Hamilton's Number One Shed reminds us that Bermuda has some decisions to make.

Last year, when we printed suggestive pictures from the same yearly show, we were virtually accused of trying to ruin the World Rugby Classic, at best, or of trying, at worst, to ruin tourism. We did not use pictures this year because we do not print full frontal nudity. However, the opinion seems to be that this year's show, despite promises to the contrary, was "worse'' than last year's. However, it should be remembered that serious shows at the Corporation's City Hall Theatre have in the past shown full frontal nudity with impunity. We say no more than that about the Rugby Classic show because we think it is up to the public and the "powers that be'' to make a decision on what they want for Bermuda.

However, Bermuda does appear to have some very strange double standards.

Some people, notably executives of the Prison Officers Club, found themselves before judges over some very similar incidents. We think especially of the presentation of the Luscious Lollipops at the Prison Officers' Club on Father's Day. In fact, this newspaper was severely criticised by some serious members of the public, notably teachers, for printing a tame summary of what went at the show given by the Luscious Lollipops.

Bermuda must be very careful here. There are similarities in these shows. Both the Lollipop show and the Rugby Classic show were presented in a semi-private setting by groups bent on "fun''.

In Bermuda we frequently pay attention to the law and stop and warn men who ride cycles topless on the streets. We certainly frown on any man topless in Hamilton, and a topless woman would probably cause an enormous stir on Front Street. Number One Shed is on Front Street.

Bermuda frequently ignores the fact, but there are sometimes topless women on the beaches. If we have Government's promised big push for European visitors, a push which the Progressive Labour Party's Shadow Minister for Tourism has constantly suggested, then we will have to get used to topless beaches because that's the way Europeans do it. Yet the PLP made a huge fuss over what appears to have been only a suggestive incident at the old Club Med.

Then, too, the Police are so keen on what people do and do not do on the beaches that they appear to come very close to both harassment and entrapment.

One senior non-Bermudian executive was sent packing for swimming nude.

Presumably the water provided him with a little more cover than a stage at Number One Shed did for full frontal nudity. Yet there appear to have been a fair number of policemen at Number One Shed on Friday night.

All we are suggesting is that Bermuda should make up its collective mind what it wants and behave accordingly. Standards in the western world have changed a great deal. Perhaps Bermuda is way behind the times. Maybe Bermudians want topless stage shows and designated nude beaches like much of the rest of the world. But we should make it clear which rules we want so that everyone knows what they are.

We should not have harassment in one place and licence somewhere else. We should not haul one group to court and not another. We should not assail one event as unacceptable in Bermuda and turn a blind eye to another. Nor should we apply the law to locals but not to visitors.