Bruce Golding and his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) can only have been encouraged by the turnout at Sunday's public session of the party's annual conference.

With the huge crowd at the National Arena in Kingston, following on the JLP's gains in recent opinion polls, Mr. Golding would be forgiven any belief that he may be riding a wave to Jamaica House and that his party's 17 years in opposition is nearing an end. Indeed, in his speech on Sunday, Mr. Golding began to map a vision for Jamaica to be given flesh and substance when the JLP forms the Government and he becomes Prime Minister.

A significant element of that vision rests on the ideas for constitutional change, which he developed when he left the JLP in 1995 to form the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and which was part of the negotiated agenda for his return to his old party after the seven-year flirtation with the now comatose NDM. We suggest to Mr. Golding that he take care in articulating his ideas, mindful of becoming bogged down in abstractions and losing the momentum he has recently built up.

Our point is that the Jamaican people, at this time, are largely focused on hard deliverables - the bread-and-butter issues that translate into improved quality to their lives. In that regard, we would suggest that the greater concentration has to be economic and social policies with specific outcomes.

Which is not to say that we do not believe that there may not be constitutional and legislative issues which, if addressed, can improve the quality of governance in Jamaica. Our view, though, is that it does not require constitutional adjustments to do the things to improve law and order and to generate growth of, say, six per cent per annum.

Of course, we agree with Mr. Golding that in a liberal democracy governments cannot, and indeed, do not have a monopoly on power. But in the final analysis, governments are elected to do precisely that - govern. And when one administration is turfed out for another, especially in the context that the JLP would come to office, if that is the will of the Jamaican people, the expectation is that it will act expeditiously to do the things necessary to meet the people's expectations.

Mr. Golding would have to be careful of a JLP Government becoming distracted by a time-consuming effort of reform for a clear separation of powers between the executive and the legislature, to provide more authority to the Opposition and to instil term limits for Prime Ministers.

In fact, much of what Mr. Golding hopes to achieve, can be done in the short run, without the lengthy, and very likely bumpy process of "re-engineering the Government" by running an administration founded in morality. There are enough laws in place to prosecute and send to jail corrupt ministers and other public officials. They need only be applied.

In the event, therefore, we would prefer that Mr Golding and his team spend the time speaking to policy specifics - such as how his revamping of the National Housing Trust (NHT) would work and making a credible case for that potentially dangerous plan to allow MPs to preside over special allocations for constituencies. Mr. Golding, should he win the Government, must be in a position to hit the ground running.