bringing out the admission from Premier Jennifer Smith that Independence will "probably'' not be pursued by the Progressive Labour Party in its second term in government.

Ms Smith's statement came after Sen. Burgess called on Tuesday for a conference on the issue involving both parties.

It looked like that would put the cat among the pigeons for both parties, who for differing reasons might wish to discuss the idea as little as possible.

The PLP has stated for years that it will not pursue Independence until it has fought a General Election on the issue.

But it had not indicated until now whether it would include Independence in its next platform.

It was always possible -- and still is -- that the PLP could wait until the last minute and then insert Independence into the platform before fighting a three-week election campaign. Assuming it won the Election, it could then take the result as a mandate for Independence, as was the case with the constitutional changes Ms Smith forced through last summer.

But now, at least according to Ms Smith, Independence will not be pursued in the Government's first term and "probably'' won't be in the second term because there are too many issues for the Government to deal with first.

While Ms Smith's statement was far from absolute, it would make it quite difficult for her to reverse course without having a lot of explaining to do.

Of course, she did tell the House of Assembly last year that Government was not planning any Constitutional changes for 12 months before embarking on changes to the constituency boundaries a few months later, but she may not wish to try that stunt again.

There is no question that the Progressive Labour Party believes that Independence is the best course for Bermuda. But it also seems clear that the pragmatists in the party are in no hurry to pursue it. Certainly, the PLP would have to be nervous -- in spite of recent poll results -- that an Election campaign fought on Independence would carry the risk of defeat.

Of course, and it may be that Sen. Burgess was aware of this, the PLP's problems on Independence pale in comparison with his own party's. The United Bermuda Party is anything but united on Independence with Sen. Burgess and others firmly in favour and much of the grassroots firmly opposed.

Those divisions might suggest that an Election fought on Independence would favour the PLP because the UBP would be so incoherent on the issue.

Nonetheless, Independence poses great risks for both parties. For the PLP, there are no guarantees that it would assure re-election, and the backlash to the constitutional changes was the first sign that the public was not prepared to accept every change the Government proposed.

For the UBP, the risks are just as great and Sen. Burgess is wise to attempt to get his own party to decide where it stands now rather than later -- if it can.

But Sen. Burgess is also right to view Ms Smith's statement as an opportunity for the country to get on with other, far more pressing issues and not spend any more time on Independence, which is nothing more than a solution in search of a non-existent problem.