Tempers flared in the House of Assembly last night as MPs struggled to decipher the events surrounding the closure of Trimingham?s.

Amid warnings from Speaker of the House Stanley Lowe that no one really knows yet how the deal occurred, the Opposition accused Government of hypocrisy, suggesting that as they were announcing the new land policy forbidding the sale of land of a certain rental value by Bermudians to non-Bermudians, the deal to hand over the valuable Front Street real estate occupied by the store to a foreign-owned bank was simultaneously being struck.

However Government hit back at the criticism, with Finance Minister Paula Cox declaring that the Bank of Bermuda is a local company, and other members insisting the deal was a ?private business? deal which Government had no control over.

And MPs called on Bermudians to spend more money at home in a desperate attempt to save the jobs of their family members and friends working in the retail sector.

Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons spoke first on the motion to adjourn last night, declaring his interest in another department store, Gibbons Company.

Declaring the closure of the 160-year old institution the loss of something ?particularly unique and Bermudian?, he voiced concern for the more than 200 employees who may be out of a job once the store shuts its doors forever.

The closure was also indicative of the severe trouble that tourism is in, he said. Trimingham?s and Smith?s represented ?the golden age of tourism?, yet under the PLP Government visitor spending has declined by more than half a billion dollars in just six years ? and the impact toppled the 163-year-old empire.

Meanwhile, just two weeks ago, Government implemented the new land policy, he said.

Under the Companies Act a company must request permission from the Minister of Finance before increasing its land holdings, he said. Also under that Act, an institution licensed as a bank is in fact a Bermudian institution. When he theorised that the bank was the financier of choice for Trimingham?s and had probably invested millions in the retailers, Mr. Lowe spoke up, observing that the true facts are still not well known.

However Dr. Gibbons maintained his point that, perhaps just as the land policy was being implemented, ?somebody had to go to the Minister of Finance?s office and say, as a large foreign shareholder we?d like to pick up this property?.

The bank must have declared its intentions for the property to the Finance Minister for permission to be granted, he added ? so what were they?

Government backbencher and Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess appealed to Bermudians to spend ?just half? of what they would normally spend shopping overseas, spending the rest in Bermuda in an attempt to save the retail sector.

Shadow Labour and Home Affairs Minister Maxwell Burgess likened the situation to Americans waking up to find McDonald?s and Wal-Mart were closed ? and that all the real estate formerly owned by those franchises were now in the hands of Bermudians.

To vociferous protest from the Government benches, he declared that no matter what the terms of the deal, the facts were that the land was now in the hands of non-Bermudians.

However, Ms Cox vehemently denied that assertion, declaring that under the Companies Act the Bank of Bermuda remained a local company. An alliance exists between the bank and global banking giant HSBC, she said, however the Bank of Bermuda is a local company and one reason permission was given for the move was because economic control would be retained in the hands of Bermudians.

Mr. Burgess did not accept her point of order, however, declaring the Bank of Bermuda is now owned by HSBC, so it must be a local company with all foreign shareholders.

The situation, he said, was the equivalent of the fronting and ?trust scams? that Government was so strenuously attempting to eradicate with the implementation of the land policy.

Though Government backbencher Glenn Blakeney insisted the arrangement was a business arrangement and the public did not know all the details, Mr. Burgess stood firm in his view of the facts, daring anyone to ?get up and tell me HSBC is not foreign-owned?.

?A piece of property from which locals benefited directly is now in foreign hands,? he declared.

Premier Alex Scott said that to stand and point fingers at HSBC was ?not helpful? and did nothing to ease the plight of the 200-odd Trimingham?s employees.

Though Government was aware of the problems, he said leaking them to the public before Trimingham?s had informed its employees what was going on could have had ?a dire effect? upon those employees.