Eighteen months have passed since Alex Scott became the man holding the Progressive Labour Party together - and the Premier is feeling good.

Mr. Scott sat down with in his Cabinet office last week to discuss the ups and downs of the last year and a half, giving his view on everything from the Bermuda Housing Corporation to the new senior secondary school project to the blazing ambitions within the PLP.

The most surprising thing about being Premier? “That I'm here,” he said.

And the thing he is most proud of? “That I'm still here,” Mr. Scott added with a laugh.

“I didn't seek this office,” he explained. “One day I was the Minister for Works and Engineering; the next day, by political happenstance, I was the Premier. If you want to change the pace of your life, have that for an experience.”

Recalling the events of the 2003 General Election and the party rebellion which dethroned former Premier Jennifer Smith, leaving the country reeling in a power vacuum hours after the PLP was handed a second term of power, Mr. Scott said his party is fuelled on ambition.

That ambition had to be channelled and directed so that it became productive and not destructive, he said - without impacting negatively on Bermuda.

“We came to office (in 2003) out of a political situation which had 11 PLP parliamentarians on one side and 11 on the other,” he said.

“I said at the time, prior to my election that evening, that I saw pockets of support for myself, for the former Premier, and for the current Deputy Premier (Ewart Brown). Moments later, I could only see a united Progressive Labour Party.

“For all intents and purposes that has remained. I think we have consolidated what could have been a divisive moment in party history, and the political history of this country.”

The shock resignation of former Tourism Minister Renee Webb from Cabinet in July, 2004, did not change Mr. Scott's view that the internal dissension had been healed.

“She seemed to be concerned to the extent that she felt she had to leave, and we accepted her resignation,” he said. “There was no tension on my part. One swallow does not a summer make.”

The PLP also emerged from 2004 unscathed from the outside, Mr. Scott said, despite loud allegations of corruption and mismanagement at, for example, the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC).

“You had Scotland Yard come in and investigate, you had an exhaustive Police investigation, and no one was found guilty,” he said. “In fact, no one now owns up to saying unethical behaviour existed.

“So I think that the Government and members of Parliament were given a clean bill of health. We can't hold anyone guilty of laws which do not exist. That's the yardstick by which we all conduct ourselves daily.”

The fact that the relevant laws were 100 years old, and that former Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser admitted at the close of the Police investigation that had the laws been more up to date the outcome could have been different, did not warrant accusations of scandal, the Premier said.

“Now you want to review the laws, that's fair comment,” he said. “But don't smear a Government, don't smear Ministers, don't denigrate people who are serving and serving well because you didn't get the conclusion that you were trying to persuade the public was so.”

The Opposition and the media came in for most of the blame, he said. “The Opposition talked repeatedly about scandalous behaviour but they didn't provide any facts, no names, they just provided a smear campaign.

“Unfortunately, that has been reflected and echoed in the media without being substantiated.”

Though the Auditor General did provide enough facts in his special investigation into the BHC to trigger the Police investigation, the Premier said the issues raised were also not substantial enough to call for anyone's resignation.

Both Dr. Brown and former Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson were labelled as being party to transactions with the BHC which raised alarm flags in the Auditor's office.

A parallel could not be drawn between the scandal and the recent resignation of British Home Secretary David Blunkett, Mr. Scott said.

Mr. Blunkett resigned after an e-mail emerged showing a visa application for his ex-lover's nanny had been fast-tracked.

Questions about his honesty had damaged the government, he said, with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoting him: “Any perception of this application being speeded up requires me to take responsibility”.

“That was a little more than just a hint of scandal,” Mr. Scott said. “And the affairs? ” he added, in reference to Mr. Blunkett's unfaithfulness.

“My point is, Dr. Brown sold a house. He may have sold a house and made a penny on it, he may have sold a house and lost a penny on it, but we can't say that buying or selling a house is unacceptable behaviour.

“Dr. Brown can explain his business affairs and his position better than I can. But I, as Premier, can't say ‘Dr. Brown, please resign because you sold a house or you bought a house'.

“I could show you realtors in the United Bermuda Party (UBP) who made a fortune buying and selling properties, Government properties, and they didn't think it was scandalous behaviour.

“They didn't even think it was unethical. As a matter of fact, some of them were considered very good businessmen. We have to look at everybody. So I have to say now, have any other ministers over time benefited while in office from a real estate deal?

“The answer has to be yes. And we didn't even know about a lot of the deals that went on while ministers were in office under the other government.”

Voters have observed that the PLP was put in power because they were supposed to be better than the UBP, not comparable - and that the UBP was thrown out of Government at least partially for just such examples as those Mr. Scott cited.

To that observation, Mr. Scott replied: “I would say, if a PLP minister did something illegal, and Scotland Yard pointed that out, then any minister should then be required to do the right thing.

“But the facts don't support illegal activity. It's not widespread, it's not rampant, it's not real estate deals or any other deals being done every day.

“So when the Opposition stand and say, ‘scandalous behaviour, scandalous behaviour' - it scandalous that they are using that type of inflammatory language with no real basis in fact.

“What I would expect is that the media would step back and say enough is enough, there aren't facts to support this. Don't become a captive of the UBP's scandalous use of language or scandalous behaviour in trying to be provocative. The facts don't support it. Ask Scotland Yard.”

The Auditor General's report, now tabled in the House of Assembly, will be debated this year, Mr. Scott said. The speculation over whether or not he would initiate the debate was something new for the Premier.

“I have never seen that before ... I gave no indication that we are not going to. I put it down a day or two before Parliament adjourned for Christmas, and we certainly will (debate the Auditor General's report on the BHC). I think it's appropriate for Parliament to have a go at it.

“By the way, I was the Premier who made public the Auditor's report. I've made no attempt to hide it. Even the Auditor says he's satisfied with how we have publicised the information.”

And as for the century-old anti-corruption legislation? “I think the Attorney General's office is providing the appropriate attention to our legislation now.”

Government has learned lessons from another major controversy of 2004: the construction of the new senior secondary school at Berkeley Road.

After construction fell months behind schedule and ran up millions of dollars in cost overruns, contractors Pro-Active Management Systems were abruptly fired by Government in August.

Pro-Active won the original contract “fair and square”, the Premier said. “They are a middle-sized firm, a Bermudian firm, and they got the numbers right.

“The Government - I was then the Minister of Works and Engineering - felt that to not award them the contract was to continue a prejudiced and biased approach against middle-sized companies, Bermudian companies, companies that had talent and certainly a company that had every indication it had the ability to carry out the project.

“Regrettably,” he added, “over time, they did not perform as we had expected and they were fairly terminated.”

Arbitration will likely take place at the end of the building period, he said. “We will ensure that they are treated fairly.

“I have every reason to believe they were treated very, very fairly.”

Reports that Mr. Scott said he would award the contract to Pro-Active again were incorrect, he said. “I said, if another firm like Pro-Active came along I'd do it again. You can't burden others with the success or failure of Pro-Active.

“We have learned from that experience. We now have a relationship, as a Government, with the financial powers, banks. They will provide equity to a company winning a Government contract equal to the equity of the contract.”

Pro-Active, he added, despite winning the $68-million contract, were only given a line of credit of between $2 to 4 million. “It was not enough to see them through...

“We didn't think, in that day and age, that a company winning a Government contract would not be able to find the credit they need.”

The Pro-Active controversy, he said, left him sceptical about the validity of recent calls by the Opposition for economic empowerment.

The Opposition criticised robustly the awarding of the secondary school construction contract to Pro-Active, and the Bermuda Industrial Union stepping in to provide the performance bond.

“And now, lo and behold, they're talking about economic empowerment. Where were they when their support was needed? By the way, they support Pro-Active now.

“The Opposition is politicking, that's what oppositions do. But I want Bermuda to be very clear about this: The Opposition said they want to work with Government, editorials call on us to work together. Yet I called the Bermuda Independence Commission (BIC), and the Opposition refused to even participate in that constructive exercise of informing - not persuading, not indoctrinating, just educating - people on this important subject.

“So don't bother me too much with the Opposition's commitment to economic empowerment. Don't bother me too much about the Opposition's commitment to working for the better good of Bermuda, because when the proof in the pudding is really tested, the Opposition are just that - found opposing.”

Government, he added, is taking the empowerment of the have-nots seriously - not merely addressing “the little clich? of economic empowerment because it is a timely thing to say”.

“The Opposition had very little really to critique Government's performance about,” he added. “So they are generating emotive issues, nothing based on fact.”

The Throne Speech outlining the Social Agenda names about 50 initiatives aimed at all aspects of society, he said: “Initiatives that will in actual fact provide support to Bermudians to be not only economically empowered, but empowered full stop.”

Economically, he added, Bermuda emerged from 2004 in good shape. “Our challenge for 2005 is the US dollar,” Mr. Scott said. “It is not as strong as we would like it to be. They are our main trading partner. A weak dollar means that costs of certain goods for Bermuda could increase.”

Government is ready for all challenges, economic or otherwise, he said. “We're equal to the task. the challenge, to the responsibility, and are prepared to provide the leadership that I think is required.”

They will also ensure their message gets across. “I think that's one of the reasons you and I are having this conversation,” Mr. Scott said.

“We're going to spend more time with the media, putting out the Government's case so that the public understands how we're serving, what we're doing, and how their country is competing globally.

“When that picture is fairly painted, the fact that we are discussing Independence will be better appreciated.

“You can't lead by following. It would be very simplistic to look at polls to see what people like and feed back what they give you.

“But Bermuda, in my estimation, has not realised its fullest potential. It is a great little country, and there is more that can be achieved in this country. There is no other country better suited than Bermuda to at least, at this stage, discuss the option of Independence.”