responsibility to promise the people the moon when the party does not have to find the cash to pay for the moon. That, of course, is what the Progressive Labour Party has done during House of Assembly debate on the Throne Speech.

The PLP has tried to saddle the UBP with an image of depriving the public.

What the PLP has not done is point out that everything the people are given by any government, the people pay for in the end. There are no free Government programmes. There are only programmes which Government decides the people want and then taxes the people to pay for.

The Progressive Labour Party simply announces all sorts of "goodies'', which Bermuda might or might not like to have, but the PLP never says where it will find the cash. Make no mistake, the PLP would spend and then it would come looking in your pocket for the cash. The great strength of Bermuda since the Second World War has been its financial success and its financial security and its freedom from crushing debt. Bermuda has avoided traps like huge debts incurred by national airlines yet the PLP constantly suggests a national airline for Bermuda.

Every time the PLP is criticised these days it complains that people are using "negative'' and "Bush-style campaigning''. The PLP leadership never admits that the PLP is the socially conservative party which, in any other country, would be seen as the hard core right wing because of its opposition to social legislation. The big lie Bermuda is often asked to believe is that the PLP is the socially progressive party looking out for the people. The truth is that progressive social legislation in Bermuda has been championed by the UBP and opposed by the PLP. All too often the PLP opposes everything the UBP proposes even if it is good.

The reality of politics in Bermuda today is that the United Bermuda Party is the party closest to the social philosophy of the American Democrats. The UBP is also financially conservative which has served Bermuda well in this recession because Bermuda was in good shape to take the pressures.

In social legislation it is the UBP which is progressive and responsive to the needs of the people. On the other hand, the PLP has traditionally opposed progressive legislation despite the word "progressive'' in its name, and now proposes a political give-away of the people's money without telling the public what it would cost. In that way they are closest to Ronald Reagan and the Republicans who saddled America with huge and crushing deficits.

How would the PLP pay for what it now suggests? It would have two choices. It would run Bermuda heavily into debt or the people would be taxed to pay. All the PLP ever says is that it would introduce "progressive taxation''.

Does that mean income tax? We think it must mean just that. Yet the PLP never fights an election advocating income tax because it knows the people are opposed to income tax. That must mean that if the PLP ever came to power, the public would wake up soon after an election and find itself with income tax, like it or not. In just the same way, the public would find itself with Independence, like it or not, and polls show that the majority of the public would not like Independence.

The PLP must know that Bermuda is basically a middle class country. Experience in other countries constantly demonstrates that the middle class bears the burden of income tax. The result of income tax would be no different in Bermuda. The government, quite properly, uses taxes to pay for the needs of the poor. The rich almost never pay income tax because they hire accountants and lawyers to tell them how to avoid income taxes. The middle class, those who are working hard because they have a loan and a mortgage on their house and kids in school, pay and pay. The PLP knows that, but it now proposes a give-away package that would cost Bermudians an estimated $25 million extra when Bermudians are already hurting from the recession.

To point that out is not "mud-slinging'' and it is not "negative Bush style campaigning''. It is only to point out the reality for the average Bermudian.