Britain has a reputation for gentility which is contradicted by its political system, which can be surprisingly brutal.Unlike the US, which allows almost three months for its Presidents and legislators to pack up and leave office, the head of the government in the Westminster System changes within hours of a general election result.Losing party leaders also tend to go quickly. Thus Paula Cox, the first Progressive Labour Party Premier to lose a general election, left the Cabinet Office today and also resigned as leader of the PLP.In the meantime, Craig Cannonier was sworn in as Premier this morning and moved into the Cabinet Office today as well.By the end of this week, Mr Cannonier will have sworn in a Cabinet and will be getting down to work. It is important to do this quickly and to send out and keep some early election day promises is important.One would be to announce that the ten percent pay cut promised by the OBA will come into effect as soon as the Cabinet is sworn in.This has a dual purpose. It shows that the new Cabinet is willing to make sacrifices with the rest of the community.And it shows that the OBA is committed to keeping its platform promises and it intends to do so quickly.The second promise that can be, and needs to be, acted on quickly is the OBA’s promise to suspend the term limits policy for two years.It is a relatively simple policy decision which can be done without legislation or parliamentary debate.This would send an immediate message out to the rest of the world that Bermuda is open for business and would remove uncertainty for business as well.Naturally, at the same time, Government needs to make clear that the standard process of work permit applications and renewals remains in place, and qualified Bermudians will continue to be considered first for jobs.That would be in line with Mr Cannonier’s promise yesterday to focus on jobs and the economy.Mr Cannonier made two other promises yesterday which will take slightly longer to come to fruition, but both are welcome.The first was to introduce a system of absentee voting that would not disenfranchise students. The second was to introduce legislation that would ban all discrimination. Both of these are good plans. The first broadens democracy and the second brings about needed reforms that the PLP delayed continually. It also shows the OBA is a broad-based, open-minded party, and not a party of narrow business interests.In the meantime, the PLP is in for a period of introspection. Ms Cox has now resigned and Derrick Burgess is acting leader. But it will need to settle on a new leader fairly quickly as it begins the process of rebuilding after its defeat.It is to be hoped that it will not simply blame the defeat on low turnout and assume that it can continue as it did previously. The PLP lost power in the first instance because of the economy and its failure to bring about a recovery. But as Renee Webb, noted, it also lost because it ran a negative campaign that focused more on the OBA’s perceived flaws than on its own plans. But the PLP also relies heavily on appeals to its own history and struggle and battles against the perceived establishment. It said a vote for the OBA would be a step backwards. But if the OBA can show that it is progressive and forward looking, then this appeal will be less potent. So the OBA and the PLP have a chance now to write a new chapter in the Island’s political history. Let’s hope that they grasp it.