Premier Ewart Brown has defended his record on travel expenses, telling a media roundtable: “We don’t normally stay at the Motel 6 if you don’t mind.”

The Premier has frequently come under attack from colleagues in the Progressive Labour Party after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on trips overseas while issuing instructions for people at home to cut back.

But in front of an audience at the Berkeley Cafeterium on Monday night, Dr. Brown was unrepentant over the $320,000 he racked up in the last fiscal year.

Asked by The Royal Gazette what he thought to the suggestion he’s set a bad example with his spending, the Premier replied: “First of all I don’t think I’ve travelled excessively. My travel has been highlighted more than others. In fact last year when your newspaper did a story about travel, we went back in the records of the Cabinet Office and found that my predecessor had actually travelled more than I have.

“But see it is my attitude that bothers you, the fact that I’m not apologetic. You come to me and I don’t say, ‘well, I had to travel’.

“The fact is that I represent three major responsibilities for my Government. I’m the Premier, the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Tourism — one salary, three duties — and if they were separate individuals you would have seen at least a 50-60 percent increase in travel.

“The Minister of Tourism has always travelled and should travel because the people we want to come here don’t live here, so you have to go see them.”

Asked about the $16,000 he spent on ground travel alone travelling around Washington, D.C., on a single trip last January, Dr. Brown said that was for six or seven people.

”The point is that figure was not representative of me, where am I going to go in Washington for $16,000 by myself?” he said.On the suggestion $16,000 is still a lot of money for half a dozen people, he responded: ”Sir, I’m just telling you we travelled the way we normally travel which is piling into an SUV and sometimes my wife and I take a two-seater car that we drive in. We don’t really splurge on the Government, you should know that.”

Asked if there was any way of cutting back, he replied:<>”I’ve cut back a lot I’ve turned down trips, I’ve turned down many trips I should have been in Barbados yesterday. I do it all the time.

”Part of the problem is coming from an assumption, which may have been with you for a long time, and it is that I need the Government in order to travel so I splurge on the Government. Why would I do that?

”If it was $16,000 for transportation in Washington for the Bermuda delegation during the week we were there, then that’s what it was.”Asked if he could have travelled more cheaply, he said: ”I just explained to you we’ve used one form of travel all the time, wherever we go ground transportation is an SUV and if there’s more than four of us — two SUVs. If we’re going to Capitol Hill you can’t tell the car to go and leave you and then you’ll get them when you come out.

”And we don’t normally stay at the Motel 6 if you don’t mind.

”PLP leadership contender Terry Lister recently described Ministers’ spending as a “symbolic thing”, saying: ”When the Minister gets on a plane, flies away somewhere and gets the penthouse suite for $500 when there’s a room downstairs worth $200 which is perfectly good enough — that says it’s all right to spend.”

Also during a heated round-table session, this newspaper asked the Premier why he thought there had been more attacks on his personal integrity than previous Premiers.

”Well I don’t know if that’s true,” he said.

”Let’s take why there have been more attacks period, not just on integrity and I’ll tell you why — thanks for the opportunity. Early in my tenure as a politician there were people in this country who saw me for what I am, who knew that I was focused on certain issues. They hoped and prayed that I would never be in a position to do anything about it."

Asked which people he’s talking about, the Premier replied: ”We’re talking about those people who were thinking like this.”Asked who they are, he responded: ”I don’t have a name for them.”

Asked if he meant white people, he replied: ”Some white, some black. Because in a country like Bermuda if you have a significant number of whites who take a position, by definition you have a significant number of blacks who will follow.”

Asked if that’s the reason he’s come under personal attacks so often for the last four years, he replied: "I think that’s probably the main reason because otherwise I should be in jail.”I’ve got cedar beams in my house, the gate to my house was built by Ministry of Transport, my wife hit me with a golf club and it just goes on and on and on."

He then suggested this newspaper paints him as a chicken thief.

Told we’ve never reported he’s stolen anything, he replied:<>”No, no you would never say that because you have good lawyers.”Asked what we do report, he claimed we regularly deliberately ran stories about former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown doing something unpopular, hoping to confuse readers into thinking Ewart Brown had done something unpopular.

Asked why people on the streets and in workingmen’s clubs make accusations against his integrity, he replied: ”Because they’ve been fed it. Look I think even I should be afforded the right to be considered innocent.”

Asked why such accusations didn’t follow his predecessor Alex Scott around, he replied: ”Part of it is because I fight back.”

Asked if Mr. Scott doesn’t fight back, he said: ”I don’t speak for Alex. You guys seem to know his number.”

Asked what the difference might be between himself and Mr. Scott, he said: ”Sir, don’t try. You know how long I’ve been doing this? You think I’m going to sit here and give you a headline so you can have me comparing myself to Alex Scott?”

As an audience packed with keen Dr. Brown supporters clapped approval, the Premier said: ”That’s why they don’t like me — that kind of thing I just did — I’m combative at times, I will fight you back.”