well to reflect on a troubled 1994.

It seems to us that the year following a very close General Election was likely to be a time of conflict between the two major political parties.

Political conflict generally leads to an unsettled atmosphere in this Country as a whole. Bermuda is relatively new to political parties and spends far too much time on politicising everything from youth to religion and far too little time being concerned about the overall good of Bermuda as it impacts on the life of the people. Sometimes it is very difficult for most people to understand why Bermudians, who are basically well-off and middle class, are willing to take chances with their enviable life-style and their stable system.

It should be clear by now that the very discussions we have been having about Independence have not been good for our welfare. It may be that considering Independence is part of our own political process but it is not good for business. It is not good for exempt company business, the industry which shares our welfare with tourism, and it is not good for tourism because anything unsettling makes travel agents hesitate with recommendations.

We also think that internally the decision process on Independence has been bad for the real estate market and has kept prices down and made buyers wary.

The problems in the market are not all the remains of the recession. While journalists are not sociologists it seems that the talk of Independence and increasing lawlessness are somehow linked, perhaps because the criminally inclined see a period of uncertainty over the future as a good time for their business.

The destructive action we have continued to carry out on education, in the face of huge amounts of evidence telling us that we have made the wrong decisions, unsettles people. Great concern about the education of children is natural. Bermudians are understandably distressed when they know that they will now have to pay for private education for their children in order to get them decently educated. Government is moving ahead with mega schools and a comprehensive education system both of which have failed dismally elsewhere, yet we will not learn or admit the mistake.

During 1994 we shrugged off the current trends in world tourism and continued to operate Bermuda's tourism as a granny whose house is deteriorating but expensive. The two do not go together. Grannies can survive very well if their house is in order and their keep affordable.

At the same time there seems to be a disturbing trend to put the often quite minor needs and wants of Bermudians, things like separate Immigration processing at the Airport, ahead of what is good for Bermuda.

We are doing this at a time when tourism is improving but less than robust. We are still trying to come back from the recession and our high employment retail sector is struggling to survive. At the same time Bermuda is also faced with the uncertainties surrounding the return of the bases.