And while the Leader of the Opposition did his best to gloss over a programme that, bottom line, uses taxpayer dollars to sponsor political patronage - the Prime Minister couldn't contain himself when we asked him about the PUP's political acrobatics:..
Jules Vasquez
"Sir and then the PUP has accepted Christmas Cheer. The Leader of the Opposition accepted that in deed it may indicate hypocrisy on their part, but he was willing to take that because he says he is convinced that the program has a sufficient level of transparency."
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Well, Amen."
Jules Vasquez
"But at the same time does this in your opinion weaken your case strategically or in any substantial way legally?"
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Well I think so. I am not quite sure what the applications are for before the court, but this thing in law that if you come to equity, you must come with clean hands. Mr. Espat, who seems to be the chief applicant, I don't know how he will say to the court that he is coming with clean hands if he ends up taking the money from PetroCaribe, so I suspect they will have their difficulties. This is the same Mr. Espat who last year not only wanted the Christmas Cheer, despite our saying nobody will get cash, made an application to me for him to get cash on the basis that he had already purchase some Christmas toys. So, transparency? I won't say anymore."
Jules Vasquez
"You gave him the cash?"
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"No! Absolutely not. No. Nobody can get cash."
The Christmas Cheer funds have already been disbursed.
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