The Acting Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety, Terry Lister, has accused the shadow Public Safety minister Maxwell Burgess of being irresponsible and mischievous following his comments in this weeks? that the Government accepted high levels of lawlessness while awaiting Independence.

In on January 11, Mr. Burgess was quoted as saying ?I believe the day will come when we will be Independent and we will be responsible. But we cannot accept these levels of lawlessness existing at the moment while we are waiting for that day to come.?

Mr. Burgess was responding to comments made by the Premier that Independence would ultimately give Bermudians control over the criminal justice system.

In an article published on Monday, Alex Scott had said Bermudians wanted a Bermudian Chief Justice and wanted to be able to fight crime, drugs and have a society that is safe for everyone.

In a statement to last night, Mr. Lister said the Premier remained correct in his statement that policing operations are the ultimate responsibility of the Governor.

?Government House is also correct in describing a working relationship between Government House and the Government of Bermuda that strives, almost always successfully, to find common ground to enable policing functions to reflect the wishes of Bermudians and residents,? he said.

He said this practical working relationship, although effective, does not alter the fact that policing operations remain the Constitutional responsibility of the Governor.

?Whilst we are not suggesting that the Governor would insist on operations that are contrary to the wishes of the Government, this Constitutional anomaly does exist in our present framework,? he said.

Mr. Lister said the Government worked within the present framework to provide for the most effective policing of Bermuda, and for the Opposition spokesman to infer that the Government accept high levels of lawlessness while awaiting Independence is ?at best mischievous and at worst irresponsible?.