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Winding up the debate, Barrow snapped back - and pulled no punches in dealing with his opponents. He said that he had showed exemplary restraint throughout the meeting at the request of the Rotary which had asked for more civil parliamentary conduct:..

PM Dean Barrow
"With all the nonsense, misinformation, dishonesty that I heard from the other side I did not once interrupt any of them, I did not once engage in any cat calling, I kept my silence, I maintained my cool and I am here to tell you and the Rotary people that it was only as a consequence of a mighty, mighty effort if ever there were provocation, it was today, but anyway I also want to commend the members on this side and the members of the galley because they heard what I heard and while there was from time to time an outburst or two, such is the respect for you and for the House, Mr. Speaker that not even when the member for Fort George was speaking did anybody whistle. So much respect, now Mr. Speaker that is respect for you and the House."

And while he had jokes about the PUP millionaires, the PM had contempt bordering on venom for the Friends Of Belize push for a late referendum.

He said they had gotten poor legal advice:

PM Dean Barrow "The exercise to collect those signatures had been done at the time when it was required, the time contemplated by the referendum act - they would have gotten there referendum, but you see the alliance under these Friends of Belize only decided on that tactic when it was too late according to the law. And you know why they completely misread the law and I can say so with absolute confidence because of the Vellos case and because of the fact that this morning, the Supreme Court told them at this juncture you are entitle to no referendum. You can't move the referendum process member for Fort George, and I'll tell you something about you and your legal skills or your absence there of it in a minute, hold your horses, don't go anywhere take your time. You can't move the referendum process with respect to a constitutional amendment just before the Bill is to come back to the House to passage. The purpose of the referendum is conservative; it can't bind anybody, but if they have not waited for as long as they did they would have been entitle to their referendum. So two things; the alliance the Ashcroft Alliance masquerading as Friends of Belize only hit on that strategy when was too late and it seems to me that there were terrible wrongly advice by their lawyers - Lisa Shoman."

"How will you have a referendum after the matter is a law, a constitutionally amendment? You know Mr. Speaker and I am not being rude there is actually as the lawyers can tell you, a famous saying that "the law is an ass," well in this case the law was not the ass you know. It was the lawyers that were the ass."

And after all that, PM Barrow turned to Said Musa - who had said there was no need to put the nationalizations in the constitution. The PM replied that it was his interim leader Mark Espat who had proposed enshrining public ownership of utilities in the first place:..

PM Dean Barrow
"It started off about why we are putting this thing in the constitution, this that and that. I would have said to him, if you wanted to know why we are putting it in the constitution, guess what I would have told him, to asked Mark Espat because it was Mark, he was the first one that said it should be put into the constitution and then Cordel, but he can't ask Mark Espat because, I have to give you all a little story."

"Did you know this man, this member for Fort George, has no shame. Did you know this man was angling to get appointed Leader of the Opposition? Did you know that the three opposition parliamentarians that are missing said to the Governor General no, no and no. I am not telling tails out of scoop, Channel 7 broke the news, when Channel 7 asked him about it. What did he say, I think Channel 7 said, 'he was visible upset or impatient and they said he can't understand his colleagues. Imagine it was only an interim appointment,' well that says about you even for a week, it was only for a week, and he was only to be interim leader of the opposition for one week. So it was only this meeting he was going to be on his bay and the former leader of the opposition."

PM Dean Barrow
"Did I get up when you were talking, you see, you can't take it."

Former PM Said Musa
"On a point of order Mr. Speaker, first of all what the Prime Minister is saying."

PM Dean Barrow
"That's not a point of order."

Former PM Said Musa
"The point of order I want to make for the benefit to remind the Prime Minister that I have been Prime Minister of this country for two terms and he has something to catch up yet."

PM Dean Barrow
"Is that the point of order?"

Former PM Said Musa
"He must remember that."

Speaker of the House
"That is not a point."

PM Dean Barrow
"And it is precisely because you have been prime minister for two terms, that's why three of you colleagues said never ever, ever again."

"Now again with those things, it's not me saying so, it's Jules Vasquez reporting those things.

"But the fact is Mr. Speaker, you see what is over there, Hon. John Briceno the leader of the opposition they tape it out, there is no leader of the opposition today because the ex-leader of the opposition the ex-leader of the party, the current interim leader of the party, don't forget. The member for Freetown has been nominated and will be appointed, but in the meantime the Hon. Mark Espat is still the leader of the People's United Party and the party leader said over his dead body the member for Fort George will become leader of the opposition for even a minute."

And while the Prime Minister was withering in his wind-up - for his government it marks the end of what has been a difficult chapter - starting in June when the Ashcroft Alliance briefly re-assumed control of Telemedia.

And so, his party members were - predictably - in a celebratory mood - though it's difficult to determine how much precious political capital was hemorrhaged and how much of that can be recovered before the upcoming election season.