Government's failure to get a House of Assembly debate on associate membership of the Caribbean Community underway, let alone approved is, on the face of it, remarkable.

This has been one of the centrepieces of Government policy for more than a year, yet last Friday, apparently the last possible day the motion could be debated in this session, Government failed to take it up.

It did table the Government paper on Caricom associate membership, several weeks after it could have been presented.

But then, in part because Premier Jennifer Smith was cheering Bermuda on at the Commonwealth Games, the debate did not go ahead.

At least that seemed to be the case last week when the debate was not taken up. The community has subsequently learned that Government may not have managed to get the motion passed at all.

With the United Bermuda Party already opposed, some six or seven Government backbenchers have since indicated that they are lukewarm about the idea.

Taking their lead from former Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson, they seem to have told the Cabinet that they think Bermuda should deal with its own internal problems first and then take up foreign ties like the Caricom deal.

And there does not seem to be a great deal of public enthusiasm for the plan either. Whilst many people with family or personal ties to the Caribbean support the idea, it has hardly been a priority. For those without those links, and even for the local companies with business links, there has been very little public support for Caricom.

Nonetheless, it is surprising that so many backbenchers, including Caricom commitee members Dale Butler and Derrick Burgess, have become so lukewarm about the idea.

It is likely that they are using the issue to flex their muscles towards the Cabinet in order to get their voices heard not only on this issue but on the Boundaries Commission and on government in general.

It also suggests that Premier Jennifer Smith, who staved of a backbench rebellion earlier this year, may be facing more trouble, especially as she can be challenged at the November party conference.

After Ms Smith survived a Caucus vote of confidence in a nine-nine tie, it appeared as if the Government Parliamentarians had decided to pull together, aware that internal divisions could cost the party heavily at the polls.

But that move would have been made only with the caveat that relations between the Cabinet inner circle and the back benches needed to improve. The Caricom rebellion suggests that they have not.

The continued silence from the Boundaries Commission, and the reports that the Government has been hanging on to its wish to reduce the House from 40 to 32 seats while the United Bermuda Party would compromise on 36, will have caused more unease among backbenchers who are aware that it would be their seats which would be pulled first.

That move is hardly designed to engender loyalty aming the MPs. If you are going to lose your seat anyway, what reason is there to support the leadership doing the pulling?