Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown was the first to speak after Dr. Gibbons delivered his Reply to the Budget.

He declared the Budget as "extremely likeable" and said that characterisations of it being a "sweetheart" or "election" Budget was simply how the sceptics referred to a "people sensitive Budget".

"Maybe this Budget is just too good," he said. "It's just too good and it is difficult to find holes in this Budget."

The Budget touched on all bases, he continued, because it addressed "core social concerns while at the same time maintaining a viable climate for the financial services sector and at the same time providing opportunities to inject energy and enthusiasm in the rebuilding of tourism."

Opposition depictions of the Budget as being a gambler's budget could better be applied to the former Government.

"The difference is they gambled with education and lost. They gambled with healthcare and lost. They gambled with social programmes and lost. And, finally, Mr. Speaker, they gambled with the elections of November 1998 and lost," Dr. Brown said.

He said that Government was "strategically approaching the problems of the day".

Turning to Dr. Gibbons' comments on Caricom, he called for more honesty on the reasons for objecting to joining Caricom.

Dr. Gibbons, he said, had "intimate knowledge of businesses that thrive in the region". Bermudian owned businesses had invested "millions of dollars" in the Caribbean, he said.

But Government did not believe that relations with the Caribbean should be limited to business, but should be developed with "the holistic approach".

On another of Dr. Gibbons' themes he said : "There are no guarantees in life. And if we learned any lessons from September 11, we should have learned that the events that shape history are unpredictable."

Government was monitoring the environment carefully, he claimed.

"We monitor what is going on in Washington. We read the New York Times as well. And when we read the New York Times, we know that this means there will be political repercussions behind stories of that nature and we know where the stories come from.

"We know who the businesses are that might be affected by that. We know that there is a political component to all of this. We have political friends. We understand the network and we go about our business," he said.

"The assumption, though, is that old assumption that we have been fighting from day one in this House and that is that we probably don't know what we are doing. But we do know what we are doing and we firmly have our hands on the wheel."

He pointed out that air arrivals this year where higher than last year at the same time. "Who would have predicted that? " And he called upon the Opposition to acknowledge when tourism numbers head north.

"We know that there is a flicker of hope and promise by those numbers," Dr. Brown said.

And he praised Tourism Minister David Allen's "vision" for declaring Bermuda a year round destination as opposed to one with a "low season" and a "high season".

He announced that he was working with the Tourism Minister to allow tour operators more flexibility in bringing air charters to the Island.

"We understand as a Government what our obligations are and we are carrying out those responsibilities."

Dr. Brown then referred to the Premier's televised call for Bermudians to work together and said "If this Budget cannot influence people to do that I don't know what will. In my opinion, almost every sector of Bermuda got some assistance, some promise of help in their financial affairs."

And he added that he was "delighted" that the Finance Minister was able to see that car licences fees did not increase.

The Premier's address, he said, brought to mind Adam Clayton Powell. "One of the things he used to say during his times of greatest stress was 'keep the faith'... And Mr. Speaker, this Government intends to keep the faith all of the time and move the agenda."

Opposition Whip Maxwell Burgess rose to say he did not see how the Budget tried to close the gap between the haves and have nots.

He said the gap between the haves and have nots was widening, with black males particularly affected, but the solution was not to drag the haves down.

"Hopelessness begets hopelessness, and if we can't bring them into the mainstream, it will be an albatross around the necks of all of us," he said.

He admitted that the United Bermuda Party had had its failures in its terms as Government. But he said: "The platform of the famous 1998 didn't ask for a mandate to fail like the United Bermuda Party failed. Nowhere in that platform do you see 'give us a chance to take tourism numbers down for 20 years'. The Government did not ask the people to entrust them with the opportunity to elect them, to give them 20 years to see if they can get those numbers lower than the United Bermuda Party got them."

The opposite was true, he said. "It was the Minister of Tourism who asked for 100 days to turn it around. Instead what he got was $100,000 a day to go down the tubes - year in and year out."

He said Bermuda would have been better off if Mr. Allen had gambled the money on Crown and He said the United Bermuda Party would prefer reasonable borrowing, and it would understand if Government had to come back to the House to borrow more if it was needed to keep Bermuda working.

Mr. Burgess said workers would eventually end up paying for the new unemployment insurance benefits and said the answer was to stimulate the economy to create jobs.

While the Government talked about transparency, people would be suspicious and would not buy-in if they felt Government was not sharing information in a timely manner.

In reference to the verbal mauling Premier Jennifer Smith received two weeks ago from workers at the House of Assembly - provoking claims she was not shown proper respect - he said: "I will fight for any office to be respected, but respect has to be earned.

"As Bob Marley said, 'you only get respect the old fashioned way: earn it one person at a time'. If we can't get people to trust us and believe what we are doing is right and for the right reasons, we're in a bigger problem."

He said that with revenue predicted to drop by $58 million, Government needed a tourism plan.

He said Bermudians were taking pay freezes and pay cuts, which prompted Government Whip Ottiwell Simmons to demand he provide names and examples.

"The honourable member says he doesn't know about people taking pay freezes. That is a sad indictment of a Government that was elected to know," said Mr. Burgess.

He said the UBP had always left a surplus in the Government accounts every year, which the PLP had inherited and squandered. They also had two "windfalls" - on payroll tax and land tax.

"They had the best set of books that money could buy - I don't know any government in the world that could get these books - and they squandered it. We had over-employment and surpluses, now it's gone. Now you see it, now it's gone. When people get upset (about you not delivering promises) don't pretend you don't know why," added Mr. Burgess.

The Government's problem is not the demands made by the people, it was that it could not deliver on the promises it made at the last election, Mr. Burgess claimed.

Difficult times required Government to consult with the people, but he accused the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) of railroading initiatives through and creating a "them and us" situation.

"If we consult people we can ask them to understand step by step. They have created a them and us situation. This business of 'I've made up my mind and I might talk to you once or twice along the way' - that won't work."

He slammed the PLP for hitting seniors with land tax increases and said they should have refunded more than the amount increased and recognised they had made a mistake.

"To have treated them with the contempt they have been treated for three and a half years is a sad indictment."

Bermuda had to recognise that its "bread and butter" income came from international business from the United States and Europe. He said Ireland was working round the clock to catch up in areas where it lagged behind Bermuda, and the Island could not afford to take its eye off the ball.

Because international business was doing so well, he warned against trying to drag it down to fill the gap between the haves and have nots. "The UBP will not do that. We will work to close the gap."

It was not scaremongering, but unless the climate was right in Bermuda, there would be a flight of international capital, he claimed.

He scoffed at PLP suggestions that the reason visitor numbers were down was because there were less rooms available last year.

Labour and Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister said the Opposition's claims the ship was on the rocks and almost wrecked was nonsense, and the public did not believe it.

Government had met hotels to find out the best way out of the current problems and the hotels had suggested laying-off foreign staff on work permits first. He claimed hotel staff probably worked more hours last year than before as a result of this.

There was a world-wide financial crisis which would inevitably affect Bermuda, but all the financial reports said the Island's economy now is strong.

"Will we have more debt next year? Yes, we will. Should we apologise? No, sir, because we are investing in programmes that will benefit the people of Bermuda," said Mr. Lister.

Under the PLP, there was still a positive cash flow in the current account because Finance Minister Eugene Cox had turned down some Ministers who wanted to spend more, he said. The result was that rating agency Moody's recently gave the Island a double 'A' rating.

He pointed to the continued confidence shown by hoteliers who are investing in their properties as giving the lie to UBP claims the industry was dying.

He said he doubted if there was a single hotel which had not applied for help under the Hotel Concessions Act or was investing to upgrade its property.

"They are not stupid. Why would they invest if they thought the industry was dead? How can everything be going so wrong and these people are investing so much?" said Mr. Lister.

Restaurants were also now applying for similar concessions to improve their establishments.

"Either it's dead, it's over, or it's not. These are people with intelligence and money and if they are investing in it, they must have confidence."

Mr. Lister said that the PLP had reinstated technical education in schools after it had been scrapped by the UBP in 1974, and Government was funding the building of the new Hamilton Police Station and Magistrates' Courts. It had passed the Historic Wrecks Act, and the public was not "hoodwinked" into thinking the housing programme wasn't working.

He also said that Government had decided to borrow $75 million rather than introduce easy tax increases because people were hurting and the PLP recognised this. The Budget was designed to narrow the gap between the haves and have nots.

The UBP had used "bogey man" tactics that everyone would go home and a surge of international companies would leave, he said.

Bermudians now realised that wasn't true and felt bad because they believed this before and didn't have the confidence to get rid of the UBP before, he added.

The PLP achievement he was most proud of was the drug court because it was allowing people to change their behaviour and turn their lives around.

He said Government would continue to bring supplemental spending requests to the House, without apologising, because it had reached agreement reached with Auditor General Larry Dennis to do this in a timely manner.

And he ridiculed the UBP for bringing supplemental requests to the House five years after the money had been spent.

Mr. Lister reiterated a promise to the workers who marched on Parliament two weeks ago that Government would keep its promise to listen to their cries of injustice.

And he hit back at complaints by the opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) that the Island is on the verge of "social unrest".

However, Mr. Lister acknowledged that he was unaware of the rising tensions.

"I had no idea that people in the union were this disgruntled," he said. "We thought we were doing a good job, but obviously it was not enough. But we have no animosity towards those who marched, instead we will embrace and we will talk and dialogue."

He also took the opportunity to defend areas of the Budget which allocated his Ministry $78.65 million for 2002-03.

He said that Government planned to move ahead full steam with renovations to the Island's law enforcement buildings.

"This Budget was about addressing the needs of the people," he said. "The Hamilton Police Station is a disgrace, it looks like something from another age. So, we are moving ahead, not just on the Police Station, but on the Prison and Magistrates' Court. Yes, we will bear some debt, but the Finance Minister says 'don't panic, we can balance it'."

And he added that all indications from the public on the Budget have been good.

However, Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell said this was the fourth budget of the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) Government and he said their $75 million borrowing was enough to put the country into a detrimental financial state.

"This has become a credit card Government," Mr. Dodwell said. "We have created the Ministry of Debt. Spending is up and revenue is down. This is the largest amount ever been created in the history of this country."

He said that in the long run, the people of Bermuda will end up bearing the brunt of the debt.

"It's the people's money," he said. "It's the people's Budget, because the people are paying. We cannot spend our way out of these challenges. The people haven't seen value for their money.

It's been four years of the Progressive Labour Government and they're still learning on the job.

He added: "What we bring to the table is responsible opposition. We care, we do have a vision, we do have a plan."

Coverage continues in Monday's Royal Gazette