Premier Dr. Ewart Brown promised to take Bermuda to a new level when he was elected as leader of the Progressive Labour Party.

Much of his support came because of dissatisfaction with former Premier Alex Scott's self-confessed tendency to "make haste slowly".

At the end of the Throne Speech debate on Friday, Dr. Brown made an interesting confession. After the speech, admittedly rewritten in a matter of days, drew criticism for being light in specifics, he said the Government was "in neutral gear".

To be sure, the statement was made in this context: "I want the Opposition and my own benches to be clear that tonight we are in neutral gear but after tonight we go into high gear and roll out our programme so we can never be called a 'do nothing' Government."

That's fair enough. Taking over an administration and overseeing the reorganisation of the Government takes time. It was only on Saturday that The Royal Gazette announced the first moves in the Civil Service, which see Dr. Browns Tourism and Transport Permanent Secretary Mark Telemaque promoted to Cabinet Secretary and a host of other moves.

Two Permanent Secretary posts remain unfilled, and two Assistant Cabinet Secretary posts are also vacant after the promotion of Kenneth Dill to Head of the Civil Service and the move of Warren Jones from the Central Policy Unit to the new Ministry of Social Rehabilitation.

Nonetheless, Dr. Brown promised action, but so far much of it seems to have been dedicated to creating the largest personal executive in Bermuda's history.

Where former Premiers Sir John Swan had Raj Nadarajah as a political advisor, Dame Jennifer Smith appointed Sen. David Burch as her chief of Staff and Alex Scott made Communications and Information Director Beverle Lottimore his press spokeswoman, Dr. Brown has appointed people to each of these posts.

He has appointed Sen. Wayne Caines as his chief of staff, former PLP public relations officer Scott Simmons as his spokesman and has now key backer Rolfe Commissiong has been named as a consultant on race relations.

While there has been no announcement on salaries for these three posts, it seems reasonable to assume that the total cost to the taxpayer must be somewhere $200,000 ? and that's a conservative estimate.

So, by one measure at least, Bermuda is at a new level for political entourages. Of course, it may be that Dr. Brown needs all of this support as he puts Government into high gear.

But he must guard against the perception that his government is more about perks and privileges than it is about the greater good.

More seriously, it also signals a continued move under the Progressive Labour Party away from a government which uses a politically neutral Civil Service to execute its policies to one in which unelected political operatives set and execute policy outside of the traditional checks and balances that the Civil Service provides.

There is a danger in this. For all their faults, civil servants put the public good above political advantage. The best leave their own political beliefs at home and offer unbiased advice. Once their political masters make a decision, they execute it, regardless of their own beliefs.

Political advisors, by contrast, see policy through a prism of political advantage, and this can be dangerous. There may be a tendency to tell Ministers what they want to hear, or to place party ahead of country.

No one would be naive enough to suggest that government decisions are not politically motivated, and there is no suggestion here that the Premier's current advisors will not offer good service. But there are risks in these appointments, and the Premier should be aware of them.