Bermuda could teach Britain a thing or two about environmental policy, former British Labour Party Leader Michael Foot said yesterday.

And Bermuda is a shining example of how small country development can lead to stability, leading Jamaican lawyer and former Cabinet Minister Dudley Thomson QC said.

Mr. Foot and Mr. Thompson are to give a lecture on "Political Change and its Impact on Developing Countries'' at the Bermuda College on Monday night to recognise Black History Month.

At a Press conference yesterday, Mr. Foot said: "We can teach a few things to Bermuda but anyone travelling around the Island can see that many of the provisions made by the Government concerning the environment are much better than the UK's.'' Mr. Foot added he has been interested in black history since before the Second World War when he read the book by C.L.R. James, "The Black Jacobins'', but the focus of his lecture will address a variety of subjects, including a proposal to reform the United Nations constitution and this may have a bearing on Bermuda.

Mr. Thompson is a Rhodes Scholar who has held various government positions in Jamaica, including a member of the Senate, several Cabinet posts, and was President of the Jamaica Bar Association.

"Bermuda is synonymous with stability and Bermuda is a shining example that small development can lead to stability,'' said Mr. Thompson. Mr. Thompson has represented Jamaica at numerous overseas conferences and is regarded as an intellectual and long standing Pan-Africanist and has worked with world leaders such as George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyrere to further the struggle for black liberation.

He said: "Third World debt is best dealt through the concept of reparations.

Reparations is not just about repayment, not a punishment, it is a readjustment of people who have been decimated and neglected.

"Reparations can come in the form, for example, of black schools, a better health care system for black women in America and black representation in international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank.'' Dr. George Cook, president of Bermuda College said Mr. Foot and Mr. Thompson were ably qualified to open public dialogue on the subject of political change in Bermuda as their shared knowledge of global politics is well known to Bermuda.

The lecture is to be held tonight at 7 p.m. in the North Hall Lecture Theatre at Bermuda College.

Photos by Ras Mykkal Two of a kind: Britain's former Labour Party leader Michael Foot (left) and ex-Cabinet Minister Dudley Thomson QC, who are in Bermuda to do what they do best -- speak