Kim Swan is a man of such unfailing optimism and dogged tenacity that it is impossible to imagine him thinking of the words "poisoned" and "chalice" when he became the leader of the United Bermuda Party on the weekend.

But it is hard not to have some sympathy for the former Opposition Senate Leader as he takes on the job of leading the Opposition just weeks after he finally won a seat in the House of Assembly.

With the party deflated by its failure to make any advances in the December General Election and with several of its members actively discussing leaving, Mr. Swan undoubtedly will have his hands full charting the party's course.

Nor does Mr. Swan have much time. Parliament opens in just ten days time, and he will be delivering the Opposition's Reply to the Throne Speech just seven days later.

The announcement of the Budget and the ensuing debate follow a week after that, so Mr. Swan will have to have his shadow Cabinet and Senators appointed in very short order as they enter what is likely to be a gruelling February and March.

That does not mean Mr. Swan should panic. As a professional golfer, he should remember that a parliamentary term is the equivalent of an 18-hole par 5 course, and he does not have to drive the first fairway to make a success of his leadership.

What the UBP seems to need more than anything now is steadiness and Mr. Swan needs to be that calming voice.

But he also needs to set his stamp on the party early. He needs to outline a clear sense of direction and make appointments that indicate where he wants to take the party.

Clearly, the UBP's MPs are feeling a slight sense of panic. They should not, given that they won 47 percent of the vote and 14 seats in Parliament. Thousands of people put their trust in them to be, if not a Government, then at least a strong Opposition.

And they were not, as Premier Dr. Ewart Brown promised at the end of 2006, destroyed.

To be sure, members of the UBP should be concerned about the future of their party and whether it can make gains beyond its base. Many of those issues have been well aired.

But these are questions that they should think about in a measured and careful way, and they should spend as much time consulting the public ¿ both their supporters and otherwise ¿ before making any hard and fast decisions.

Mr. Swan has come to the leadership rather suddenly. He brings passion, decades of commitment to the United Bermuda Party and a genuine commitment to society's have-nots with him.

That commitment to helping the underprivileged has been a growing theme for the UBP, to the extent that it has been said that the UBP discovered its social conscience after losing power and the Progressive Labour Party lost its social conscience on becoming the Government. Neither statement is entirely fair, but one would expect the UBP to go further down that path under Mr. Swan, resulting in a quite different party from the one that was founded more than 40 years ago ¿ and that's not a bad thing.

What is yet to be proved is whether that kind of focus can create a new coalition for the UBP that will garner it sufficient votes to win a General Election.

That, along with the need to clearly enunciate a policy on racial equality and empowerment, are the kinds of policy discussions they need to have in the months to come.