Bermuda's reputation as a safe place for tourists is being eroded by a small number of criminals stealing from visitors on the beach, snatching bags from the baskets on the back of tourist mopeds or actually breaking into their guest house and hotel rooms at night.

There are things that can be done immediately to address these problems, said . Reading from a number of recent crime reports from he warned of the damage that was being done to the important sector of the Island's economy by petty crimes against visitors.

"I'm worried about things that are happening in our community such as visitor crime. It is getting out of hand," said Mr. Dodwell.

He highlighted a report of a visitor being robbed in a hotel room by an intruder carrying a machete, another of a visitor having items stolen while on the beach and another of a handbag snatch from a basket of a tourist motorcycle ? all had occurred in the past week.

Suggesting ways to combat the crimes, Mr. Dodwell said it should be made a law that all rental cycles be fitted with lockable boxes rather than open wire baskets on the rear that make it easy for items to be grabbed ? often by a thief riding pillion on a passing motorbike.

He said a more visible Police presence on the streets of Bermuda would make opportunistic thieves think twice before acting, and residents themselves need to recognise that "a crime against a visitor is a crime against the country" and should assist in reporting thieves and, in the instance of a thief on a beach, giving chase to stop them.

The good will from the $40m spent annually on promoting Bermuda's tourism could quickly be eroded away by instances of the petty crimes he had highlighted, said Mr. Dodwell.

He also criticised the decision to close the car park to Warwick Long Bay for six weeks in the height of summer so that repairs to damage caused by 2003's Hurricane Fabian might be carried out. ended the Parliamentary session be claiming the Opposition only sought to make destructive points in response to the efforts of Government.

"If I say it is hot, they say it is cold. If I say it is day then they say it is night," he said. He called on the public not to take the words of the Opposition "as Bible".

He added: "Look how well the country is being run. Yes, there are problems, but do not go by what the Opposition say, go by the reality."

He moved on to the subject of Independence, saying Bermuda could never be a true democracy while another country held sway over decisions regarding the deployment of the Bermuda Regiment, or the appointment of the Chief Justice, or when the Premier could not be picked up in his car on the "air" side of the Airport as is the case with Royal visitors.

"I want this place to be a democracy and it can't be while we are a dependent territory. It can't be until we take one flag down and put another up," he said.

And Mr. Scott accused the United Bermuda Party of "wimping out" during the debate on Ren?e Webb's Human Rights Act amendment motion to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.

He said: "They wimped out under pressure.The Opposition members did not speak on what was supposedly was an individual vote.

"We (PLP) were all free men and women on that one and we will be again if it (the motion) comes back."

And he said representatives of the Church were as entitled as any to sit in the public gallery during the debate. Mr. Scott also reiterated his belief that Bermuda's Human Rights Act in its present form provides all the protection necessary to address discrimination.

He added: "It serves all of us. If I see that it doesn't then we will look at it."