Last week's Cabinet shuffle brought with it some surprises and some welcome moves.

This was a more sweeping Cabinet shuffle than might have been expected after the Progressive Labour Party secured a third successive term, and it would have been reasonable to expect the Cabinet "team" that brought the PLP victory to remain largely in place.

But Premier Dr. Ewart Brown dropped almost half – five – of his Cabinet Ministers and brought in, or back, four new faces.

Perhaps the person who had cause to feel most embittered by the change was former Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield, who put her political career on the line by approving a number of controversial special development orders and widened her majority in Pembroke West Central as well.

Ms Butterfield truly seemed to have the environment at heart, and had a pretty good record – the SDOs aside – so this was a major surprise.

Wayne Perinchief never seemed comfortable as Community and Cultural Affairs Minister, and was also left out on something of a limb with the Workplace Equity Act which was widely touted before the general election but never made it into the platform, being replaced instead with tax incentives for "good corpprate citizens". While offering incentives for improving diversity as opposed to penalties for failing to do so, is a better way to go, it seems to show the cost of carrying the water for Dr. Brown.

Phillip Perinchief's departure is less of a surprise. He was never an ideal choice as Attorney General and lost his bid to retain Renee Webb's St. George's South seat as well.

It may be that his failed legal effort to gag the media over the Bermuda Housing Corporation may have played a part as well, although one wonders to what extent he was only following orders in what was clearly an uphill battle.

It is hard not to feel some sympathy for Dennis Lister, who lost his Works portfolio a little more than a year after coming back from a long spell on the backbenches and clearly had been a Brown supporter.

As for the newcomers, Sen. Kim Wilson's appointment as Attorney General seems to be being generally welcomed in the legal fraternity, where she has a generally good reputation.

Clearly the big winner in the new Cabinet is Sen. David Burch, the one-time chief of staff to former Premier Dame Jennifer Smith, whom Dr. Brown is now relying on to manage the often controversial Labour and Immigration Ministry as well as Public Safety and Housing.

As the Cabinet continues to shrink, it is interesting to see Sen. Burch have the greatest number of portfolios, and perhaps responsibilities, apart from Dr. Brown and perhaps Finance Minister Paula Cox.

There is some risk for Dr. Brown in this, not because Sen. Burch may be disloyal, but because it must be galling for elected MPs to see so much reliance being placed on an unelected parliamentarian who will be unable to speak on four critical areas of government in the House of Assembly.

The return of Nelson Bascome for a third go-round in Health has also raised some eyebrows because he is still facing charges of theft in Magistrates' Court. It would have been better for Dr. Brown to have waited until that matter was concluded before deciding on whether to return him to the Cabinet.

Dr. Brown's one-time running mate, Elvin James, was rewarded for returning to politics and keeping Warwick North Central in the PLP fold with the Environment Ministry, and perhaps of greater personal interest to him, the Sport and Culture portfolio.

Mr. James is the only member apart from Sen. Wilson not to have been in Cabinet before, as Terry Lister takes up a new Energy portfolio.

When Dr. Brown became Premier in October, 2006, it was promised that he would expect his Ministers to work and to produce results.

It also seems clear that personal loyalty is important, but not enough. Those who, like Sen. Burch, produce will be rewarded. Those who do not will be dropped.

This is a fairly ruthless form of management that sometimes works well, by necessity if nothing else, in the private sector. Holding people accountable is obviously critical.

But Dr. Brown needs to take some care that he does not build up a deep pool of resentment within his parliamentary group. They may prove to be a harder nut to crack than the United Bermuda Party was in the general election.