Premier Ewart Brown claimed on Friday that if white Bermudians had voted in the USpresidential election like they vote in Bermuda they would have plumped for John McCain rather than Barack Obama.

Dr. Brown told MPs that although everyone in the House of Assembly seemed to be jumping on the "Obama bandwagon", he was not sure they were all ready for change or had got past the "old racist policies".

He said that voting patterns in Bermuda showed that whites choose the United Bermuda Party over the Progressive Labour Party at the polls.

Dr. Brown said: "If you looked at the voting patterns in Bermuda, which all vote in lines, if whites in Bermuda were to vote in the US using the same lines, they would have voted for the other man."

He asked the House of Assembly: "If Barack Obama was a member of the UBP, what would his experience be?"

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons later described the Premier's remarks as a "sad and pathetic thing to say" and "the worst kind of racial stereotyping".

He said: "Clearly we all understand that white voters in Bermuda have been voting for black candidates for a very long time."

Dr. Gibbons added:"I think we have to put to bed this issue, which certainly may have been correct three or four decades ago, that whites who support the PLPare somehow ostracised.

"I think we are a little bit beyond that."

He said white staff who supported the PLP in his family business were not shunned. "They have a right to vote for who they want to. I hope that one day some of my children or grandchildren will be able to run for either party."

Dr. Gibbons said his wife and children were entitled to vote in the States and all voted for President-elect Obama. "The real question is will they live to regret it in terms of what happens to Bermuda and tax issues.

"Clearly Mr. Obama, I think, was certainly someone who defied what I'll call normal prejudices of race and that sort for most right-thinking people. The point is we should be able to get to that stage in Bermuda as well."

Friday night's session also heard from Deputy Premier Paula Cox, who accused the Opposition of being "scaremongering and scurrilous" in its response to the Throne Speech.

She said that since the UBP was so supportive of Mr. Obama's message of working together, she had hoped for a response which sought to find common ground rather than just criticise.

Instead, said the Finance Minister, the Speaker of the House had been forced to censor the response in an "unprecedented" move because of its content.

She said the Opposition's claim that the Government was ignoring the global economic downturn was reminiscent of their tactics prior to the 1998 General Election. "It was Armageddon and the sky was falling,"she said.

Earlier, UBPWhip Cole Simons said Bermudians could help in the economic recession by watching their spending.

He said: "I went away on business during the November 11 holiday and on the way back the plane was packed with Bermudians who had been shopping in the US.

The Shadow Environment Minister said the captain of the plane joked that the plane was overweight but knew it was because of the Bermudians who had been shopping. He added that people need to take responsibility for their own households.

PLP backbencher Patrice Minors applauded the swimming complex and dive centre pledge in the Throne Speech. She said: "I believe we can now produce Olympian quality sports persons."

Backbencher Walter Lister said: "The Throne Speech says exactly what we are going to do for the next year." He mentioned the older generation's responsibility to prepare the Island's younger generation by keeping them on the "straight and narrow path".