political party which is having a good run can become completely unstuck in just seven days, and a party which is in trouble can turn things around too.

A day can be a long time too, as Government demonstrated quite nicely on Friday.

Having forced through plans for Constitutional change ten days ago in a bad-tempered debate which certainly lost the Government no enemies, the Government went into the Parliamentary break with a bang.

Topping the list was Finance Minister Eugene Cox's 60:40 ownership exemption for the Bank of Bermuda, a business-friendly move with enough window dressing to keep the economic nationalists in the Progressive Labour Party and elsewhere happy.

Tourism Minister David Allen finished off a week which had already seen the unveiling of the new Castle Harbour development -- now Tucker's Point -- and British Airways' announcement of six weekly flights with the news that a potential developer had been found for the Club Med site.

Mr. Allen, whose performance has been increasingly criticised, still has to put bodies in beds, but he has been able to show that his tax concessions can bring badly needed new investment to the Island and that his relentless travel may have paid off, at least for St. George's.

Then it was Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox's turn. Ms Cox, who earlier in the week gave a fair and clear statement on immigration policy, announced that the long-awaited Westgate halfway house would be up and running in January.

Health and Social Services Minister Nelson Bascome was able to announce that Government would be releasing a report on asbestos in the Baselands houses, along with a raft of environmentally friendly measures.

Not bad for a week in politics. To be sure, the PLP still has its critics, but there is nothing like rolling out a series of measures which demonstrate good management and have a little something for everyone to put some spring back in the Government's stride.

Not one of the measures announced on Friday can be described as a political master stroke; but taken together, they amount to a good series of policy measures, and it is the sum of the whole and not a single measure which voters take into account.

Nor does it mean that the Government will not have bad weeks in the future. As long as they refuse to listen to other points of view they will have problems.

But last week was a good week which will have given the PLP's supporters confidence and silenced its detractors, at least for now.