Immediate reaction to yesterday's Throne Speech was lukewarm, judging from a random survey of ruling party backbenchers and Opposition members soon after Parliament recessed.

"There was nothing said about housing," said a clearly disappointed Dale Butler.

"I know we said something about violence, I don't think we said enough. It's getting out of control. When you see talented, young capable Bermudians chasing other capable Bermudians with machetes, you need the strong arm of the law."

The ruling party backbencher had "no comment" when asked what was impressive about the speech which set out the Government's legislative agenda before the next general election.

Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons reminded The Royal Gazette that Government's plan to introduce a Parental Responsibility Act, had been proposed by his party for a number of years. "It makes a lot of sense."

But he predicted that the general public would be disappointed because issues which are "tearing at the fabric of the community" were not addressed.

"Issues like housing were not mentioned at all. Certainly the issues of drugs was not mentioned at all. The general proposals on tourism are extremely weak given the extraordinarily difficult circumstances that people find themselves in right now."

He said the Government had failed to bring warring sides together to settle disputes which was preferable to resolving them with legislation or "heavy handed legal avenues".

And the decision to allow the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) to collect data on gender and nationality was "four years too late".

He disagreed with the move to consolidate school boards, saying that individual school boards and principals needed to be empowered. "There are a lot of things here which suggest that this Government is simply out of touch with the people and has lost its way."

Backbencher El James, in contrast, said the Speech was "great". He particularly liked the proposals on sports.

"I have long said we need some standards within sports. You can never recognise a Bermudian team. Everyone leaves here with different colours. So I am delighted with it. It was long, long overdue."

The public is due for some "good times over the next few months," he said. "If we deliver on them and I am certain we will."

Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell, said the speech "lacked vision and hope" especially considering that it is likely to be the last one before the next election.

"In my view it offered no solution to a myriad of issues and it ignored completely housing and drugs," Mr. Dodwell said. "On the tourism side, I was disappointed because I thought whilst it would have been a tight time schedule I thought there would have been the opportunity to see the imprint of the new Minister."

He said he was disappointed that tourism was barely mentioned.

"Right now it is in desperate times and people are uncertain and need specifics and leadership and I felt that there was very little in that area. For example, nothing about air service..."