Given the ministerial merry-go-round of the last few weeks, maybe the Governor should consider drawing up some kind of fast track swearing-in ceremony.

Forget the long, drawn-out process of taking oaths and signing fancy sheets of paper before being paraded in front of the media scrum in the stately confines of Government House.

A quick e-mail or even a hurried scrawl on the back of a Belco bill from Cabinet to Langton Hill with the latest list of political runners and riders should suffice, would spare everyone hours of ceremonial 'i' dotting and 't' crossing and would almost certainly cut down on the Government House champers bill.

This was the third swearing-in ceremony Sir John Vereker has carried out in the last eight weeks.

The first mini-shuffle was prompted by the then Education Minister Terry Lister stepping down; the second ? a stop-gap affair which saw Senator David Burch handed virtually every job in Government apart from mowing the Cabinet lawn ? was triggered by new Premier Ewart Brown leaving Cabinet; the third yesterday was Dr. Brown unveiling his new team.

In that headache-inducing period, Neletha Butterfield has gone boomerang-style from Environment to Education and then back to Environment; Randy Horton departed Home Affairs, made Environment his brief home and hardly had the time to go a light shade of green and walk the Botanical Gardens before heading over to Education; while Sen. Burch took a two-week vacation in Tourism before collecting his luggage and jetting over to Public Safety.

The previous two signing-in ceremonies were over in a jiffy compared to yesterday's epic, which saw a whole new Cabinet and a stream of fresh-faced Senators march forward to commit to Dr. Brown's cause.

It may have lasted about an hour, but for Paula Cox even a few minutes must have felt like a lifetime.

Before being voted Deputy Leader on Friday she had made no secret of her support for Alex Scott and her criticism of Dr. Brown's policy blueprint in the run-up to the delegates' conference.

Dressed in black as if off to a funeral, Ms Cox sat next to a relaxed Dr. Brown as grinning Minister after grinning Minister got confirmed into office.

There were some surprises: the Premier keeping his old portfolio of Tourism and Transport; Sen. Burch maintaining his role as Island house-builder and there was a brand new social rehabilitation brief for the ever popular Dale Butler.

Perhaps the biggest shock sent the average age of the Senate plunging.

Hopefully lawyers Wayne Caines and Kim Wilson, and 25-year-old Davida Morris ? whose impressive matching turquoise earrings and painted toenails almost upstaged Wanda Brown's larger than life hat ? will shake up proceedings and blow away some cobwebs in the sometimes sleepy Upper Chamber.

But most of what panned yesterday morning could have been predicted: the return of Brown loyalists Dennis Lister and Nelson Bascome and a senior post for Alex Scott renegade Randy Horton, the man who campaigned for Dr. Brown from the safe confines of his rival's Cabinet.

Despite assurances of unity, however, the awkward and sometimes strained body language between the top two of Ms Cox and Dr. Brown was hard to miss.

Other Ministers joked and chatted among themselves; at one stage Derrick Burgess had to cover his mouth with a tissue as he struggled to stop laughing after speaking to Randy Horton.

Ms Cox sat unmoved most of the morning, the only other Minister appearing less than 100 per cent thrilled being Neletha Butterfield ? also all in black ? who looked as though she had to be coaxed from her chair by Dale Butler after Dennis Lister had been signed in and made his way to his male Cabinet colleagues who were all standing and applauding.

Whether this body language means anything is anybody's guess and time will tell whether Dr. Brown's brave new world will bring peace to the party.

Talk of splits aside, the latest edition of Government musical chairs proved thoroughly entertaining, especially after a few glasses of bubbly.

Now Dr. Brown must be hoping that the music stopped at about 10.30 p.m. on Friday night ? and everybody just sits still for at least a few months.