This is the continuation of coverage of Friday’s House of Assembly session in which Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards, of the One Bermuda Alliance, warned that the Island was ‘flirting with economic failure’. The first part of this report appeared in Saturday’s Royal Gazette.Premier Paula Cox said she “shuddered” when hearing Mr Richards’ comments on the Department of Immigration and how we needed to cut back on the level of civil servants.“Are we here to play theatrics or because we really want to make a difference? Because if we did we would hear a different tone and tenor,” said Ms Cox.Mr Richards said hope was something we all needed in our lives. “As parliamentarians I believe it’s incumbent on us to provide a nurturing environment for that seed of hope to germinate and grow.”According to Mr Richards, recently, while canvassing around the Island, he has heard “expressions of hopelessness and pessimism”. “I find this very alarming,” he said.He said political leaders needed to remind people that Bermuda had an incredible history of resourcefulness, resiliency and success.Speaking to fellow MPs, the One Bermuda Alliance member said the issue of the economy was a very “urgent and important one” and spoke of several factors that painted a grim picture of the present economic state of the Island.He outlined data that pointed to:n A Government debt of $1 billion;n The debt service (sinking fund plus interest) is costing Bermuda more than $95 million a year or $260,000 a day.n Government borrowed $200 million to run its day to day efforts, including payroll tax and debt services;n Unprecedented unemployment levels, which are believed to have reached about 3,000;n Thousands of guest workers have left Bermuda and the overall Bermuda workforce has declined;n The total number of companies registered in Bermuda has declined;n Retail sales have experienced their 34th consecutive month of decline;Mr Richards said Government had driven the Island “into a ditch and had no plans of getting it back on the road, but insisted on keeping the keys and staying [in the vehicle]”.He said it was important to implement changes that would improve the economic position. “We need to get it right so this country can say with confidence we will have better days in front of us.“But we cannot do that if we still make the same mistakes we did before.”Ms Cox argued Government is going to do whatever is necessary to ensure “we continue to to provide the people of Bermuda with hope in the future”.United Bermuda Party leader Kim Swan spoke of the Bermuda First report he co-chaired with then-Premier Ewart Brown as, he said, sometimes party differences need to be cast aside for the good of the Country.Mr Swan listed a number of ideas contained in the report, including setting up a tourism authority, investigating in recreational activities to revitalise Hamilton and creating a risk management institute.He said the Island should make more of its heritage to attract tourists and encourage them to make return visits.“We need to take on these recommendations. They will help this Country,” said the St George’s West MP.Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons said Ms Cox had been too keen to blame Bermuda’s troubles on global conditions.“It’s poor financial management that put us in a much worse situation that we would have been in otherwise,” said Dr Gibbons.“The Government that’s been in power since 1998 has been extraordinarily damaging in financial management, putting us in a position where growing the economy and creating jobs is much more difficult than it needs to be.”Dr Gibbons pointed to rising debt which means interest payments are much higher now that six years ago.He added that Ms Cox had spoken of recovery from the recession in her Budget speech in February 2010, indicating she did not have a clear sense of the position Bermuda was in.The former Opposition leader said the numbers of Bermudians in jobs had declined by more than 2,000 since 2000, meaning Government’s efforts to create jobs now is “against a backdrop of unrelenting failure to create jobs”.The problem is increasing because non-Bermudians are also leaving, Dr Gibbons said, meaning income from their taxes and spending is also being lost.Economy Minister Kim Wilson has launched an unemployment registration drive, but Dr Gibbons asked why Government isn’t also doing market research by surveying the community to see how many people are out of work.He said more Progressive Labour Party Government policies need to be reversed, such as the property law he said discriminates against Bermudians married to non-Bermudians. Changing that law would stimulate the housing market, said the MP.Shadow Works Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin spoke of the plan to retrain Bermudians, saying at this stage Government hasn’t even got a grip on how many people need to be retrained.She suggested Mr Richards had put forward some good ideas which were being rejected simply because they were Mr Richards’ ideas.Examples included the proposal to give 20 percent of Government’s contracts to small businesses, which she said would be a major boost to the economy.“When we bring recommendations, it’s not just to say we are wonderful,” said Mrs Gordon-Pamplin. “It’s saying, please consider these.”She concluded that the public doesn’t have confidence that Government knows how or what to do.Health Minister Zane DeSilva made a vigorous defence of the PLP’s financial record, dubbing Mr Richards ‘the absolute prince of doom and gloom’.Mr DeSilva said debt has accumulated in recent years because the PLP is a caring Government putting millions of dollars worth of social infrastructure in place which the UBP Government had neglected to do.He pointed to overspends on UBP projects, such as the building of Westgate and Tynes Bay.The Minister also reeled off a succession of PLP initiatives which have helped people through the recession, such as the Hustle Truck, geared to income rent and the new Park Hyatt plans.He was fiercely critical of environmentalist Stuart Hayward, who has raised concerns over Park Hyatt.“I hope this is not going to be another development in this Country that’s going to be shot down or delayed because of this man,” said Mr DeSilva.“If you ask me to choose between a tree and a job, I’m taking the job. We can plant a tree later.”One Bermuda Alliance leader John Barritt criticised the lack of plans put forward by Government and said initiatives such as the Hustle Truck don’t grow the economy.New developments are needed to create jobs, said Mr Barritt.He said every Government was confronted with challenges and had to rise to overcome them.“They are not the first Government to run into a recession. Every Government deals with what it is confronted with.”He said it was time the PLP started to address some of these issues as the problem is “almost becoming intractable and it makes no sense in pretending otherwise”.A growing concern is the sentiment that Bermudians are becoming complacent and not willing to put in a hard day’s work, he said.“It’s no longer is our DNA [to work hard]. We had things so good around here for so long Bermuda has become complacent.”He said it was the role of the Government to turn that attitude around, adding: “It has to start from the top.”PLP MP Wayne Furbert said he believed the Island’s debt was manageable and sustainable.He said in many cases debt was good as long as you have the leverage to pay back what you owe.According to Mr Furbert, many other countries had a higher debt to income ratio, including Luxembourg.Many Government initiatives were now beginning to reap awards, such as the Ministry of Tourism which has worked to help the Island’s two Fairmont chains get to 100 percent current capacity.Mr Furbert said: “We have a plan. This Government has a plan. What the OBA has to come up with is a plan.”