Simon Busuttil's decision to overhaul his shadow cabinet did not come as a surprise. The signs were there for all to see. It was clear, from the way the Opposition Leader was speaking and reacting to developments, that he was looking for an opportunity to reshuffle his team.

Whether it is for the better remains to be seen, but there are several considerations that can be made soon after the new set-up has been announced.

For one thing, just by looking at the names on the new list of spokesmen and their underlings it is impossible not to notice that Busuttil's first priority was not to find the best man or woman for the job.

His top target was to sweep away the MPs with baggage coming from the Gonzi administration, irrespective of whether they did their job well. Their only fault was having been named as ministers in the 2008 administration. That only ruled them out of the running for a post in Dr Busuttil's new line-up.

The only three former ministers who kept their places were those which were elevated to the position in the last year or so of the past legislature. Mario de Marco, Jason Azzopardi and Chris Said retained their place as PN main spokesmen.

The other former minister who was appointed midway through the term, Joe Cassar, was singled out by Dr Busuttil. He was relegated to the back bench and, what is worse, given a portfolio that is considered to be among the easiest and usually reserved for new MPs - arts and culture. He was not put on the same footing as the three mentioned earlier, and not even on the same footing as other former ministers who, although relegated, were at least given reasonable tasks.

Simon Busuttil did not consider that Dr Cassar was elected from two districts, which shows that the PN grassroots value his contribution. He forgot that Dr Cassar was his only supporter in the Cabinet when the party came to elect a deputy leader after the resignation of Tonio Borg.

Instead of endorsing Dr Cassar - after all, Dr Cassar was doing a good job shadowing education - Busuttil has publicly humiliated him in an effort not to be seen to be favouring one of his closest allies. By doing so, he has not shown leadership qualities, as the exclusion of Dr Cassar exposed Dr Busuttil as having been afraid to face internal issues. He has sacrificed one of his best men to keep the peace.

Dr Busuttil's decision to name MEPs as main spokesmen is also a bad choice. MEPs should be working for the whole country in Brussels, and not getting entangled in national politics, even because they do not have the platform from which they could be influential.

This is because MEPs do not have a seat in the House of Representatives, and so when it comes to the nitty-gritty the PN will not have its main spokesmen to debate on matters that could be of national importance and politically controversial. Being at the helm of their particular group and guiding their underlings is not enough in the circumstances.

Asked on PBS why he had come to this conclusion, Dr Busuttil did not offer any justification, simply saying that he had the right to make such choices. It was a rather arrogant way to answer, certainly one that reminded many of the reasons why the PN lost the election.

So much can be said about the individual tasks Busuttil has assigned his team. I will limit myself to just two.

Jason Azzopardi was doing a great job in keeping Manuel Mallia on his toes. I dare say that the minister's resignation came not only because of the Sheehan incident but also as a result of Azzopardi's constant presence to highlight the ministry's shortcomings. So I cannot understand why he was removed from the post.

Tonio Fenech may have committed his mistakes, but nobody can doubt his skills in the economic and financial sectors. It was largely thanks to him that Malta weathered the economic storm in the past legislature. Completely removing him from the sector is a decision Busuttil will live to regret.