The Throne Speech and the Opposition’s reply were the subjects of a mammoth debate in the House of Assembly last night.

Not surprisingly, the session mirrored the last Throne Speech debate that was held only four months ago.

Jason Hayward, the Minister of Economy and Labour, kicked off proceedings, spending much of his allotted one hour listing the Government’s recent achievements.

When he eventually addressed the parliamentary year ahead, Mr Hayward said that the Government had much work to do.

He said: “With our overwhelming majority we will get the work done. We have a robust set of initiatives to execute on and we will not waste our time squandering on political theatrics.”

The minister went on to attack the Opposition, criticising the Reply to the Throne Speech for not addressing the points brought up during last week’s speech.

Mr Hayward added that the election ultimately reflected the will of the people.

He said: “The people sent the Opposition a clear message, and that message was they don’t believe you are fit to govern.”

Accusing the One Bermuda Alliance of constantly criticising the Government, he added: “You always talk about the storm and never the sunshine. While their election platform dies, ours becomes a living breathing document.”

Scott Pearman, the Shadow Minister of Justice, was more conciliatory in his response, acknowledging that the Throne Speech contained “some good points”.

He said: “Bipartisanship is possible and it can work but it requires both parties to approach it in good faith.

“At a time of global uncertainty we are not immune, so we must come together and we must have unity. We have more in common than divides us.”

Ben Smith, the Shadow Minister of Education and Sport, said that many in his party were simply repeating what they had been told on the doorstep.

He said: “We’re not repeating it because we want to be negative, it’s what a portion of our population is saying — and that portion is growing.”

Mr Smith acknowledged that the Government had done many things to help the population, but insisted that progress was slow and that some problems were not being addressed.

Several MPs took the opportunity to discuss other topics tangential to the Throne Speech.

Craig Cannonier spoke on the destructive impact that unpaved roads had, before passionately decrying the recent spate of “gladiatorial” school fights.

Diallo Rabain, the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, hit back against criticisms to education reforms that he earlier oversaw as the education minister.

He said: “We haven’t done a good job with educating our children for at least 25 years. Changing that is not going to happen overnight.”

Michael Fahy, the Shadow Minister of Housing, Municipalities and Home Affairs, clarified his earlier intentions for the controversial Pathways to Status Bill — a policy formulated by the OBA when it was in Government between 2012 and 2017.

Mr Fahy, making his maiden speech in the House, said that, had the Bill been passed in 2015, it may have prevented the economic and population problems the island faces today.

On the subject of collaboration, he said: “The Reply to the Throne Speech is not doom and gloom — rather, it’s a solution-oriented document.

“I will work with those ministers who I shadow but I will also stand up and fight hard that what I deem is not in the best interests of Bermudians.“

A number of other MPs taking their seats in the House for the first time since the General Election last month also made their maiden speeches, including Owen Darrell and Alexa Lightbourne for the Government, and Douglas De Couto and Dwayne Robinson for the OBA.

Addressing the government benches, Mr Robinson said there were items in the Throne Speech that he supported.

However, he added: “If you want collaboration in this House, people will tell you hard truths that you may not like to hear.”

After almost eight hours of back and forth, the debate was wrapped up at close to midnight by David Burt, the Premier, who lambasted the OBA for failing to be an effective Opposition.

Referring to the OBA’s Reply to the Throne Speech, he said: “Everything in the speech is things that we have done, are already doing or were inside of the Throne Speech.”

Taunting the Opposition with a reference to the February 18 election result, he said: “This time, the One Bermuda Alliance achieved their second-worst result in their history.”

Admitting that his “blood was flowing a little bit”, Mr Burt said: “I think it is important to note that, at some point in time, one would at least expect that the Opposition would say ‘maybe we should change our approach — maybe we should try to go with some specifics, maybe we should try to lay out a policy’.

“But no, all we got is the same thing that we got during the election campaign, which led to the number of seats which they have.

“They propose the same policies that we’re doing but then say they’re not working. It’s no wonder why the electorate rejected them yet again.

“And here’s the thing, honourable members on this side have made incredible contributions to this debate tearing apart some of the things of which they’ve raised.

“The reality is, our economic initiatives have brought us to a place where before a dime of corporate income tax has been collected we will present a balanced budget to this country.

“Yes, people are still suffering, but I don’t need the OBA to tell us that, we knock on doors too. But the question is, who do they trust more to deal with the condition of this country?

“Not you — 25 to 11 to us. That’s all right.

“I know it’s hard because before the election their bad internal polling and consultants told them that they would win, but guess what? No, no no.“

The House will resume on Friday.