overhaul of House of Assembly rules to improve debates.

He has backed Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade, who has accused Government of dragging out the Throne Speech debate to avoid Progressive Labour Party motions.

Mr. Darrell, who lost his seat as the sole NLP MP in the October Genral Election, also backed Mr. Wade's call for MPs to have more time to debate the Budget.

Ministers should be given stricter time limits on their Budget speeches, said the NLP leader.

There should also be better control of the Throne Speech debate to prevent Government "playing games'', he said.

It appeared Government was frustrating the Opposition, he said, but added the PLP had not backed the NLP in trying to change the House rules.

"We attempted for the last eight years to have the rules committee meet to recommend to the House a whole list of possible improvements,'' he said.

"For reasons best known to themselves, the Premier and the Opposition Leader acted as one, against this effort to bring the rules up to date or make the rules more amenable.

"So there could be more confusion and friction.'' It seemed the rules committee had not met since 1990, said Mr. Darrell.

He also objected to a rule which said that if a Minister tabled a change to an Act and no-one challenged it in 21 days, it automatically became law.

If an MP was not in the House when the change was tabled, he would not know about it, he said.