Strict guidelines will be issued to politicians after the Hamilton Rotary Club voted to continue to invite them to speak at their weekly lunch meetings. (See editorial on Page 4)

Government Senate Leader Colonel David Burch and Tourism Minister Renee Webb had claimed the charity's weekly speaking event has become a mouthpiece for the United Bermuda Party (UBP) - a charge Rotary hotly rejected.

It led to a vote among the Hamilton Rotary members last week on whether they should continue to allow Parliamentarians to speak.

The majority opted to continue with the present policy as long as politicians avoided point scoring and stuck to agreed topics.

New president Sharon Jacobs said: "We are looking to have topics of interest, not necessarily speeches promoting specific views of a particular party or organisation."

Sen. Burch had claimed the number of UBP speakers vastly outnumbered those from Government while outgoing Rotary President W. A. (Toppy) Cowen said the organisation had tried unsuccessfully to get Government Ministers.

Mrs. Jacobs said Sen. Burch would be a very welcome speaker as he is Housing Minister - a subject which has a great deal of interest.

She said Education Minister Paula Cox will be speaking next week on the subject of Bermuda's Education Strategic Team (BEST) which will set new goals for the Island's education system.

She said the late Tourism Minister David Allen, Terry Lister and Dr. Ewart Brown had all spoken at the Rotary while other Ministers had not been able to fit in invitations around the schedule.

She said speakers with a topic of community interest were welcome to contact Rotary's new vice president Jefferson Sousa to get a date - just as the Ministry of Education had.

"We have 48 speakers a year," said Mrs Jacobs.

She said the new guidelines letting speakers know what was acceptable were now being drafted.