economy and may well be decided on the basis of which political party is best equipped to keep Bermuda successful.

It is very clear that Bermuda has been riding out the recession in better shape than most countries simply because the economy was sound when the recession began. But what was more important was the fact that Bermuda had relatively little debt when it was hit by the recession. If Bermuda had been burdened with a large debt on which it had to pay interest and which it had to service and repay, then the recession would have been much harder on Bermudians. Yes, some people have had it hard because of the recession but it would have been harder.

In the news and on the television these days there are ongoing complaints about "tax and spend'' governments. In fact, it is a complaint often aimed these days at the Clinton Administration in the United States. It is ironic that the claims aimed at President Clinton's government come from Republican politicians when it was Republican administrations which turned the United States from a creditor to a debtor nation and piled up a huge US national debt.

"Tax and spend'' is a term which is used to indicate a government which is careless about its spending and keeps taking more taxes from the people to spend on things which are not necessary. Generally it means a Government which manages poorly, spends a good deal and ends up in debt.

Bermuda is, of course, often different. Here we have a United Bermuda Party Government which has been very careful with the cash, the taxes and the borrowing. As result, it is sometimes criticised for not having taxed and spent enough on social programmes. The critics overlook the fact that when the recession came, the economy was sound enough that the Government could boost social assistance and housing subsidies when they were needed. It is interesting that Government was able to look after Bermudians in this way with a minimum of fuss. As a Country we have taken that for granted, but it need not have been the case.

While the UBP Government has been careful with the people's money it is difficult to assess the position of the Progressive Labour Party. While the PLP has seldom been "progressive'', it is socialist leaning. As an example, we are uncertain whether the PLP would want to tax or borrow in order to nationalise some of Bermuda. Would the PLP have taken over the two major closed hotels, the Bermudiana and the old Holiday Inn, and opened them as "Government'' hotels? That sort of thing did happen under the Pindling Government in the Bahamas with very poor results in terms of both cash and hotel standards.

The public does not know whether the PLP would be in favour of "tax and spend'' although it does complain that the present Government does not spend enough. The real problem is that the public does not know at all how the PLP would propose to tax. Clearly the PLP favours changes in Bermuda's tax structure but would the PLP favour income tax? That the public does not know.

As a result of the all night House of Assembly session on the economy, we do have a PLP shadow minister in favour of "creative taxation''. This newspaper does not know what that means and we leave it to the public to ponder.