Shadow Home Affairs Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin wondered what excuses Government would come up with tourism if September 11 had not have happened.

And she wondered why MPs had still not taken the lead in the community by finally taking drug tests.

By failing to take up the UBP's offer the reconvene parliament after September 11, Government was guilty of a "very serious indictment of lack of maturity".

Bermuda needed clear leadership after September 11, not to be told not to panic or that they could get social assistance. And she described the payroll tax concessions as "too little, too late".

Taxi drivers they were forced into taking global positioning satellites and a central dispatch system and many had concerns about whether they could afford them.

She questioned Government's plans to lock up those who overstayed when their work permits ran out and to confiscate the money they illegally earned. Although there was a problem, it would be cheaper to pay for a ticket to send them home.

And she described the proposal as "unenforceable" because the illegal workers would not have their money available to confiscate.

She said there was a danger of "giving away the shop" if Government gave blanket work permits to big companies, and she warned there were Bermudians in the Country hurting because they could not get a job.

Although there were foreigners who married to stay in the Country, she hoped the Government would "tread lightly" on the choices Bermudians make as it was a terrible situation, as she had faced, to be accused of entering a marriage of convenience.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said she had witnessed a "debacle" in the Magistrates' Court one day when Crown prosecutors submitted five files which were questioned by the Magistrate because of "sloppy, shoddy" preparation.

She said "something was not in place in the Director of Public Prosecutions Office" and it had to be sorted in case the guilty were walking free because of technical blunders, leaving Police feeling frustrated that their hard work had come to nothing.

CURE reporting regulations needed to be amended because they did not tell who was Bermudian and who was not.

And she called for assurances that young recruits to the Bermuda Regiment would not be abused by those "abusing their position in the Bermuda Regiment for personal gain".

Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said the National Transportation Plan would be put before the House of Assembly before the end of the year.

Government intended to provide minibuses to allow commuters to ride to catch the ferries, which were unfortunately delayed.

He refuted complaints that he had not consulted taxi owners over plans for a central dispatch. In February, he convened a meeting attended by 550 owners representing 580 cabs.

"The majority of taxi operators understand this is progressive, designed to upgrade the technology in their public service vehicles. It is the first technological upgrade since 1954 when radios were introduced," he said.

Surveys of residents and visitors had revealed unacceptable delays of to an hour. There may still be delays under the new system, he said "but at least we will know who they are".

In response to Shadow Transport Minister Gary Pitman, he said Government had looked at dedicated school buses, and they will be dealt with in the National Transportation Plan.

His department was looking at the challenge of putting a cap on the number of trucks but it was a tricky problem because he had to balance this with the need to allow businesses to grow.

The PLP had asked a consultant to look at a UBP suggestion before the last election that the Airport should be publicly owned, but the consultant came out against this in the short term.

Dr. Brown said he would be supporting introducing compulsory seat belts in the future and looked forward to Opposition support.

Seatbelts did more than save lives during high speed crashes. Bermudians were happy to buckle up in the US and Canada where it was law, so the solution was to change the law here.

Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety Minister Terry Lister said Government was doing its best to put people into new jobs after they lost their old ones in the downturn.

And he pledged work permit applications would be speeded up for necessary imported labour and he urged the Opposition to hold him to that promise of better response times after blaming current delays on an outdated computer system which he said was "woefully inadequate".

Opposition House leader and whip Maxwell Burgess said more needed to be done to help pensioners, taxi drivers, small businessmen and hotel workers who had been hit hard in the recession.

He said: "I want to hear a plan, or at least to make an acknowledgement that we are going to get one.

"We are talking about real people, with real jobs feeling real threats."

Government backbencher Derrick Burgess said Government had done well with the Hotel Concession Act which had sparked hotel investment at a time when tourism world-wide was feeling the pinch.

Shadow Youth, Sport, and Cultural Affairs Minister Cole Simons again called for a National Youth Commission to be formed to address the needs of young people and he asked where was the national Cultural Commission promised in the PLP manifesto.

"There is no youth plan three years down the road. I think the priorities are all wrong."

He added that nothing had been done about PLP's manifesto promise to look at the feasibility of a national museum.

Mr. Simons said the visit to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington had been a "resounding success" but he questioned where it fitted into overall cultural plan.

Youth, Sport, Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Randy Horton said Government's promised sports hall of fame should be up and running by next year, but it may not have a building then. Government was hoping to get businesses to match some of the funding.

Government's vision was to help all youngsters get involved in sport - from amateurs to those involved recreationally.

He said he would be challenging his department to go out and involve the young people sitting on walls wasting their lives away. Government would be holding leadership forums to help the training and development of people in sports clubs.

Other seminars would be held to help people cope financially with the hard economic times facing the Island as a consequence of September 11.

Greater protection will be given to consumers through amendments to existing legislation to be introduced in the coming parliamentary year.

The Sale of Goods Act will be changed to deal with complaints arising from the fact that consumers often do not have warranties because importers do not buy directly from overseas manufacturers.

Retailers will be forced to compensate consumers if goods ordered from overseas are damaged in shipping. The legislation will also deal with protection for consumers who have paid in advance for goods but have no recourse if they have problems.

An Unfair Contract Law will be introduced to ensure credit providers give accurate and fair information to borrowers, and consumers will have a chance to seek third party advice before entering a contract.

Excessive collection fees on debts will be abolished and new consumer contracts will be written in layman's terms.

And legislation will be reviewed to see if the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women needs to be extended to Bermuda.

Bermuda is one of the few countries in the world which has not signed up to the Convention, which spells out opposition to violence and discrimination against women.

In 1999, Amnesty International Bermuda presented Premier Jennifer Smith with a petition urging that the Convention be extended to the Island.

The Human Rights Commission is researching the issue, and is expected to make a comprehensive report, which will go to Cabinet, before the end of this year, said Mr. Horton.

UBP backbench MP Trevor Moniz agreed with Robert Pires, who resigned from the Board of Governors at Bermuda College in protest that only one of 56 honorary fellows named in the past 25 years had been of Portuguese descent.

Government backbench MP Dale Butler said audited reports showed the PLP had reduced the national debt by $6.5 million and that international companies were flocking to Bermuda. This showed the PLP could manage the economy and should be shown to everyone.

Payroll tax and plans for e-businesses were part of a "long-list" the PLP had included in the Throne Speech to improve the economy, he said.

He complained there were still qualified Bermudians coming home who could not get jobs and he said there should be somewhere for them to go to find out what they needed to do to get those jobs when the one year work permits expired of those who got the jobs they had applied for.

And Government should be pushing hotels hard to do something for those Bermudians they had turned down for jobs.

"It's not good enough to have Bermudians returning home after a $100,000 education and still being told there's space for you. Those days are over.

"We need to send a message to the hotels that that's not on. The Fairmont group have done well through the Hotel Concessions Act and renewal of work permits and (they should say) we will take that Bermudian and in two or three years that Bermudian will have that experience.

"Something has to be done. We are not talking about threatening the hotels, but please what can you do for these Bermudians."

Mr. Butler, who works for the Little Venice Group, said it was unacceptable that only his company and Fairmont, out of the hospitality industry, attended last week's career's fair, when hospitality was one of the twin pillars of the economy.

And he criticised the career profiles supplement for the fair, produced by The Royal Gazette, because it did not contain descriptions of jobs in hospitality. (This was an advertising feature paid for by individual companies who wanted to appear).

Mr. Butler appeared to criticise his own Tourism Minister David Allen for not ensuring hospitality should have featured heavily alongside international business in the supplement.

"Government should have ensured the hospitality was represented in this supplement. We have a moral responsibility to let people know about these two industries," he said.

Mr. Butler said the Island seemed to be building an economy which made it difficult for Bermudians to live in because they could not get jobs or afford housing.

"It seems we are developing a country that does not include us. We are not prepared and we have to bring these people in. Yes, they are positive and they pay rental fees...and buy clothing, but I thought we were developing a country for Bermudians, so we have some catching up to do."

He applauded to efforts of the banks to provide 90 and 95 percent mortgages, but said they had to look to provide 100 percent mortgages to allow young Bermudian families to get their first step on the property ladder."

Government backbencher Wayne Perinchief blasted international business spokesman David Ezekiel for calling for a payroll tax reduction for exempt companies, saying: "Give me a break."

Mr. Perinchief said just because tax breaks were being given to ailing sectors of the economy it didn't mean everyone should have a reduction.

"We have to get revenue from wherever we can. Why not tax from the industry that's most buoyant?", Mr. Perinchief said, adding he did not really believe Mr. Ezekiel was seriously expecting Government would listen to his plea.

But Mr. Perinchief had some harsh words for his Government when he said the throne speech had been vague.

He said: "It was really a broad brush approach but the devil is in the detail. I would have been happy to see a bit more detail."

Government should pay more attention to granting disabled access in schools and public buildings said Mr. Perinchief who said he had a wheelchair bound granddaughter.

"I would have thought every school should be wheelchair accessible. I don't think in a country as affluent as this it would be too much to ask."

Mr. Perinchief also hit out car parts importers after noting he had to personally order parts from St. Kitt's and Nevis because his own distributor was so slow.

He then moved on to tourism which he said should be appealing to the American middle class as well as the high end holidaymakers to boost numbers. Cruise ships played a useful role in this said Mr. Perinchief who said Front Street businesses which had been forced to close had relied on passengers off ships.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome hit back at criticism at his decision to close nursing homes which he said had been necessary because of their state of disrepair and he said Government was moving ahead with plans for the new St. George's rest home.

He said he was alarmed at the number of people who were getting evicted. The Housing Corporation was working with such people to help them budget said the Minister while efforts were being made to entice landlords with empty homes back into the market rather than build on virgin land and create a concrete jungle.

Opposition Environment spokeswoman Kim Young said the Fairhavens residential centre for treating drug addicted women was closed meaning that young women could not get the same breaks under the new drug court legislation which allows drug offenders to remain in the community if they consent to treatment.

She said: "It's discriminatory. They are still incarcerated, they go from prison to treatment and they go back again."

Mrs. Young said the throne speech had been mainly padding but people were suffering hard from harsher economic times.

Mrs. Young accused Premier Jennifer Smith of being "nowhere to be seen" in the immediate aftermath of September 11 when the country was crying out for leadership.

Mrs. Young was in London when the attacks took place and expected to have to rush home to Bermuda for an emergency sitting of the House of Assembly. Because she could not leave, she went to the British House of Commons and found the hearing "very moving and very unified".

She attacked Government for not making public a report on open spaces which it had promised to do.

She said a UBP government would ensure all street and business signs were within the law and have stricter control of dumping at the Airport, including tests to see if there was any trace metal in the water.

She said the water tables needed to be tested to see if they had been affected by pesticides, and she called for more park dangers to root out drug dealers and loiterers from the parks.

Government MP Neleetha Butterfield attacked the UBP for wanting a "quick fix" for the Island's education problems.

Government deserved great credit for the work it was doing in this field, including the literacy programme.

"To continuously say after three years that we have done nothing is an insult. We have done a considerable amount," she said.

PLP MP Stanley Morton said everyone was like the suicide terrorists who carried out the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"After September 11, we all say we were surprised, yet we all behave like terrorists at times," he said. " We attack individuals, attack organisations, curtail people's activities, and individuals' potential.

"I say a lot of us behave like these other people in Afghanistan, like cave people. When we don't get people to do jobs, that's an attack."