Works and Engineering Minister Derrick Burgess yesterday encouraged this newspaper's Editor to be guided by "what's best for Bermuda" in regards to journalism.

Mr. Burgess spoke in the House of Assembly yesterday in his Ministry's budget debate, but before going into the debate, Mr. Burgess commented on what The Royal Gazette Editor Bill Zuill wrote in an editorial on Monday.

He said: "I also implore the editor of The Royal Gazette to be guided by what is best for Bermuda, rather that engaging in unnecessary negative journalism. I refer here to his editorial in the addition of 15th March, 2010 when he, referring to my presentation of the Ministry of Tourism and Transport brief on the Premier's behalf, takes time to note that I was reading from a prepared Brief.

"Doesn't he recognise that every Minister reads from a prepared brief during a Budget debate? It is a protocol that obtains in the Westminster system of Government. Just what point is the Editor trying to make?

"And for the record, the Opposition was given fifty minutes in which to respond to the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, not the thirty as alleged by the Editor of The Royal Gazette. I don't mind if the Editor acknowledged that the brief is well written.

Referring to this own brief, he added: "I don't mind if he acknowledged that the writer, Robert Horton is the best in Bermuda. I don't care."

Mr. Zuill's editorial was entitled Budget Follies II and said: "Anyone hoping that there would no return to the depths of pettiness seen in the Cabinet Office budget debate debacle last week had their hopes dashed on Friday when the Tourism and Transport budget was, well, talked about, because what took place was no debate.

"For those who may have missed the earlier part of the 2010 Budget follies, Premier Dr. Ewart Brown opted to use up all but 30 seconds of the time allotted on Monday for the Cabinet Office budget after the Opposition had refused to schedule the tourism debate for a day when he was on the Island.

"Having proved his point (and the Opposition United Bermuda Party was not blameless in this), one might have thought that the tourism debate might have been the real thing, albeit in the absence of the Premier. But that would have been too much to ask.

Not when points can be scored and schoolyard tactics are available. Instead, Works Minister Derrick Burgess, acting in the Premier and Tourism Minister's stead, spoke for four and a half hours of the five hours allocated to this important portfolio. The other 35 MPs in the House of Assembly got 30 minutes.

"Once again, the losers in this are the general public. What does not seem to have sunk into the heads of Bermuda's supposed leaders is that in the midst of the most serious economic crisis in a half century, the public are entitled to hear an informed debate on the future of the Island, and in this case, one of its most vital industries. "Instead, those listening to the debate listened to 290 minutes of Mr. Burgess reading a prepared brief, so much of which was minutiae that he might as well have been reading a laundry list or a telephone book."

Mr. Burgess read the Tourism brief because Premier Ewart Brown was in Dominica at a CARICOM Meeting and the Opposition would not reschedule the debate.