The Opposition Progressive Labour Party has given a guarded response to yesterday’s Cabinet shuffle, saying that, while the news was welcome, the axe should have fallen much earlier.

And it also questioned why more dramatic changes had not been made, suggesting that Attorney General Mark Pettingill and Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell were fortunate to not be given the chop.

“The Progressive Labour Party is pleased to see that finally the Premier has seen fit to reduce his Cabinet,” a party spokesman said.

“We, and most of Bermuda, have been calling repeatedly for this to happen over the past year, to no avail.

“We find it puzzling though that neither the Tourism Minister nor the Attorney General were removed from the Cabinet. The AG’s tenure has been marked by incompetence and inexplicable blunders, while the Tourism Minister’s role has been supplanted by the Tourism Authority and the de-facto Tourism Minister, David Dodwell.”

The spokesman added that it was disappointed to see Nalton Brangman replaced as Minister for Education, pointing out that the Department needed “continuity and stability”.

And the Opposition questioned why Premier Craig Cannonier had not taken on the responsibility of a Ministry, pointing out that, had he done so, the size of the Cabinet could have been further reduced.

“To his credit, Premier Cannonier has finally realised the ‘urgency of now’, and has made the decision to reduce the Cabinet and shuffle responsibilities,” the spokesman concluded.

“We will wait and see how effective this Cabinet can be in service to the people of Bermuda.”

Canvassed by The Royal Gazette, individual PLP MPs questioned the Premier’s motives behind the shuffle.

Shadow Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert said that the shuffle favoured former UBP members of the Government, while ex-BDA members had been dropped.

And he added that the shuffle resulted in a stronger representation of white MPs on the front bench.

“All of those who were removed were black members, now he’s left with the white members in the party,” he said. “And if he removes two more members it will probably be two more black members.”

MP Michael Weeks concluded that the shuffle represented “backdoor handshakes”.

“A lot of the old guard is still there — none of them have been touched. A lot of the new people who were brought on for election purposes of trying to get the black/labour vote have now, as it appears to me, been discarded,” he said.

“The new Government is green — all I can say is the OBA Government is coming across like a bunch of rookies.”

Shadow Minister of Home Affairs Walter Roban questioned if the shuffle was an exercise in window dressing.

“It shouldn’t be — one would hope the Cabinet arrangement is to ensure that the people’s business is done properly,” he said.

“Obviously this impacts on the activities of those members. Some members now have more work, some members have had a change of work. How this will affect their performance in the House, we remain observant of that.”

Lovitta Foggo said she had respect for former Health Minister Pat Gordon-Pamplin, who switched Ministries with Public Works Minister Trevor Moniz in the shuffle.

“Not knowing the rationale behind any of the shuffling I have to just assume that the Premier himself, through consultation, must have felt that these two Ministers would serve, probably even better, under their new Ministries,” she said.

She declined to be drawn on whether Government’s recent handling of the Lamb Foggo Clinic closure had prompted the switch.

“I can’t say that factored into the decision for certain and I don’t want to speak on something definitively not knowing what criteria was used for the shuffle,” she said.