The following continues Friday night's coverage from the House of Assembly

Government's behaviour in responding to criticisms was branded as "terribly immature" by Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell during Friday's motion to adjourn.

And other Opposition members joined him in accusing the PLP of constantly playing the race card.

The Government side responded by pointing out that they had a mandate for economic justice and that had been accepted by the electorate.

Mr. Dodwell said that Government was now "bereft of solutions" and had resorted to blaming the previous Government or race, when things got tough.

"What do you do when you get to the end of your term? You use this forum for yourself. The Smith Government is using this forum for itself because it is playing on people's emotions. And the easiest way to do that is to use the thing that you feel most comfortable with and that is race - and blame it on the past."

He said that recent comments from Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb, Delaey Robinson and Senator Calvin Smith had made it clear what the differences were between the two parties.

"What we are hearing today is not about race... It's about politics, it's about winning and it's about getting votes," he said.

"There's no real intent to help people here other than to help themselves and the select few."

He backed his colleague John Barritt's argument that the PLP ostracised people who disagreed. "I would defy anybody in this community to stand up and say that that Honourable Member (Arthur Hodgson) should not still be a member of Cabinet."

His party, he said, believed in one Bermuda "that's fair for everybody" and had acknowledged that there was "unfinished business" between the races.

But the Government believed in two Bermudas "one Bermuda for itself and another Bermuda for everybody else. And never the twain shall meet. And that will be all about power."

He referred to the fact that backbencher Dale Butler does not "have a prayer of becoming a member of Cabinet" despite his competence and popularity as proof that those who speak for themselves are left out.

Mr. Dodwell claimed that at least one small black contractor was considering not taking work from the Government for fear of being ostracised by others in the business community who might feel that he was given the contract simply because of his race.

"It's easier to say to your constituents that the UBP is a racist party. I don't mean directly but by inference... We are friends up here... But something happens when you get up and talk about your record something happens and I put it down to two things - getting votes and keeping power."

Erwin Adderley, the Shadow Minister for Works and Engineering, said that the issues should be framed in terms of what is "wrong or right". He added that economic empowerment should not be done at the expense of any group.

"Everybody should be given an equal chance to perform... If we decide that blacks need empowerment then the rules and regulations should be established to give all blacks not just the select few that are your friends."

He said that blacks who joined the UBP did so because they believed in equity.

Referring to Frantz Fanon's work `The Wretched of the Earth', Education Minister Paula Cox said in seeking to change society care should be taken that "the colonised don't take on the mantle of the colonisers." She said looking at Government's record, it could not be said that the PLP has "this mantle of hate for those who are different from us."

She singled out the Employment Act and resolving the issue of the long term residents and the Smithsonian folklife festival.

"Sometimes people don't have the testicular fortitude to grapple with the issues that are at hand,' she said. "They are afraid to put their hands right in the belly of the beast, take it out, realise it doesn't look good and deal with it. And that is what you have had with the old chestnut of dealing with the long term residents issue. That wasn't dealing with the issue of black and white... It was a question of deciding that you want to make things proper and fairer across the board. That is not a symptom of a Government that is Nazi or xenophobic. And I think you to look to the record... You look at the proof of the pudding."

She also noted that people had now come to expect public discussions on important issues as a result of Government's leadership.

"You have had public meetings on everything - from Long term residents, to education, to CURE

and any number of matters."

On the UBP's other criticisms, she said that no one in Cabinet was a "yes person". "I think what we are a thinking people, an analytical people... people who are not afraid to disagree even with the Premier. And I have never yet been thrown out of Cabinet because I take a different position from the party leader."

People can and do speak out without fear of reprisals, she said. Mr. Hodgson was "the one person they hold up as representative of their flawed thinking," she added in response to Opposition heckling.

"What I've heard today is really a sort of bellyaching, verbal diarrhoea from people who have been spanked and spanked resoundedly. And they are now seeking to fight back and they are seeking to fight back with the most underhanded duplicitous and nasty methods."

She said the electorate will make sure that the Government is returned again and again and again."