Cabinet expanded by one today with the appointment of PLP backbencher Wayne Perinchief to a new Ministry to tackle drugs.
The Premier said:
"Today I am here to announce the establishment of a new Ministry, and to introduce the new Minister for that Ministry. It is a bold and innovative step taken by the Government to combat drugs and crime in our country. The Honourable Wayne N.M. Perinchief CPM JP MP will be the Minsiter for a newly formed National Drug Control Ministry. The Government policy statement setting out the rationale for the new Ministry will be provided in this year's Speech from the Throne."
The Premier went on to gush about Mr. Perinchief's qualifications, in his usual over the top manner, eventually seeming to realize the ridiculousness of what he was about to say and pausing to find a graceful exit. Nonetheless he still sounded typically insincere and boastful while discussing Mr. Perinchief's resume:
"This man knows law and order in Bermuda...this man is qualified...I don't want anyone to doubt why we put him where he is going and I don't want anyone to question whether he is capable of doing the job we assigned for him. He is probably, in my humble estimation, the most qualified person in Bermuda if not [pause] within and without Bermuda for this post."
The most qualified person within and without Bermuda? Premier Scott actually caught himself at that point, it looked like he was about to say "the world" but stopped and then came up with 'within and without Bermuda'.
Over the past two years the Premier's speaking style has become increasingly theatrical, translating into a sense that he's trying to sell you something you probably don't want or need. The style overwhelms the content and undermines whatever he's attempting to convey.
Maybe this Ministry is a good idea, we don't know yet as the details will come on Friday, but today's announcement was typically over the top.
My first impression however is that the creation of a whole new Ministry for Drug Control, particularly after the PLP undermined and eventually absorbed the National Drug Commission into the Ministry of Health, seems grand and excessive. Do we really need a separate Ministry to deal with drug control? Wouldn't a single department within a Ministry suffice?
This probably doesn't have much to do with drugs anyway. The more likely answer is that the Premier is working to consolidate his position in an increasingly fragmented Parliamentary group by expanding Cabinet and pulling more backbenchers in.
When Cabinet is bigger than the backbench, and that's the case now with the existence of two frivilous standalone portfolios of Minister Without Portfolio and a Minister for Drug Control, it pretty much negates the power of the backbench to restrain Cabinet's more unwise impulses. Under Collective Responsibility when Cabinet presents an initiative to Caucus it now comes as a done deal with all Cabinet Ministers being obligated to support it if the majority carry it within Cabinet.
Perhaps most significantly, adding this new Ministry is the Premier throwing himself a a lifeline by linking the futures and fortunes of as many MPs as possible to his own.
Posted by Christian S. Dunleavy