crowded Bermuda and that crowding people leads to frustration, stress and social problems. Bermuda is so small that some crowding will be inevitable but there are still steps which can be taken to ease the pressures.

Too often this Government has turned a blind eye to problems, either hoping that they will just go away or unwilling to make perpetrators angry by intervention.

Often the Government seems to assume that some complaining will go on for awhile and then die down. Therefore they take action in defiance of complaints. The result has been far more unhappy and even angry people than there might be if we only had a little planning. If Government had only had the smarts to plan a small fast-food enclave which confined franchises to Kindley, they might well have avoided the entire McDonald's disaster. They did not plan because they thought they could tough out a franchise row and would, once again, treat the people as "them'' to be told what to do by "us'' who know best.

Part of the crowding problem has been a lack of space and the neighbourhood tendency to reject anything in the backyard. But we now have some space and some of that space should be used to, at the least, spread the nuisances away from those who have suffered long enough. So far we see no indication that Government has even considered doing anything of the sort. There is every indication that Bermuda will continue with a policy of, "The public be damned. We're going to do it our way.'' As a result this is turning out to be an unhappy paradise.

The philosophy has gone so far that it has led Government to condone the breaking of its own laws. A Government which condones breaking the law brings the body of law into disrepute and encourages lawlessness.

There are many examples, but the most obvious summer example of neighbourhood nuisances which are condoned by Government and break the law are noisy concerts. Every summer they disrupt a number of neighbourhoods and nothing is done, not even much traffic control. There have even been instances at these events where bars have been operated by the Police. The noise laws are not enforced, no matter how loud the complaints. Nor does Government make any effort to find less troublesome venues for these concerts which might serve to keep a larger number of people happy. That's just bad public relations.

Permission is granted by various bodies for these concerts to take place knowing that laws will be broken but no steps are taken to control the noise levels or to ensure there is parking to match the number of tickets sold.

There also seems to be little attempt to compromise on the time these concerts should end; 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. is very late for Bermuda's neighbourhoods.

Government even seems to have adopted the attitude that residents should not complain. Don't bother us, just suffer, seems to be Ministers' attitude. There was little reaction to those people as far away as Paget East and Devonshire who complained about noise from the National Stadium concert.

We do not believe that people who complain want to stop the concerts or spoil other people's fun. They simply want to be treated with respect and consideration. These concerts can be sensibly located if only Government starts listening.