's it. Government has already stated that it wishes Ministries to cut their Budgets by ten percent next year, but there was no detail on what programmes might be cut or what sacrifices might be made.

Indeed, at a time like this, one would expect at least a call for sacrifice and for deferred expectations, but there was none. Instead, you could be forgiven for thinking that in Bermuda, it's business as usual when it clearly is nothing of the sort.

Contrast that with US President-elect Barack Obama's words in his victory speech on Tuesday night.

"This victory alone is not the change we seek," he said. "It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other."

The key word here is sacrifice, coupled with the vision that now is the time to look after each other.

Bermuda has not yet felt the full impact of a global recession, but it will come.

And it is incumbent on leaders to prepare the people they lead for what may well be hard times.

President-elect Obama began laying the groundwork for that (and he faces much higher expectations than this Government does) on Tuesday. Yesterday's Throne Speech signally failed to do so.