important boards in Bermuda, if not the most important. The job it does impacts on the entire community and especially on the businesses of Bermuda.

There has been general admiration of the way the new Premier constructed her Cabinet and of the constructive and conciliatory things which have been said by the new members of the Cabinet. They have gone a long way toward calming the fears that businesses and United Bermuda Party followers had in the wake of the PLP's victory.

However the announcement on Monday of the new Board of Immigration will have set alarm bells ringing. When the membership of the board is coupled with its new Chairman demanding "jobs for the boys'' in a way which seems almost menacing it is cause for concern. The new board simply does not inspire confidence.

The Minister of Home Affairs and Public Safety said all of the right things when she assumed her portfolio. There was a general feeling of optimism that, as she said herself, "we do not have horns''. Yet the way the Board is constituted does not seem to fit with her previous public statements.

Paula Cox has been quoted as saying: "I'm confident that the new board will be able to approach all immigration issues in a spirit of cooperation to achieve what is best for Bermuda.'' A look at the composition of the board does not bear that out. It seems to us that the Board is designed for acrimony.

REBUILDING PROGRAMME Rebuilding programme The United Bermuda Party is thinking of changing its name. That is probably a sensible thing to do, especially if the party is to be rebuilt into a viable political force in Bermuda. For a number of years now as the splits and disagreements have gone on many people have felt that Disunited Party might be a more appropriate name.

Opposition leader Pamela Gordon has talked about all sorts of changes for the UBP, especially its image as a white-dominated party which blacks join for personal gain and are then deemed to be no longer black. She has, of course, put her finger on the problem.

In a middle class and conservative Country a Government as financially successful as the UBP should have stayed in power but it lost its ability to deal with black social issues and to meet the dreams and aspirations of black Bermudians. The splits and disagreements and the party's inability to deal with the McDonald's mess robbed the UBP of its image as the best party to manage Bermuda and gave the appearance that UBP MPs were looking after themselves first.

The truth is that the UBP had a strong mandate which it gradually threw away and there was not sufficient time or help for Pamela Gordon to revive the party's fortunes during her Premiership. The UBP won the 1993 election in part on a Hamilton West fluke but failed to heed the public warning.

The road back will not be easy even if the UBP members and supporters manage to stick together. But the good news is that Pamela Gordon believes the party will give itself the teeth to chew up the kind of rebels who plagued the last administration. It could not do that in power because its House majority was too small but it can and should clean house out of power.