became Premier. There is already public talk of "battles'' to be fought in Parliament this session. In our view, the public is weary of political battles and wants some good, solid and sensible government.

The fabric of Bermudian society was damaged by an excessively long and divisive referendum debate. We think that debate lowered the people's regard for the political process and their regard for a great many politicians of all persuasions.

Bermudians have never liked confrontation. They have never been very happy with the confrontational aspects of the Westminster system of government. The cut and thrust does not leave the impression of an open debate but of a Country at war with itself. Bermudians are not so accepting of party politics that they can ignore verbal abuse as nothing more than a manifestation of the political process.

It is fair to say that not all Members of Parliament engage in battering their opponents, but many do. The public generally accepts humorous or perceptive debate but it abhors abuse.

Bermudians came out of the last election and the Independence referendum understanding that the Country has serious problems which need to be addressed. The public knows that we have hard work to do on all aspects of race relations. Clearly our tourism industry is in trouble and this time it is obvious that Band Aid solutions will not work. We need a new approach to tourism and a rededication of the Bermudian people to tourism as a major source of every Bermudian's income. We need politicians, especially PLP politicians who often appear to be soft on drugs, to lead toward solutions.

Education now appears to be in limbo. Crime is a real concern and traffic is killing us and damaging tourism.

The people want Bermuda looked after. They do not want Bermuda disrupted.

There has been too much recent political disruption. The people want their government to settle down, get to work, and find solutions. They want their leaders to lead. If this session of the House of Assembly turns out to be a battlefield then the people are going to be angry. People are already concerned that politicians care more about scoring political points than they do about the welfare of Bermuda.

If this session of the House is not to go on record as adding to Bermuda's problems, then the UBP will have to keep its potentially explosive back bench under control. That will be hard because there are two quite different and potentially disruptive UBP backbench groups.

The PLP will have to learn that to oppose correctly is to be constructive and, hopefully, to improve legislation. It is not the function of the Opposition to be destructive or to oppose simply to disrupt and be heard.

Both parties should remember that the public will accept constructive criticism of the Government or the Opposition but it will not be happy with "battles'' which stand in the way of solutions to Bermuda's problems.