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7news was in Belmopan and here's how it went:

Jules Vasquez Reporting

Prime Minister Dean Barrow walked into a very crowded room at Belize House this morning as the 21 ministers, junior ministers and senator-ministers waited in red neckties and guayaberas to be sworn in.

The oath itself was simple:

New Ministers (Together)
"I do swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Belize; and will uphold the constitution and laws; and that I will conscientiously, impartially and to the best of my ability, discharge my duties as a Minister of Government, and do right to all manner of people without fear or favor, affection or ill will, so help me, God."

As it showed the cross section of personalities in the cabinet - reading from the same song sheet on this day - but on days to come who knows how it will go.

But that is for tomorrow, today they signed their oath and instruments of appointments - first in line of course, the Deputy Prime Minister - and after that even allowing one Minister to tease about his signature:

Michael Finnegan - Minister of Housing and Urban Development
"You see the size of that signature, Sir Colville?"

H.E. Sir Colville Young - Governor General of Belize/Head of State
"Yes, I'm impressed."

Michael Finnegan
"Big signature for a small man."

H.E. Sir Colville Young
"That's your opinion. The people of Mesopotamia think differently."

Apart from that, it was pretty dull going, the signing - livened up only by sage advice from the Head Of State:

H.E. Sir Colville Young
"A bad Cabinet eats better, but a good Cabinet can sleep better."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"It is extremely timely and captures what I would hope will be the sentiment of the UDP Cabinet. Thank you very much for being so gracious this morning."

And with that the niceties were over - and it was unto the eager crowds - for handshakes, pats on the backs and hugs. The crowd was much smaller than it was in 2008 when they lined the entire driveway - today they clustered outside the GG's drawing room - the thinning of the crowd reflective of the party's dip at the polls as it witnessed a 6% swing in support.

And though the crowd may have been smaller, the expectations are still great - not least in there area of crime and public safety where there is a new minister:

John Saldivar - Minister of National Security
"I tackle everything that I do with my all. I believe that - I agree with you. The problems are many, and difficult, but once we take it one at a time and take it disciplined, we should be able to succeed."

Jules Vasquez
"Spectacular ministers such as Jorge Espat and Dough Singh have failed to make a consequential or visible difference in that ministry. With all this empirical knowledge that the minister cannot or has not effectively made a difference in that ministry, do you really think that you can have success?"

John Saldivar
"I do believe that I can. I know that we have to look at things systematically. We have to look at the problems that we have, and like I said, find the solutions as carefully and as thought-out as we can. I think that once we take that approach to it, we should be able to make a mark. Like I said, I do believe that we can do it."

Jules Vasquez
"Speaking clearly, some people fear your ascension to Police Minister because you are known to be a - let's put it kindly - firm and unyielding, and that you may rule with an iron fist. That is fear of some. How would you answer that criticism?"

John Saldivar
"Where we need to rule firmly, we will, and where we need to be compassionate and compromising, we will compromise."

Edmund Castro - Minister of State (Transport)
"When I got elected and was placed in the previous ministry with the previous minister, I had requested and I said, 'My brother, we could run and show how to run this thing. You take care of one section, I'll take of another.' That never did materialized, but this time the Prime Minister himself made it abundantly clear that you are in charge of the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation. So land, sea and air, we are clear, Jules. Like I have said, the stone the builder refused, someday will be the key corner stone, and if you listen to the results of the election, we were in Belize Rural North, the key corner stone in terms of forming the Government. I had no doubt - and I had related this information to you, I told the Prime Minister - I even said on Love FM last week - I will win 2 to 1, or a minimum of 500 votes. And it came out that we won by 500+, which was the minimum that I had predicted. My opponent never stood a chance. Out of 11 boxes, he only won one by 4, and I gave him another one that he was arguing over, so that we could move the process forward. At the count of the first 4 boxes, I was up by over a 100+, and it never came back down."

Jules Vasquez
"Your opponent said on election day, you 'rolled out' hard with big money."

Edmund Castro
"If 'Clear the Land' has big money, he better watch it next time, because I will blow him out of the water if he comes back, because everybody knows that 'Clear the Land' has no money. I am least among the flock in terms of dollars."

Jules Vasquez
"It is believed that the various failings in agriculture in the rice particularly, but also in some extent in sugar. We have all these problems in citrus. They had problems with onion. They had problems in the rice farmers in the south. It's felt that these were a big part of the UDP's defeat. What makes you qualified to handle such a big and difficult portfolio?"

Hugo Patt - Minister of Agriculture
"Well certainly, Jules, I come from an agriculture-based family. Agriculture in itself is nothing new to us. Certainly, as it refers to the technicalities of agriculture, and as it pertains to the way forward, this is not going to be a work done by Hugo Patt alone. I believe in working as a team. I believe in getting experts necessary to put us through, to develop a plan."

Jules Vasquez
"Is this a come-down for you, that you were in charge of all this various equipment and such, and now, you are in charge of social services? Come on."

Anthony "Boots" Martinez - Minister Human Development
"No man, come down - various equipment - my main focus was people. I was in charge of an amount of people of which, literally under the Ministry of Works, we were acting as a great degree, as the Ministry of Social Services and Human Development. The amount of single mothers we had employed, the amount of at-risk people we had employed, I was of the thinking that the name of the ministry is not important. The function of the ministry is what is important. I see that as a huge upgrade."

Jules Vasquez
"So you actually - wait, because most people say it's a downgrade, you actually see it as an upgrade?"

Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"Yes, that's a huge upgrade. You have the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation, and Poverty Alleviation."