Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert moved quickly last week to put his stamp on the United Bermuda Party with a more radical Shadow Cabinet shuffle than many people might have expected.

Mr. Furbert could merely have decided whether or not to keep former party leader Grant Gibbons as Shadow Finance Minister and to have decided whether he wanted to keep his own housing portfolio or pass it on to someone else. In all, this would have required some fairly minor changes, giving him time after the Budget debate in February and March for a more comprehensive change.

Instead, he opted for sweeping changes, and was probably wise to do so. Mr. Furbert has been at the centre of UBP politics as either party chairman or as a Shadow Minister for years, so it is not as if he does not know his colleagues strengths and weaknesses.

Now the public has some measure of the man, both by the decisiveness he showed in making the moves, and in seeing his priorities. While Dr. Gibbons and the UBP have always emphasised that its MPs were judged on the content of their character and not the colour of their skin, it was always somewhat perverse that the bulk of the senior Cabinet posts were held by whites.

That started with Dr. Gibbons, who kept the finance portfolio as leader, and was extremely effective in that job. With Michael Dunkley as Shadow Home Affairs Minister, that left only Sen. Kim Swan at Tourism as the senior black politician with one of what are often considered to be the big three jobs.

Sen. Swan succeeded David Dodwell, also an effective tourism spokesman, who was moved the Economic Opportunity portfolio. That appointment was always bound to puzzle, given that it is black Bermudians in the main who are victims of economic deprivation. So why put a white man in charge? Dr. Gibbons argued that Mr. Dodwell was the best person for the job and perhaps he was. But for those black Bermudians who were already distrustful of the UBP, it must have been another the sign that the UBP still did not ?get it?.

Mr. Furbert has gone a long way to redressing these perception problems. By appointing Patricia Gordon Pamplin to Finance, Maxwell Burgess to Home Affairs and Jamahl Simmons to Economic Opportunity, virtually all of the top shadow Cabinet positions in the UBP are held by black Bermudians. In putting Mr. Dodwell back in Tourism, the UBP has its ablest and most knowledgeable expert speaking on that portfolio. He should be able to keep Dr. Ewart Brown on his toes in a way Sen. Swan was never able to in the Senate.

Perhaps the biggest victim of the current moves is Mr. Dunkley, who lost the plum post of Home Affairs and instead will be Minister without Portfolio. Mr. Furbert has argued that this will give Mr. Dunkley, who has proven to be a pit bull at uncovering scandals in Government, free rein to roam over all of Government. That may be so, but it means he will not be focusing on a single Ministry as he has done so effectively in the past.

Mr. Furbert has also ?promoted? Jon Brunson from Youth and Sport to Works and Housing, a mammoth task that does require a pit bull, not least because something is bound to go wrong in this Ministry sooner or later. Mr. Brunson does not seem ready for this post yet, especially with someone like Mr. Dunkley roaming around. Still, on the whole these a good set of appointments. They will soon be tested in the crucible of the Budget Debate. How this new team does against the Government?s veterans will reflect as much on Furbert as it does on the newly moved Shadow Ministers.