A moment of light humour was provided for senators as they reconvened in the Senate Room overlooking the lawn where Prince Andrew had, shortly before, read out the Throne Speech.

In a slip of the tongue by the Duke of York during his public address he mistakenly proclaimed that the Government would build 330 new rental units during the next 30 years.

He quickly corrected his error and said the time-scale was actually 30 months.

Newly appointed Housing Minister Lt. Col. was welcomed to the Senate and Sen. congratulated him on his ministerial appointment, then joked: ?I?m sure Lt. Col. Burch will have been pleased to hear that he has got 30 years to get his job done.?

Sen. Hughes added that he suspected it would not take anywhere near that time for his fellow senator to fulfil the Throne Speech pledge.

Sen. Burch was one of two new faces around the table yesterday having, along with the UBP?s , been sworn in earlier that morning.

Both were welcomed to the Senate during a short session in which notices of condolences were requested to a number of Island notables, including the late Salvation Army Major Albert Benjamin and young Shellee Smith.

There was also praise for recent achievements by students at both Berkeley School and Cedarbridge Academy, the Military Tattoo and the national cricket team.

Sen. led the praise for CedarBbridge as he said: ?Over 100 students have achieved high excellence in their GCSE exams. They are in the range of the top 20 percent in the world. That is excellent for Bermuda and they should be congratulated.?

There was also mention of thanks for the service given to the Senate by former members Kenneth Bascome and Reginald Burrows.

Senate Leader Larry Mussenden expressed the Senate?s thanks to Prince Andrew for the manner in which he had carried out his duties to officially open Parliament.