Attorney General Vanessa Retreage is now Minister of Natural Resources

Dean Barrow

The Ministry of Natural Resources, arguably the most powerful portfolio, is in the hands of an unelected newcomer to politics, Attorney-General Vanessa Retreage. That had to have made for an interesting dynamic this morning in Cabinet, simply because there are tried and true, battle-tested and elected U.D.P. ministers with much more seniority and creds than Retreage. The PM claims he can’t tell what his ministers were thinking, but whatever it is they didn’t say it out loud – and besides that, what he says goes anyway.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“I am the Prime Minister…I say this again not in any immodest way, but stating a fact. I have the privilege and the authority to make the decisions in terms of appointments and I stand by the appointments I have reported today that I am making. The cabinet was, as you know, convened at this special session this morning and I indicated what my decision was and there was not one dissenting voice. I wouldn’t go beyond that; unless you are going to ask me whether there were dissenting thoughts and I don’t think I am even close to being able to discern what is in people’s minds. But we have always maintained a very open, frank relationship in cabinet and it is my belief that if people were dissatisfied, they would have said so. And I can tell you—majority of them are here—not the slightest hint of any upset with my decision in so far as Senator Hulse and the Honorable Attorney General are concerned.”