Premier Ewart Brown last night reached out to core Progressive Labour Party supporters with pledges to help the poor, avoid giving thousands of foreigners Bermudian status and refrain from introducing "draconian" measures on crime.

In a televised election address, the Premier said a Bermudian mother-of-four earning $42,000 a year living in a rented apartment should get a better deal from tax cuts than a 22-year-old earning the same and living with wealthy parents.

He dismissed the United Bermuda Party's plans to give long-term residents Bermudian status as a move which would "dilute our vote, silence our voices".

And he suggested the UBP's Three Strikes proposal on crime would not help criminals who are "our children, nieces, nephews and cousins".

"We are on the eve of another momentous occasion here in Bermuda," said the Premier. Our General Election is hours away, and you will soon determine if you will keep moving Bermuda forward with a Bermuda Progressive Labour Party Government.

"A PLP Government will continue to represent the interests of all Bermudians, and not just put the people first, but put the Bermudian people first.

"We are a labour party born of the ordinary people of Bermuda, so when we assumed leadership of the Government in 1998, we understood the plight of the average citizen."

The Opposition says if elected it will eliminate payroll tax for people earning less than $42,000 per year.

Last night, the Premier said: "We want to relieve the stress on the family that results from Bermudians holding multiple jobs, so we explored the payroll tax relief. We concluded that blanket, across the board tax relief, tied to income, for everyone who lives and works in Bermuda, is a bad idea.

"It is Bermudian working families that are most in need of relief, and that is where a PLP Government will give relief.

"It is impractical, unaffordable and unwise to give the same tax cut to a 22-year-old making $42,000 a year while living with her wealthy parents as we give to a Bermudian mother-of-four making $42,000 living in a rental apartment.

"It is impractical, unaffordable and unwise to give the same tax cut to a 30-year-old single guest worker — most of whose income immediately leaves Bermuda to go to the place he calls home — as we give to that Bermudian mother of two, three or four.

"We care about everyone in Bermuda, including our wealthy citizens and our guest workers, but it is that Bermudian mother-of-four who needs our focused attention right now. We need to provide her with tangible assistance to make her burdens lighter — assistance like free day care, free bus and ferry rides, geared to income housing and interest-free down payment loans."

The UBP plans to grant Bermuda Status to residents who have lived on the Island for more than 20 years and arrived prior to moratorium imposed in 1989.

Both parties have argued about how many new Bermudians this would create, with Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess claiming it could be up to 8,000 and the Opposition saying this figure is wildly exaggerated. The Premier said last night: "Now, and I want you to hear this: the United Bermuda Party is pledging to take away our Bermudian birthright, by vowing to give status to permanent residents.

"Think hard about this one — with the stroke of a pen, the UBP will give up to 8,000 people all the rights that Bermudians have. At a time when we already have too few resources for Bermudians and a frightening scarcity of land still owned by Bermudians, the United Bermuda Party has pledged to give status to up to 8,000 foreigners and allow them to buy our land, dilute our vote, silence our voices, and deprive our children and grandchildren of what is rightfully theirs."

The Opposition proposes new legislation to ensure that repeat offenders are sentenced to long periods of incarceration under a 'three strikes and you're out' scheme coupled with enhanced rehabilitation.

Dr. Brown said last night: "A PLP government will not spare the rod on crime, and will continue to pursue avenues to stem unlawful activity, the flow of drugs, and ravages of violence in our communities.

"However, we believe that the proposed Three Strikes law and 'preventive detention' are draconian, inappropriate and unworkable in Bermuda. The criminal offenders we are talking about with these laws are our children, our nieces, nephews, and cousins.

"Yes, many of them are undesirables, but they are our undesirables. We must punish them to the fullest extent of the law, but we must also try to help them. That is why a PLP government is committed to programs like Alternatives to Incarceration, and the new Mirrors programme.

"We need only look next door to the United States, where there are ongoing repeals of Three Strike laws, because there have been repeated occurrences where wayward 18-year-olds have been locked up for ten and 15 years.

"A PLP Government is not going to give up on our young people that easily."

The Premier also said the election campaign had seen Bermuda venture into "negative spaces that are hard to imagine for the Bermuda we know and love".

He added that UK Minister Meg Munn had stated in October that the Bermuda Housing Corporation affair had been thoroughly investigated by Bermuda Police and Scotland Yard, and that the file was now closed.

Opposition leader Michael Dunkley issued an angry response late last night, rejecting Dr. Brown's comments over the UBP's immigration and tax cuts proposals, the BHC affair and the negative election campaign.

Mr. Dunkley said: "Tonight, Ewart Brown went on television and once again tried to mislead the voters.

"That he could say the negative character of the election has been the responsibility of others is a joke. The Premier set the tone on day one and day two of this campaign with extreme rhetoric. His operatives have followed his lead with personal attack ads, distortion, fear mongering and lies. Dr. Brown must take personal responsibility for the deeply negative quality of this election.

"No one else. He is the leader of the PLP. He set the direction and has approved everything that has gone on.

"Dr. Brown's disagreement with us on a tax cut speaks to the gap that has grown between the PLP Government and ordinary hard-working Bermudians, who clearly need relief from Bermuda's high cost of living.

"No issue shows the difference between the two parties more than this one.

"Dr. Brown's attempt to mislead and spread fear among voters on an immigration issue is simply a desperate attempt to cling to power.

"To say that the UBP plans to grant status to 8,000 people is a totally over-the-top distortion of our position. We have said we will study the issue of long-term residents in the name of family unity. Nothing, we repeat, nothing that comes out of this study would happen without full approval of the Legislature.

"Finally, that Dr. Brown would hide behind the words of a UK Government minister to say that the BHC scandal has been thoroughly investigated is deeply ironic.

"All Bermudians know that the BHC scandal, with its allegations of public funds being used for private gain, remains a huge cloud over the heads of Dr. Brown and many of his colleagues.

"No one should cast a vote on Tuesday without thinking of the BHC scandal, where it appears that public money allocated to house the needy went missing, and that Dr. Brown has done everything in his power to stop people from knowing the truth of the matter."

To see Dr. Brown's speech in full, visit www.plp.bm.