took the floor to denounce the Reply as "the new UBP with the same dry drivel". He listed a number of housing schemes in the works, insisting that there was a plan to address the affordable housing crisis.

And Mr. DeVent said over 230 houses will come on line by early 2007. The Bermuda Housing Corporation had succeeded in reducing the amount of rental arrears from over $1 million in January last year to $276,000 in September, while the mortgage arrears were down from $543,000 to $99,640. "I look forward to seeing greater and better things from the Bermuda Housing Corporation," he said. The Minister told his colleagues that he had come to realize that there are a number of people who are "not educated to the level they need to be at" and had trouble functioning in society successfully.

"We'll continue to work with these people because they are the type of people the social agenda is meant to address."

He said the UBP had failed to address social ills during their 30 years in power, and neglected to properly maintain housing complexes. And he said that many of the people left behind were young blacks who knew that they had been neglected by the UBP government.

The Opposition party was like a man trying to woo his wife back after years of abuse, he continued. "Thirty years of abuse, 30 years of mistreatment, 30 years of denying my children the opportunities that should have been afforded them and now you want to get back in my life? No way."

The people would not reinstall people who "failed to treat them right and who failed to carry out their mandate to make sure they looked after everyone in this country".

The UBP had been forced to carry out social policies in the 60s and 70s because of pressure from a strong Opposition party and social unrest, he added. And criticism of his plans to import manufacture homes were unfounded because the UBP had brought in manufactured homes too.

"When we produce manufactured homes we'll maintain them. They won't be allowed to fall apart. They won't be allowed to not be painted for far too long," he said.

Mr. DeVent lambasted the UBP on its decision to tackle race relations. He reminded the House that former Premier Sir John Swan had announced that black men were a problem and then nothing was done.

The Opposition's pointed out that the Minister's plans for houses would still leave a shortage of houses for some 160 families if the numbers of people on BHC's urgent and emergency lists were taken into account. He claimed that Government had used up a $56 million surplus left them by the former UBP Government, and had nothing to show for it. And he wondered whether the PLP was abandoning its old social agenda or acknowledging that it never had one.

Mr. Burgess said that a social conscience, conviction and commitment were all needed for a Social Agenda. And he said former PLP Leader the late Frederick Wade would have been "turning over in his grave when the Throne Speech was read out".

"It's safe to say that the PLP since 1998 lost its way and instead of coming clean and saying not only have we misled you about who your leader is, we also misled you that you would be taken care of first," he said.

The Government's agenda was woefully short on law and order initiatives, he said, and the two parties clearly differed on the issue. "If you think the crime we face today is only chipping away at the fabric of society then that's where we differ ? it's wiping it out."

Mr. Burgess called on Government to adopt anti-corruption legislation, and said a Whistleblowers' Act and a witness protection act would be top priorities of a UBP Government. Tackling crime would also need a policy on informants and a section within the Youth and Sport Ministry which would take on the problem of gang violence.

The section would be connected to health and social services, education and other departments. Mr. Burgess said that the Alternatives to Incarceration program could not be working and crime could not be going down, because the prisons are full. A UBP Government will provide funds for temporary court to help remove the case backlog, he said.

Turning to community policing, he said, "the more we live in fear, the less community we have. If you want the community to get involved you simply have to protect them."

And law and order programmes must begin in the schools with zero tolerance regimes tackling fighting in school uniforms and at the bus stop.

"We've got to empower teachers, empower principles and empower parents," Mr. Burgess said. "The absence of law and good order is the absence of any Social Agenda."

He said while the UBP agreed that the National Drug Commission did not work as well as hoped, "I don't know that the answer is throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

He continued: "If a government is to be judged on how well it takes care of its seniors and its young this government has failed."

Responding to Opposition criticism that it had taken six years to get on with a Social Agenda, ruling party backbencher said that the social agenda started with the inception of the PLP in 1963.

"It was a misnomer to say we are now pushing our Social Agenda," he said. "We should have said we are accelerating the Social Agenda."

PLP led constitutional reforms reached to the "core of how this society is set up," he said. Mr. Perinchief added that lack of access to money had prevented black people from being successful. He said he agreed with the view expressed in the Reply that race was not just a black people's issue.

"But I'm one who advocates that there can be no forgiveness without repentance. And the people who perpetrated injustice in this country will have to repent? Reparations come to mind," he said. He reminded the House that many black families lost their property in Tuckers Town in a scheme to jumpstart the tourism industry.

"I just want to bring tangible examples to this House. I'm tired of rhetoric," he said.

The ProActive contract to build the new senior secondary school failed partly because of the company's difficulties in securing credit from the established institutions, he continued. Yet the Bermuda Industrial Union was "lambasted" when it was revealed that its credit union had lent the company money for the project. "Why would no lending institution in this country lend them money? Not only were they let down but this government was slapped in the face."

And when the "magnanimous" government granted the Bank of Bermuda exemption from foreign ownership restrictions, the people of Bermuda got "the shaft".

"Almost every construction firm in this country ? none of them black ? refused to work with Pro-Active and, or overbid for their services," Mr. Perinchief said. "When we start talking about race relations, empowerment, and small businesses, these are the issues that need to be addressed."

He denounced as "ludicrous" the UBP's proposals to introduce a Whistleblowers Act. "I happen to know that certain civil servants are running to the Opposition and letting out secrets, letting out details of a criminal investigation that is sub-judice. We are sliding down a slippery slope when we start giving civil servants the right to talk about official secrets."

On housing Mr. Perinchief suggested "forward looking legislation", a moratorium on foreign ownership of new houses and a cap on rents for high priced homes.