three of "The Five'' joining his Cabinet? Probably a great deal of hard work by Dr. Saul, a good deal of compromise on all sides and a UBP decision to get on with what it was elected to do, run the Country.

Politics is a turbulent game and Cabinets which are representative of a wide range of any party's opinions are hard to achieve. The United Bermuda Party is a coalition and any coalition will undergo disagreements.

The fallout from the divisive and unnecessary Independence debate and some unhappiness with the way Dr. Saul became Premier disrupted the UBP. But the truth is that the disruption might have healed earlier if Sir John Swan had not chosen to divide the UBP a second time with his McDonald's franchise.

Make no mistake, "The Five'' held the high ground. They were with the majority of Bermudians and worked hard against Independence and against McDonald's which the majority did not want. Democracy has prevailed and Bermuda is now in the position advocated by "The Five''. Finally it seems that the Government is willing to accept that position having illogically failed to block McDonald's. The one remaining major stumbling block is that the people still do not know whether some senior Cabinet ministers, like the Premier and David Dodwell, are pro- or anti-Independence.

The Five are not traitors. They did not bring their party down. They did not disrupt the general flow of Government legislation even if they did win their fight against McDonald's and agree with the PLP to censure Dr. Saul. On the other hand, Dr. Saul has proved just how tough he can be because he has stood firm and kept going through what must for him have been a dreadful 18 months.

There are any number of precedents both here and around the Commonwealth for changing a Cabinet to accommodate varying views within a political party. As an example, in 1976 Sir David Gibbons put together a representative Cabinet after the bloody departure of Sir John Sharpe which even included Harry Viera.

That's how the Westminster government cabinet system works. John Major included in his Cabinet his arch Conservative Party opponent Michael Heseltine. You fight the internal battle and then you come together for the sake of the Country and your party. It is not very different from reconciliations within families after family rows. You are still a family with basic bonds and similar goals and philosophies.

Politics is the art of the possible and taking back "The Five'' is nothing more than political healing. Those people who are suggesting that taking back "The Five'' is giving in to "extortion tactics'' or worse simply do not understand the political process.

This Cabinet now represents a wide diversity of opinion within the UBP. That is the way it should be and we now have the Cabinet we should have had after the going of Sir John Swan. In fact, we think Sir John Swan should serve and demonstrate total unity in much the same way that Sir John Sharpe, to his eternal credit, continued to serve in Cabinet after his premiership.

The UBP has always been a coalition. Healing the split has taken time to achieve but it has not resulted in the kind of permanent rift which occurred twice in the PLP and resulted first in the Bermuda Democratic Party and then in the National Liberal Party. The PLP has a habit of expelling those who disagree, just ask Arnold Francis, Gilbert Darrell, Charles Jeffers, Walter Brangman, Austin Thomas or Kathleen Bell...all once PLP stars.