said yesterday.

And the Progressive Labour Party MP said declining levels of friendliness from stressed-out locals were damaging Bermuda's bid to attract more holidaymakers.

Mr. Robinson, a former high ranking official in the Finance Ministry, said: "We do take ourselves a bit too seriously. This goes across the board.

"There's an incredible bureaucracy to get things done.

"It's mind-boggling you have to go through so much for relatively simple matters.

"If you take immigration or planning matters, anything where you are beholden to the Government.

"It's all more long-winded than it really needs to be.

"Whenever Government gives something some civil servant comes up with so many checks and balances that it makes it painful to take the gift from Government.

"Do we have to be quite so pedantic? "People find it painful. We grumble and moan but we don't do anything about it. I hoped in the new Bermuda we would see some changes.'' He said people suffered enough day-to-day aggravation without Government adding to it.

"Everybody has to work. There is practically no one at home nurturing the children.'' And he said stress was eroding traditional Bermudian friendliness which in turn was damaging efforts to breathe life into the Island's flagging tourism industry.

He said: "That's one of the reasons we went down. It's not just competition which has mushroomed.

"It's not just the physical plant. Also service standards have gone down.

"Bermuda is still relatively friendly compared to big cities but friendliness has been eroded.

"We really need to deal with this. We have lost the impetus.'' See Editorial on Page 4