November, 1998 election was the well-founded criticism that it had, over 30 years in government, grown arrogant.

Now there are early signs that the still-new Progressive Labour Party Government is picking up some of the same bad habits.

Friday night's land tax debate in the House of Assembly saw the UBP raising some real concerns over Government's decision to revise the annual rental values and raise land tax on all commercial properties and the top end of the residential market.

There are good grounds for raising land taxes at the very top end, where home owners have benefited from the massive increases in rents without passing on much of the gain to the rest of the community.

But it is not at all certain that the increases are being restricted to the top 25 percent of homes -- the Government itself says it cannot be certain -- and pensioners, based on anecdotal evidence, seem to be taking a very heavy hit.

These points were aired by the Opposition on Friday. They also asked, rightly, how Government intended to spend the additional revenues which will be raised, a seemingly valid question to which all taxpayers have a right to an answer.

None was forthcoming from the Government. Instead, the responses ranged from the Attorney General's sophomoric "see if you can guess'', to the Transport Minister's wonderfully vague "we are working on a wonderful plan for the Country'', to the Environment Minister's superbly arrogant (yes, that word) statement that a person paying tax does not ask this question and that "it is a stupid question''.

This followed the Finance Minister's refusal to answer Opposition questions on what the travel expenses of the Cabinet -- at $90,000 after five months out of a budget for the year of $140,000 -- were likely to be over 12 months.

Mr. Cox's response was: "I don't want to use this House's time to speculate on what budget we have for the rest of the year.'' That's funny. Most people believe that is precisely what the House of Assembly is for; to set out budgets for the spending of the people's money.

Mr. Cox went on to state that all travel has been made to represent the people's interests and expenses incurred were legitimate, adding: "It would be presumptuous to think less.'' That may be so, but the people are still entitled to know what the trips are for and how the expenses are being incurred. Why? Because it's their money.

Going into the General Election, the PLP was aware that its greatest perceived weakness was over its ability to manage the economy. Clearly it succeeded in convincing the voters that it could.

Raising taxes -- when it said there was no necessity to do so in the February Budget -- and then refusing to explain why it is necessary and where the money will be spent will only result in the public's loss of confidence in this very area.

It can be argued that the UBP's decline began in the late 1980s with its inability to explain how the cost of the Airport expansion could increase from $9 million to $30 million. An Opposition MP, Walter Lister, did a superb job then of exposing the Government's weakness. He would do well to remind his colleagues, many of whom were not in the House then, how damaging it is when the Government refuses to answer the legitimate questions of the public.