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The Prime minister also spoke about his ex-wife Lois Young, who’s the attorney of first choice for government on its many court cases in Belize and now in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister has been pilloried in the opposition media for Nepotism but today he defended the decision to retain his ex.

Hon. Dean Barrow,
“They like to complain that my ex-wife gets all the litigation. Every other lawyer in this country who, well not every lawyer, are all in the pockets of Michael Ashcroft. Who unu want me to employ? The people who are working for Michael Ashcroft?

In terms of doing legal work for the government, I make absolutely no apologies for that. Before the change of government, this was the lawyer that assisted pro bono the ACB, several of the unions, and any public interest group that was interested in challenging the corruption and illegality of the government then that ruled the day. In terms of the change of government I say to you again she charges at the regular rates of a senior counsel, she gives excellent value for the services rendered. The bulk of the litigation is not litigation initiated by us, it is litigation in response to Michael Ashcroft and all his works and I am saying to you that Michael Ashcroft has very cleverly been able to hire almost every other lawyer in sight, Mr. Ellis Arnold is here, not Mr. Ellis Arnold, almost every other lawyer in sight which has narrowed the field. Mr. Richard Stuart is here, not Mr. Richard Stuart either. But sir really man, no apologies to make. That is why we are able to get the kind of injunction we just got last week, that is why we have so far been able to resist the works of the ungodly.

I know that you’ve been pushing this thing and to some extent I suppose you are making some little progress but you see me, I have absolutely no difficulty in facing the Belizean public and answering every question because my conscience is clear. You notice that while Lois gets the bulk of the work, Barrow and Williams in which I am a partner gets absolutely no work because no firm of mine will profit from any government business as long as I am the Prime Minister.”

And speaking generally about the two years in office, a time in which Prime Minister Barrow’s approval ratings have inevitably slipped – he accepted that not all has gone well – but he says his administration is on course.

Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I am not so naive as to feel that I can claim that nothing has gone wrong with this administration. But I do believe that with every sincerity I can say to people we have avoided any coming loose from our moorings.

We have tried to operate completely on the straight and narrow and to the extent that individual cases may have failed, those failings are relatively speaking extremely small ones. I will offer once again to the people of this country, my personal commitment.”