Government and Opposition MPs became embroiled in a stormy argument over racism in the House of Assembly last night.

UBP MP Kim Young accused Government of perpetuating racism by continually launching racist attacks on the Opposition, while PLP MPs said blacks had undergone years of discrimination under the UBP with no avenue for redress.

The temperature was raised when Attorney General Dame Lois Browne Evans said UBP should be "psychoanalysed'' if she was denying she had any latent racism.

Dame Browne Evans went on the attack when Opposition leader Pam Gordon accused Government of being arrogant for not informing the UBP until that day that the House would be adjourned for two weeks.

Dame Lois said: "Arrogance is an adjective that has always been attached to white people. Certain words go with certain people. I have never heard anyone say black people think they are racially superior.'' When Mrs. Young, an Australian, said the words were prejudicial, Dame Lois responded: "I would like for some people to go to be psychoanalysed before they tell me they haven't got any latent bits of racism in them. Kim Young is one who needs it. Australia needs it.'' Mrs. Young said: "I can't believe the Attorney General has the nerve to make those sort of remarks to me. I want her to apologise.'' Dame Lois said she would apologise but "in my own way''. She explained what psychoanalysis was and wondered why anyone wouldn't want to better themselves by knowing what was wrong with them.

Later, Mrs. Young told the House: "We recognise there is racism in Bermuda.

Is it any wonder when we hear from the Attorney General, who makes prejudiced and biased remarks in the way she attacked me today, it's no wonder racism is the way it is today.

"This Government, by example, is perpetuating racism in the Island by racial attacks on members of the Opposition.

"I am very tired that we have to put up with this here. I don't have to put up with it in my personal life.

PLP MP Dale Butler said black people had felt pain "year after year with no means of address anywhere in this country to have their opinions heard''..

"It is unfortunate that those opinions were made, but many people felt even worse than she feels and has felt. For 30 years under their leadership they hid from the issue, they clouded the issue, they ducked the issue and they deserve an Academy Award for best comedy and tragedy with regard to race relations in this country.

"This issue is presented to us on the doorsteps of this country and we have had to listen year in year out to it on the doorsteps of this country.'' UBP MP Patricia Gordon Pamplin said whenever the UBP discussed race it was accused of racism, but the PLP was allowed to discuss it with that allegation.

Ms Gordon said it was vital to get to grips with racism for future generations, but she said while the UBP side was multi-coloured, the PLP was "monotone''.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome said it was normal for there to be heated exchanges in the House, which was part of democracy.

He referred to a recent lecture at Bermuda College in which a lecturer suggested slavery in Bermuda was less harsh than in other places.

"If we forget history, we are doomed to repeat it, and if our children don't know their history, it will be forgotten, and we need to grow.'' PLP MP Stanley Morton said in other countries MPs used boxing gloves and said the business tasked of the PLP made the House "more of a war atmosphere than a loving atmosphere''. Although Mrs. Young may have been deeply hurt, he asked her to "reflect what our people had to go through for years''.

PLP MP Rev. Wilbur Lowe said it was evident Mrs. Young was hurt, but added: "You need to live through it to understand the hurt. You've got come through racism, to be the object of racism to understand the difficulty.

"Some of us in this House have been the recipients of direct hate. Some of us come to this House and get emotional because we've been hurt and get emotional because we want to see an end to institutional racism because we've experienced it and know how it feels.'' He said the attitudes of some expats "made his blood boil'' but he added: "We love our expats and we need out expats. We need their expertise and we need individuals to come here and show us the right way, but at the same time we want to know it is played on a field that is level in the market place so that our Bermudians get fine opportunities.'' He said the country would emerge positively from the CURE legislation. "It is too bad that all these years after Martin Luther King we are still talking about race, but we're going to be okay,'' he said.