Former Premier Sir John Swan's declaration last week that not enough attention is being paid to the eco nomy and the "discomfort" that international business leaders are feeling was timely.

And it was somewhat predictable that the Progressive Labour Party would immediately accuse Sir John of using the same "scare tactics" that the "old" United Bermuda Party used before losing power in 1998.

Those tactics, and in fact Sir John did not personally apply them much in the run-up to the 1998 election, clearly backfired then when the PLP had moved to the economic centre.

And few would claim that the PLP has done a bad job of managing the economy, which is not to say that it has been flawless.

But it is a fact that international companies are feeling nervous, especially as political and racial rhetoric has been ratcheted up in the past year.

It does not mean that growth will stop, that no more companies will establish themselves in Bermuda, or that they will all leave at some point in the not too distant future.

But Sir John was right to say that great care must be taken to ensure that the business environment is right, or we will see a gradual erosion of Bermuda's leadership role in this area.

Sir John is not Chicken Little, running around saying the sky is falling. But by the same token, the Government and its spokesmen should not be so complacent as to think that somehow business will remain vibrant regardless of what statements are made, regardless of how the costs of both living and doing business are allowed to rise and regardless of what the Island's competitors are doing.

Education

"Education, education, education," Tony Blair said in the 1996 UK general election when asked what the three most important issues were.

The same could be said of Bermuda in 2007. Debate on almost any issue comes back to this crucial issue.

Workplace empowerment? Impossible without good education and career training.

Crime? Few people with good educations and jobs commit crimes.

Youth issues? Young people have a greater interest (and stronger memories) of education than anyone else.

Neither political party has a great record on education. The United Bermuda Party moved from selective schools to comprehensive education (at, it is often forgotten, the Progressive Labour Party's urging) and the PLP inherited the system, spent eight years denying there was a problem and only this year announced the system was broken.

The next few weeks will see both parties flesh out their ideas on education. Again, the UBP has put forward a number of ideas to improve the system and the PLP had some in the Throne Speech, although just what the "reprofessionalisation" of education launched earlier this year will exactly entail has not been spelled out.

But there needs to be a good debate on the whole question.