As Friday night's debate on the Budget Reply approached the ten-hour mark, veteran Progressive Labour Party backbencher Walter Lister rose to condemn fellow senior MP Louise Jackson's criticisms of FutureCare.

Mr. Lister accused the Shadow Health Minister of confusing elders by bombarding them with information they didn't understand.

"A dear old lady told me she had talked with the Honourable Mrs. Jackson. She said, 'She has not only got me confused, she got me scared to hell'," said Mr. Lister.

He also defended the Dockyard pier project, which he said had allowed $34 million in revenue to come into Bermuda this past season.

And he added that Opposition members travel on taxpayers' money, not just Government MPs.

Minister without Portfolio Zane DeSilva gave the budget his full support. He trumpeted a range of PLP achievements such as building affordable housing for Bermudians and encouraging affordable airfares.

He also noted that Government brought the PGA Grand Slam to Bermuda and implemented FutureCare.

He said of Finance Minister Paula Cox: "She's the captain of this finance ship and she's doing an awesome job and she will continue to do so with her team."

He said Ms Cox's recent newspaper column comment that her role is as a "cog in the wheel" of Government had been taken "out of context".

Mr. DeSilva commented: "She has included all of us in her cog and we're happy to be included."

Charlie Swan of the United Bermuda Party said people should be able to criticise their Government without fear or favour. He noted his party had been chastised over the years for doing that. But, he said: "I would feel more comfortable if we were the Government."

Government whip Lovitta Foggo praised the Budget. She noted a correlation between increased poverty and increased crime and pledged to continue "steadfast measures to fight against crime and therefore against any ills which threaten the stability of our economy".

Ms Foggo also stressed a commitment to quality education for children from a young age.

PLP backbencher Terry Lister expressed concern over the economic crisis in the United States and the threat to Bermuda from US regulators under the Obama administration.

"Because of that I would really like BIBA [Bermuda International Business Association], ABIC [Association of Bermuda International Companies] and the Government to sit down together and hold hands.

"This really is a time to be on the same side, everybody working together for the same goal," he urged.

He said Bermuda cannot rest easy until all Bermudians who want to work have a job, and pledged that Government will keep working at that.

He said the question was whether the payroll tax would mean job losses.

He said this is a matter of "ongoing dialogue" with businesses and Government has to keep working at relationships that might be strained in difficult times.

Mr. Lister said it was incorrect to say taxes have gone up nine percent. He said the Sinking Fund was dealt with in a "different manner" last year but a "normal manner" this year. This, he said, accounts for 7.5 percent of the raise, and year-on-year increases are just 1.5 percent.

Mr. Lister recommended each minister should look at their capital items once the budget has been passed and see if any costs can be trimmed.

He suggested the costs for the Tynes Bay waste treatment site could be cut as could Government building rental expenses.

He also suggested all MPs could offer to give up a portion of their salaries for the next 12 months to show solidarity with the rest of Bermuda.

Mr. Lister also said: "This Government does have a plan. Yes, we have not been perfect. We've not got it right every time. That's not because we were new, we were rookies. It's because no one gets it right all the time."

Shadow Environment Minister Cole Simons said people are "very frightened and very uncomfortable" about Bermuda's financial situation.

Mr. Simons said Government's focus should be on jobs to help stimulate the economy and that employment agencies should be out in the community finding opportunities for Bermudians.

Regarding the growing public debt, he said parents do not ask their children to finance their lifestyle. Mr. Simons said there has been a 400 percent increase in the weight of debt on young people in 12 years. He suggested private mortgages could be a way of raising cash.

And Mr. Simons said the tax increases could lead to jobs being outsourced to India and Malaysia.

He said figures show that in contrast to Bermuda, tourism is doing well in Jamaica, Guyana and the Dominican Republic.

Social Rehabilitation Minister Neletha Butterfield, an educator, said she gave Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards' Budget Reply an "F" because it didn't say how or what the UBP would do and was badly written.

"The language that was used is really disrespectful to the Minister of Finance, who has produced a first-class Budget in this House," said Ms Butterfield.

She then hit back at Bermuda Democratic Alliance MP Donte Hunt's claim that more should have been done on social issues.

Ms Butterfield reeled off a long list of programmes aimed at helping youths and families, including the Cross Ministry Intervention Team and psychoeducational treatment programmes.

PLP backbencher Michael Weeks said he wanted to highlight some positives of the Budget, naming FutureCare, Bermuda College, fuel concessions for fishermen and others, and said the increased budget for Labour, Home Affairs and Housing bodes well for his Pembroke East Central constituency which has suffered more crime than most.

As the debate entered its final stages at around 3 a.m., PLP backbencher Ashfield DeVent reflected that many speakers on both sides of the House had talked about how things were in the old days.

But Mr. DeVent argued that people need to realise we are now living in a different age where, for example, consumers can buy goods over the Internet without getting changed out of their pyjamas.

"It's going to require us to think outside the box," he said. "The Premier's made a trip recently to places that's new: India, China.

"India is a country with an emerging middle class. For us to not go and try to tap those markets would be for us to be stuck on Front Street rubbing our hands together, waiting for what used to happen.

"We have to switch up: how we think, how we act and what's happened to us. It's not enough for us to just throw around terms like sustainable development. It's more than talk. It's the survival of us as a race.

"I think what's happened recently, that's put us in this wake up call. Some of the things that we thought could fix it before, won't. This is a new dynamic."

Opposition Leader Kim Swan wrapped up the UBP's side of the debate by delivering a staunch defence of Mr. Richards' speech; and accusing the PLP backbench of refusing to acknowledge their party had become "champagne socialists".

Responding to Ms Butterfield's claim that Mr. Richards deserved an "F", Mr. Swan pointed out that "F" stands for fair, focused, factual, forthright, far-sighted and fantastic.

Mr. Swan said there was another word on his list beginning with "F" but he couldn't read his own writing — prompting lighthearted laughter from those remaining, with some mouthing guesses about what the missing "F" word might be.

Mr. Swan noted the almost universal praise of the Budget among the PLP, and said they should all dress in green and go and pray to Dame Lois.

He congratulated them for singing as one choir, but added: "Guess what? You were singing the wrong tune."

Pointing at the debt of more than $970 million, the UBP Leader said the PLP had shown fiscal indiscipline and ministers had behaved irresponsibly.

"Dame Lois would be turning in her grave," he said, before dubbing them "champagne socialists".

He later went on to claim: "The Government has drifted away from its moorings while the seas are rough and bumpy."

Mr. Swan also listed measures his party would implement including a tourist authority and whistle-blowers' legislation.

It was down to Finance Minister Paula Cox to conclude the marathon debate, rising to her feet at 4.07 a.m to accuse the Opposition of making false allegations during the attack on her Budget.

She said they made it sound like nothing was being done to assist the people of Bermuda, before reeling off a list of projects such as free child day care, FutureCare, and free Bermuda College tuition.

She went on to defend her handling of the public purse, remarking: "It's important when people start acting sanctimonious that they get it right."