Works Minister Derrick Burgess last night told United Bermuda Party MP Trevor Moniz: "You never thought that you would have to come to slaves' children for an answer" — but warned him he will have to get used to it.

Mr. Burgess was speaking during a heated House of Assembly debate sparked by Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards' questions over Government's treatment of the Bermuda Cement Company.

Mr. Richards said it was unfair that a new company taking over BCC's lease would not have to abide by the same controversial Government-imposed conditions which forced shareholder Jim Butterfield to sell up.

But Mr. Burgess hit back in an angry Motion to Adjourn speech: "The history of this Country — we are always reminded of it.

"Before 1998, certain companies would get all the work. We started to change that and make it equal. Certain people in this Country were disqualified from even voting on some contracts.

"This Government changed that so that anyone can vote and they call that unfair? We made it fair and it was unfair when they were in power."

And apparently responding to comments across the floor by Mr. Moniz, the Minister continued: "Then you got Trevor Moniz over there asking what they did to George Scott. Come on, Trevor, you are the Portuguese consul and can't speak a word of Portuguese — cut your nonsense out boy.

"As Trevor Moniz calls it, 'racist dribble', every time somebody speaks about it, particularly when they look like us, they label it as racist. They don't like to hear the truth. Get used to it.

"You never thought that you would have to come to slaves' children for an answer or a decision. That's the problem: he doesn't like that Mr. Speaker and he better get used to it."

During Mr. Burgess' speech, Sports Minister Glenn Blakeney called across at the UBP bench: "You are doing your master's bidding — you should be ashamed of yourself."

Two years ago, Mr. Butterfield sold BCC after the West End Development Corporation (Wedco) told him he would have to shell out for a costly relocation of Dockyard's two silos. The company had been operating there for 40 years.

Now, Wedco has decided that whomever takes over the lease will not necessarily have to build new silos after all.

Early in yesterday's Motion to Adjourn, Mr. Richards said: "We need to look at the role Government insofar as fairness is concerned.

"I want to look at a particular example to see how some of Government's recent actions squares with this idea of fairness. The case in point is the case of Wedco and its treatment of the Bermuda Cement Company — now how does that action square with the issue of fairness?

"The Bermuda Cement Company was negotiating a new lease with Wedco and one of the stipulations was that they were to move their two cement silos to a different location for renewal of their lease.

"Due to the high cost of such an operation, the Bermuda Cement company withdrew. A new company has acquired that lease but are no longer required to move those silos."

Mr. Richards described Government's unfair practice as an abuse of power.

"I believe the citizens of this Country value that role of fairness and this action by Wedco miserably fails that role," he said.

"It is time that this Government conforms with the universally held values of this country."

Mr. Burgess said that when the UBP was in power only certain companies got all the contracts and that was deemed OK.

"It boards back to racism but they get people who look like us to promote it 'it's unfair master' — you know," he said.

"Any time whites joined the PLP all of a sudden they became dirty. So they shouldn't get up and talk that nonsense. The change has come and they better get used to it. It has never been a level playing field that is why there is a gap in the level of income between blacks and whites — it's no secret."

Former UBP Leader Grant Gibbons later weighed in: "There is an expression that applies, 'when you get close to the target is when you start getting flak.'

"All I will say is that the Honourable Member obviously believes the best defence is a strong offence. He did not address any of the issues raised by Bob Richards about the Dockyard issue.

"It seems the more things change the more they stay the same. And he should be ashamed of himself because this is exactly the kind of vitriolic language that gets out into the international business community.

"They don't care who is what race or who the shareholders are, what they know is that when they see Government abusing its power and oppressing a certain situation the get very concerned about the stability and security of this country."