Julian Hall MP convinced his caucus he would have the motion thrown out, Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul has charged.

In response, Mr. Hall said he investigated whether the motion of National Liberal Party Leader Mr. Gilbert Darrell "was valid.'' But he denied he tried to derail the motion and rejected the charge the Progressive Labour Party was unprepared.

Dr. Saul said he and his United Bermuda Party colleagues spent three weeks preparing to debate Mr. Darrell's motion. The UBP was proud of its economic record and the Opposition was left flatfooted by his 105-minute speech, he said.

"When I sat down, clear evidence that they hadn't prepared for the debate or worked out any Parliamentary strategy was that half a dozen of them jumped up (to speak) at once, including both Mr. Hall and Mr. Cox,'' Dr. Saul said.

"When Mr. Cox stood up I was embarrassed for him. His decibel count went through the ceiling, his voice got shrill. He'd been let down by Julian Hall.'' Dr. Saul said the content of other Opposition speeches during the 223 -hour debate also pointed to a lack of preparation.

The Shadow Environment Minister, a relative newcomer to Parliament and "not a student of Parliamentary procedure,'' had assured his caucus Mr. Darrell's motion would be declared "null and void,'' Dr. Saul said.

But Mr. Cox, who noted he received a standing ovation from his caucus following the speech, said it focused on economic restructuring, retraining, and redeployment, and included recent Government statistics on income and employment. Some of it was written two days earlier and the assertion he was ill-prepared was "ridiculous.'' As for his decibel level, "most times I do not speak with the conviction that I did,'' Mr. Cox said. "I think I was convincing because I was speaking from the heart as well as from the head.

"I think I really socked it to them.'' Government whip Dr. David Dyer said he approached House clerk Mr. James Smith to research "take note'' motions after he noticed Mr. Hall searching through a copy of Erskine and May, the House rules book.

"I asked him what was going on,'' Dr. Dyer said. "He said: `Oh, I'm going to see if we can have this motion ruled out of order'.'' A lawyer and legal adviser to the PLP, Mr. Hall said he "raised with the whips, particularly with Dr. David Dyer, the question of whether the motion in its then form was even validly put.

"Usually, a take note motion calls upon the House to take note of a report, or a white paper, or a green paper,'' Mr. Hall said. "I had never heard of a take note of an economy kind of motion.'' But after consulting Erskine and May, "I formed the conclusion that the motion was validly put, even though it was somewhat abnormal,'' he said. He denied he told his caucus the motion would be thrown out, and denied the PLP or Mr. Cox was unprepared. "This was probably one of Eugene Cox's finest hours. He was brilliant and he was sizzling,'' Mr. Hall said. "We feel this was one of his finest speeches.'' Dr. Saul and Government always accuse the PLP of being unprepared, he said.

Mr. Hall said several PLP members rose to speak after Dr. Saul because of concerns the Speaker would not notice an Opposition member and call on another MP from the Government side.

Had the Speaker called on Mr. Hall instead of Mr. Cox, "I would have given a five and a half hour speech instead of a three and a half hour one,'' Mr. Hall said.

The Opposition's strategy was to prevent UBP cabinet ministers from taking full advantage of Mr. Darrell's motion and presenting their speeches during prime time, Mr. Hall said. The PLP made no apology for that.

Mr. Smith said he was approached about concerns over the motion, checked with Caribbean examples, and found "it's the sort of motion that is quite often moved to initiate a general debate''.

Opposition whip Mr. Stanley Lowe said there was "not one iota of truth'' in what Dr. Saul said.