Premier Paula Cox came in to office a year ago facing three major challenges. The first was to differentiate herself from her predecessor, Dr Ewart Brown, the second to try to resolve the Island’s gang violence crisis and the third, and most important, to steer Bermuda out of the worsening recession.To her credit, Ms Cox has lowered the dial on racial tension, and in general, there is a greater willingness to share ideas and to debate issues in a measured and sensible way than there was previously. That makes a change, and a welcome one, after the deliberately confrontational atmosphere of the Brown years. Having said that, where Ms Cox has introduced her own initiatives or taken on those of others, they have invariably been too little, too late. While some of the decisions have been difficult politically for her own supporters to accept, and this can be seen as a reason for caution, it can also be argued that is the reason why only she could accomplish what needed to be done. On the economy, bold action has been needed, and too often there have only been bold words.Ms Cox’s great problem is that as Premier and as Finance Minister, she underestimated the recession’s length and depth and thus the policies she has introduced to secure growth and recovery have fallen short.She has also shown a marked reluctance to abandon the policy of term limits that she herself introduced, despite the fact that it has become an albatross around the economy and her Government’s neck. Fairly or not, it has become a symbol of her Government’s negative attitude towards business. Similarly, her refusal to agree to even a symbolic cut in Ministerial pay had cost her dearly in political terms and marks a terrible missed opportunity which the Opposition will remind her of constantly. Another albatross is the perception that the Ewart Brown administration engaged at best in cronyism and at worse, that there was actual corruption. This has never been proven, but has become so widely accepted that it has done extraordinary damage to Bermuda’s reputation.Ms Cox has set up a central procurement office and tabled good governance legislation, all of which is welcome. She has also tried to draw a line between her government and the previous one. But as revelations from that period continue emerge, it invariably damages the present government, especially as almost all the players are the same. For that reason, an inquiry would have been politically damaging, but it would also have cleared the air and given Ms Cox the strongest possible anti-corruption credentials. Instead, she is being subjected to a slow drip of revelations that erode her Government’s reputation.Ms Cox’s decision to retain Finance looks increasingly like a mistake. She would have been better off giving it to Terry Lister or Senator Kim Wilson and focusing her efforts on being chief executive. In terms of Ms Cox’s management of her colleagues, what appeared to be a blow has instead turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The shock departure of David Burch was regretted by this newspaper despite his well known antipathy for “this rag”, but Wayne Perinchief has turned out to be highly successful in the role, and while serious crimes, such as Friday’s stabbing murder, continue, there is a sense that the Police have a better grip on the situation than they did 12 months ago. Regrettably. Mr Perinchief is now a lame duck in his constituency, and while he will continue in his Cabinet role, it will be hard to argue that Government will continue to be as aggressive on crime when the man who has led the charge will be gone.Ms Cox has promised bold moves to come shortly, and has said her first year in office has enabled her to assess her strengths and weaknesses. Now, she says, she is ready to take some bold steps. But this is a disappointing confession. After some 12 years as a Minister, and having held almost all the major portfolios, it was not expected that Ms Cox would have to learn on the job. And now there is an inescapable feeling that a year has been lost.