Opposition in the Westminster system is not easy. A party on the wrong side of the House has to be the Government critic but also has to show why it should be the next government.

So Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert said on Friday when he delivered his first Reply to the Throne Speech. Generally speaking, he accomplished both tasks.

He effectively skewered Premier Dr. Ewart Brown?s attempts to paint his Cabinet as a ?new? administration, rightly pointing out that it is made up of the same people who had failed, in Dr. Brown?s own words, to deliver for eight years.

Indeed, Mr. Furbert picked up on a statement made by Dr. Brown in his leadership challenge: ?In spite of what you hear, you are not better off than you were three years ago ? neither is your neighbour, and neither is your son or your daughter,? Dr. Brown told PLP delegates.

?What an admission of failure by the PLP Government,? Mr. Furbert said on Friday. And he could have added: ?What a gift for my Opposition to have the Deputy Premier for three years and a Cabinet Minister for eight years to admit that his Government had failed to move people forward.?

Indeed, Dr. Brown, who took three years to live down ?we had to mislead you? may be stuck with that admission for his whole tenure.

Mr. Furbert had more criticism, of course. The CedarBridge crisis, the failure to produce on housing, the fact seniors are barely keeping up. The list goes on.

But he was also able to produce alternatives, and many of the UBP?s ideas have merit. On housing, the UBP promises a much more active building scheme, and a much more extensive package of incentives for private developers to build affordable housing than the Government has managed to come up with.

Some of the best ideas come in education, where the PLP?s cluelessness seems to know no bounds. The most important promise there is to free the schools of the sclerotic bureaucratic monster that is the Ministry of Education and to devolve responsibility to individual school boards and principals.

No less important is the idea of having school vouchers for pre-schools that should, administered correctly, ensure that all pre-schoolers get a head start in life without the crippling costs that most parents now endure.

At the other end of the scale, Mr. Furbert promises financial aid for college students that should also provide a boost to the Bermuda College.

Mr. Furbert also promises a raft of reforms for Government itself, some of which would take some of the unnecessary divisiveness out of politics, and other area that would place some control on the executive branch. All are welcome, although some care needs to be taken that they do not paralyse government?s ability to act effectively and efficiently. But few would dispute that the pendulum of government has swung too far to autocracy.

In all, this was an effective response from Mr. Furbert. While the UBP leader?s delivery and oratory will never astound, the thinking and substance of this speech ? and that is what counts in the long term ? is very sound and certainly makes Dr. Brown?s first Throne Speech look weak and flimsy.

As with the Throne Speech, it is not clear how all of the UBP?s promises would be paid for, but precisely the same criticism can be levelled at the Government.

If there is an election next year, no one can claim that it will be an unequal fight.