because it is responsive to the needs of the people and responsive to conditions in Bermuda today. That, of course, makes it difficult for the Opposition Progressive Labour Party to complain, but complain it does.

Since the Opposition began by saying that Government had "stolen'' its ideas, it was impossible then to say that it disapproved of the Budget because to do so would be to reject its own ideas. The PLP should have developed an opposition strategy. If Mr. Eugene Cox, the Shadow Minister of Finance, wanted to point out which ideas had been "stolen'' he could have done so under individual Budget debate items. But the PLP blundered and branded the Budget as "stolen'' and thus could not proceed without opposing itself.

As usual, the PLP has chosen to ignore the fact that it has the word "Progressive'' in its name perhaps because it has so seldom been progressive.

The PLP managed to attack the removal of duty from electric cars which is designed to allow Bermuda to try them out. The trial of electric vehicles in Bermuda is a very progressive step. Making their trial easier by removing duty is far-sighted. Opposing the idea is to oppose without thought improvements in Bermuda's ecology.

It is true that the electric vehicles are expensive and that they are not yet perfected. However they will come down in price when they are mass manufactured rather than individually made and they will get better with experimentation and use. We think that electric cars are the future and that they may well be ideal for Bermuda. When it opposes trying electric cars out in Bermuda, the PLP demonstrates that it lives in the past. Objecting to something which may well prove highly beneficial to Bermuda demonstrates just how desperate the PLP is to find anything to oppose in this Budget.

On Monday the Shadow Minister of Tourism, Mr. David Allen advocated cluttering up the Airport with advertising.

One of the things visitors enjoy most about Bermuda is the lack of advertising assailing them as they vacation. Mr. Allen is supposed to be a defender and promoter of tourism yet he would plaster the Airport with ads and thus give visitors both a poor first impression and a poor last impression of Bermuda.

Bermuda has a reputation for doing things tastefully, but Mr. Allen seems to be unaware of that.

The Shadow Minister of Tourism who is a travel writer, told the House of Assembly that even Moscow airport has advertising. Mr. Allen said it was high time advertisements were allowed inside the Airport, saying that Moscow allowed advertising in its arrival and departure lounges.

We are not exactly sure what Moscow has to do with Bermuda since it is hardly a top-flight island holiday destination but perhaps Mr. Allen knows more than we do.

We can only guess that Mr. Allen would like Government to charge for these advertisements in the hope of making a few quick dollars while offending visitors. We really have to wonder what else Mr. Allen would suggest to degrade Bermuda's tourism if he ever became the Minister. There are already concerns that the Airport does not make a sufficiently good first impression on visitors. Bermuda should be working to improve the image, not suggesting cluttering up the arrival halls with promotions.

There have not been too many worse suggestions than Airport advertising since the PLP's Mr. Stanley Morton suggested that Bermuda should build a new airport at Dockyard.