a return to past principles as the way forward for Bermuda.

And Mr. Bascombe believes people must change to go back to the caring Bermudian society of old.

He was speaking yesterday at the Bermuda Lion and Lioness Club World Service Day meeting at Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort.

Mr. Bascombe said: "We see people being mugged in broad daylight, being robbed of self esteem, money and position.

"We will not be governed by a person unless that person embodies the law.

That law is the Law of Principle; no-one is above it.

"We can change and make a commitment to get back to basics, back to principle, back to work, back to conscience and back to the Bermudian society we once knew.'' Mr. Bascombe used the subject of Mahatma Ghandi's Seven Deadly Sins to look at the problems of Bermuda.

He said: "The decade of greed was the 80s where we saw get-rich-quick schemes or speculations promising that `you don't even have to work for it.' "Now we see huge mansions around the country with empty apartments, rent so high people cannot afford them, and their family members practically out in the cold, whilst the banks sit back and smile.

"We see companies laying off staff, making redundancies or even firing without conscience, because of overbuilding, overborrowing and overspeculating.'' Mr. Bascombe pointed out ways that people and companies were guilty of wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice and politics without principle.

Concerning knowledge without character, he said: "We used to have a common set of values that everyone agreed on. Kindness, fairness, dignity, contribution and integrity are worth keeping.

"We must focus on the character development of our young people. The motto of these days are, let the youth lead, they are our future.

"Well let's protect our future by educating them and balancing the development of character and intellect.

"The amount of young educated fools running around our country is ridiculous.''