Premier Alex Scott repeated his pledge to pursue a social agenda at a speech celebrating the Cup Match holiday in St. George's last night.

Delivering the annual message commemorating the ending of slavery in Bermuda in King's Square, St. George's he said Government will now focus on enhancing equality of opportunity.

"Our commitment to the social agenda is absolute ? housing, senior care, a lawful and just system," said Mr. Scott.

"Our natural beauty must be preserved and human dignity must be enhanced.

"We have learned that "more" is not necessarily "better", that even our beautiful island has its recognised limits and that we can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems."

Mr. Scott said it was important to remember the legacy of slavery.

"We must remember because our future is grounded in our history. History provides us with a sense of who we are, what we have achieved and what it is we can become.

"Our people survived and triumphed over one of the greatest tragedies of mankind.

"The spirit of our ancestor lives in each of us and we should be proud.

"We march because our forefathers trained us in the struggle, we cry out because we were taught to do so, we stand and fight because we have been shown how.

"We are no longer slaves because our parents' parents made it so and we are the living result of their trek to freedom."

Speaking in front of a host of dignitaries Mr. Scott said St. George's was full of significant sights about Bermuda's slave past including the post office which was a penitentiary when Methodist missionary John Stephenson was locked up for six months for preaching to slaves.

"While most of us have been fortunate never to have experienced degradation equivalent to that of slavery, we can all attest to having obstacles of varying kinds placed in our way.

"The world itself is dominated by a new spirit. People are more numerous and more politically aware and are now demanding their place in the sun."