Towards the end of the historic ten hour debate, the Attorney General delivered her swansong - she is widely expected to retire from politics before the next general election. And she was in her element as the griot of the House of Assembly, holding court on her most passionate lifelong ambition for the country and frequently dissolving the entire House of Assembly into paroxysms of laughter as she basked in her moment of glory.

In the end, Dame Lois Browne Evans, who has of late been reserving her public comments for the House of Assembly, told this newspaper that she felt "wonderful".

She spoke for about an hour with an authority that could only come from her intimate involvement with the country's modern political history. Then she took her seat and witnessed a former Opposition Leader deliver her own grand finale, knowing full well what was to come.

Dame Lois would not say, when asked, how much, or whether she influenced Ms Gordon on her historical research. But Ms Gordon later confirmed to this newspaper that her archival research findings were complemented by conversations she had had with Dame Lois. The pair had sat for nine months together on the Boundaries Commission to produce the Report that was debated Friday.

Dame Lois' speech was party rally, a lesson in history and the nature of party politics, serious and thoroughly entertaining.

She started off by announcing that she was 'the sweeper'. "I understand constitutional changes. I understand constitutions and it seems to me many people get tied down or bogged down when we are talking about constitutional matters."

She entered Parliament as the youngest member, at 35, on an amended law which allowed people over 25 to enter the legislature. And she reminded her colleagues that she is still the youngest member to enter Parliament.

"I was even then known as a mouthy young person..." And she was warned that she would be thrown out of Parliament. "Well I have been here 37 years... 40? Well I haven't been thrown out yet and I hope I don't get thrown out."

The forerunners of the UBP had "a lot to live down," she said. PLP proposals, at the first constitutional conference in 1966, to broaden the franchise and bring about greater democracy were all rejected - "dismissed even by a Labour Government - with none other than the chairman Fred Leigh, the Secretary of State for the colonies, and John Stonehouse. Now Mr. Speaker, let the record or the tapes that are going to London show that."

PLP's argument for abolition of dual seats which had been defended by Sir Edward Richards as a way to bring racial harmony to the country, were dismissed. "I certainly do not believe that that political chicanery has brought about racial harmony in this country. The racial harmony that we do have has been brought about by some other fights - the integration of schools. Putting our young ones together at a younger age... but they didn't even do that. They started integration at the older schools - they didn't want their little ones coming up against our little ones, which is the best way to have started the process."

She said a "political ignorance" was teeming in the country at that time and urged people today seek out historical information. And she said she was proud of the fact that Ms Gordon had been doing research on the Island's political history and that she had even borrowed some of her archival papers to assist her in her work on the Boundaries Commission.

"It is now in another century, 2002, and I hope the United Kingdom doesn't fail us again, before we can bring about equality of the vote. It is one man, one vote, each vote of equal value." Opposition members were "prostituting" the concept with talk of an independent speaker. "We belong to one party. It stretches from Somerset to St. George's. Your problem is my problem and my problem is yours. It does not matter. The concept of party politics just takes too long to seep into the... blockheads of some people. You don't have to have the members of the constituency to speak for you. You have the benefit of the whole party," she explained.

"It means the vote that you put in the ballot has the same strength as the vote dropped by the other person in the other constituency. It's got nothing to do with people not having a spokesman." Party systems all over the world had dealt with the single seat system perfectly well with an elected Speaker, she said.

She chided the Association for Due Process for propagating the argument, but said she was most disappointed by John Barritt who wrote the dissenting opinion in the Report.

And Dame Lois insisted that people vote on party lines, even if they said publicly that they vote for the individual.

"People kid themselves" when they come out of the ballot box and announce that they voted for an individual.

"It's no longer cute, Mr. Speaker. And people should stop deluding themselves, look in the mirror, face reality and make decisions because I know there are so many romantics in this country that hope that party politics will disappear... Well I want them to know that until party politics came into this country a lot of injustice was done."

She said all of the "wickedness" was described by some as "benign". "But it was cancerous - It left a lot of people out there on the fringe of society and they are still there - generations. And we have to dig ourselves out of that unfortunate past. And the things that have befallen Bermuda today is a result of the mistreatment and of the things that were unjustly allowed to go on and be perpetuated in the past. Politics is what you need to use to change a society. We can study all the psychology and all the rest of it... But, Mr. Speaker, if politicians don't take a moral stand, a stand on principle, we're not going anywhere."

She said that while the PLP had 30 years "in the wilderness" they had lived to see "the Promised Land."

"Some people are praying that we never win again when next year comes. But Mr. Speaker it don't make any sense to pray for something that's not good. Lord punishes you," she said pointing at the Opposition benches," for praying for something that's bad. But I can assure that whatever happens Mr. Speaker, the PLP, at the next election, will be smiled on by God and they will win the next election. So I want you to know that. And if you think that positively and shun all the brickbats that stab you in your back, and hold to the truth of our founding fathers, you ain't gonna have no problems. Even in England, they will hear the message and they will say the PLP has done things in stages."