Yesterday’s agreement between Governor Sir John Vereker and Premier Dr. Ewart Brown to recommend to the Police that they bring in officers from Scotland Yard to investigate the alleged theft of documents connected to the Bermuda Housing Corporation investigation means a constitutional crisis has been averted, at least for now.

But that does not mean relations between Government House and the Cabinet Office are fully healed, nor that they will be any time.

It can be argued that Dr. Brown was “sabre rattling” in order to force the Governor to push the investigation harder. On Friday, Dr. Brown said: “I take this opportunity to again call upon the Governor to discharge the responsibility of his office, by taking swift and meaningful action against the perpetrators of this nefarious scheme. He must see this as his obligation. Should he fail to do this, the constitutionally elected Government of Bermuda will lose confidence in the current Governor. In that event we will have no choice but to suspend further business with him.”

By seeking help from Scotland Yard, the intensity of the investigation has grown, but Sir John has not in fact taken “taking swift and meaningful action against the perpetrators”, because they still are not known, and the Governor hardly could in any event. It is for the Police to arrest, the Director of Public Prosecutions to charge and the courts to convict or acquit. This may seem to be semantics, but it also shows a profound misunderstanding of the Governor’s role in being responsible for the Police.

Still, it was a dangerous act of brinksmanship that must have shaken public confidence in the Government’s judgement.

That’s because this kind of publicly played out drama damages Bermuda’s reputation for political stability at home and abroad, and begs the question of what kind of stratagems the Government will undertake when it does not get its way.

It also throws into question Sen. David Burch’s apparently still outstanding call for more direct control of the Police by the Government and what uses the Government might put the Police to in the event it did have direct control.

All in all, it is clearer than ever that the Government is determined to use these kinds of disputes to pick fights with the Governor in an attempt to shows he is not exercising his responsibilities properly.

At the same time, it is also obvious that this constitutional fight has been used as a smoke screen to divert attention from the allegations in the BHC scandal.

On that note, the Opposition United Bermuda Party’s call for a Royal Commission into the scandal should not be dismissed out of hand. It is conceivable that Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser was correct in his decision in 2004 only to prosecute Terrence Smith, who was convicted.

But the Commission could also examine and make recommendations on whether Bermuda’s corruption laws need to be updated, due to the inherent difficulties in prosecuting corruption cases, which by their very nature have no “victims”.

Mr. Ratneser recommended changes in the law to put the burden of proof on the defendant at the conclusion of the BHC investigation, but they have never been taken up. That is to Bermuda’s shame.