Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety Quinton Edness pointed out that the Department of Tourism was working very hard to rectify the problem of declining visitor figures.

Amongst initiatives put in place, he continued, was the Monitor Group. Its representatives had noted the decline in the tourism industry was caused by complex factors which required partnerships between the private and public sectors to solve them.

Concerning Mr. Simmons' suggestion of a conflict of interest by the Tourism Minister, Mr. Edness remarked that Mr. Dodwell was the best person to speak on the issue of tourism because of his experiences as a hotel owner in the industry.

This was why he had always felt Mr. Simmons had been a good person to speak on the Island's labour situation when he was the president of the Bermuda Industrial Union, said Mr. Edness.

It was important that the Country got the benefit of the people with knowledge, he stressed.

Mr. Edness also took time to address concerns of mothers and fathers he had spoken to.

They had told him that they believed they were unable to physically discipline their children because of the law. This was not true, he stressed, and was only a rumour.

There was a difference between proper discipline and physical abuse, he said.

Mr. Edness said he supported "spankings'' or "floggings'' if they were necessary for discipline.

Shadow Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources Leon (Jimmy) Williams praised the people who had gathered outside the House of Assembly at noon to protest the lack of affordable housing. He also expressed his concerns over the whipping MPs were taking on the Island's talk shows by members of the public who felt they did not do anything to earn the salaries they were paid.

And he called for MPs to band together and have the Jerry Springer talk show pulled off the air.

"I have never seen so much garbage in my life,'' he said of the cable television show.

Mr. Woolridge, the Minister for Works, Engineering and Housing, said the problem of oil spills was being looked into and department engineers had narrowed down the cause to large trucks and buses which filled their oil tanks to the brim, causing them to spill over.

On the subject of affordable housing, which had sparked that day's peaceful demonstration, Mr. Woolridge said proposed rent increases were on hold until the system was investigated fully.

Shadow Tourism Minister David Allen backed Mr. Simmons' remarks on the state of the Island's tourism industry.

Some $68 million was spent on tourism over the past two years, he noted, but declining tourism figures was the only thing to be shown for it.

He expressed special concern for the closures of small visitor accommodations around the Island which he described as "an essential part of the tourism product'' which the Island was losing.

No plan had been unveiled to save them yet, he pointed out. The PLP would bring a plan to the table if it was elected to power during the next general election, he promised.

"Can our tourism industry survive another three or six months of UBP rule?'' he asked.

Finance Minister Grant Gibbons said sales in the retail sector were up and this clearly correlated with the strength of the industry.

And in general, he continued, the Island's economy was doing "exceedingly well''.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had been up over four percent a year on average since 1993, he pointed out.

Besides the Monitor Group's initiatives to revive tourism, he added, there was also the work the Freeman Group and the Visitor Industry Partnership were doing.

Partnerships were key to resolving the decline in tourism, he pointed out, and the Opposition was still stuck in the 1960s if it believed Government could do everything.

He also noted that income per capita figures showed Bermuda was doing up to ten times better than other Caribbean countries.

Shadow Health and Social Services Minister Renee Webb said although the per capita income stood at $36,000 for the Island, that did not mean this was the figure everyone was earning.

Not everybody was benefiting, she pointed out, as the need for affordable housing demonstrated.

It was an MP's job to look out for those people who could not look out for themselves.

"I think it is very important that we note that the Country has done well but there are too many people who have fallen through the cracks.'' She also said she was disturbed by Mr. Edness' backing of corporal punishment.

He was just back from London, Ms Webb noted, where corporal and capital punishment were no longer "on the books''.