"meaningless'' by the Whips of the two main political parties.

Government Whip Dr. David Dyer blamed the Progressive Labour Party for the length of the debate which he called `unnecessary'.

Opposition Whip Mr. Stanley Lowe called the actual motion for discussion tabled by National Liberal Party Leader Mr. Gilbert Darrell "meaningless'.

But Mr. Lowe said: "At least it was a wonderful opportunity for all members to join in a little bit of campaigning.'' A tired Mr. Darrell said he had no idea that his motion, "That this House take note of the present state of Bermuda's economy,'' would last for nearly 23 hours.

He said: "I think most members wanted to take advantage of an opportunity to talk about the economy. But I had not idea it would go on so long.'' Yesterday, Dr. Dyer said the debate had gone on so long because the PLP had not been prepared. He said: "The Minister of Finance's speech was greeted with gasps of `What?' "In the early hours of the morning the PLP started to talk about records because they were trying to deflect the whole purpose which was the state of the economy.'' Mr. Lowe said the speeches had been witty, humorous, and dramatic, sprinkled with gusto and feeling.

But he added that despite his good intentions Mr. Darrell's motion was meaningless and had ended up as "a dog's breakfast.'' He said the motion should have been "we deplore the state of the economy.'' In agreement was Opposition leader Mr. Freddie Wade, who believed there was "some collusion between the Government and the NLP,'' because he could not work out how the motion benefited the NLP. He said: "Mr. Darrell lost control of it.

"This debate has given the House a chance to have the first election campaign discussions. This is the first round of the campaign.'' He claimed he had heard Government planned a filibuster to "illuminate its portfolio'' preventing Opposition from pointing out any problems.

But he said the Opposition decided to take the initiative. He said: "If Dr.

Saul was going to talk for two hours then Mr. Hall was going to speak for three and a half hours.'' Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan said: "Dr. Saul came prepared with a 17-page report that reflected the Government's views on the financial affairs of the Country. With a proper Opposition response the Country could have gained a lot.'' The Premier added that instead of a cohesive response to Dr. Saul's presentation, the PLP accused Government of filibustering and said "we're going to filibuster.

"To have one member stand up for three hours and say he's going to put the public to sleep...'' was disgraceful he said in reference to Mr. Hall.

Mr. Hall said the intention of his three-hour long speech was to stop Government members speaking to a large radio audience. He hoped people would have gone to bed before he finished.

The Hon. John Stubbs said Mr. Hall demonstrated "a tragic misapplication of a brilliant mind,'' and how "the greatest threat to freedom of speech is the abuse thereof.

"If every member of this chamber behaved as that honourable member does, this chamber would be reduced to a chatterbox irrelevance. We'd never get our work done.'' Government member the Hon. Sidney Stallard, who finished the session, by calling a quorum could have made his last speech in the House.

He certainly does not intend to stand again. He said: "I think I have had my fill after 17 years in the House and 30 years in politics.''