THE election gloves came off at the St Mary Senatorial hustings last night – and ministers took a beating.
The three sitting Senators on the podium had an uncomfortable time as the audience of around 70 applauded attacks on the Council of Ministers.
The 21 candidates continue on the hustings trail in Grouville tonight and then take a break for the weekend until Monday’s meeting at St Martin’s Public Hall.
Montfort Tadier started the ball rolling last night by castigating the sitting Members apart from Deputies Alan Breckon, Peter Troy and Geoff Southern for voting in the new incinerator at La Collette, which he said would pose a serious health risk.
Mike Higgins produced an ‘ombudsman law’ he had written while working at the Jersey Financial Services Commission in 2003, and which he said had languished on the shelf ever since, and asked why ministers were only now talking about a deposit protection scheme.
When almost all the candidates had expressed their assent for an ombudsman scheme, Deputy Alan Breckon asked why all the sitting States Members on the panel apart from Deputy Geoff Southern had not voted for it.
The attacks forced the minister candidates – Education Minister Mike Vibert, Economic Development Minister Philip Ozouf and Social Security Minister Paul Routier – onto the defensive, although Senator Routier turned on his former colleague Senator Stuart Syvret, who he said had let the community down by not giving social services staff more support.
Former Magistrate Ian Le Marquand said that there were ‘big problems’ at Home Affairs, and youth worker Trevor Pitman said that he had lost faith in Education Minister Mike Vibert because he had voted to tax books and school uniforms.
Transport Minister Guy de Faye will be glad that he decided to miss the meeting, having attended the previous night in St Clement. Cliff Le Clercq and Mr Pitman both said that he was personally responsible for the poor bus service.
The candidates were also asked what jobs they wanted, if elected, and the answers were: Deputy Alan Breckon (‘not bothered’), Deputy Sarah Ferguson (Public Accounts chairman), Dr Mark Forskitt (Environment Scrutiny), Mike Higgins (Economic Development Minister), Cliff Le Clercq (Environment Minister), Nick Le Cornu (not a minister), Deputy Alan Maclean (Economic Development Minister), Jeremy Maçon (Education Minister), Advocate Ian Le Marquand (Home Affairs Minister), Senator Philip Ozouf (Treasury Minister), Nick Palmer (Environment Scrutiny), Mick Pashley (not a minister), Chris Perkins (Environment Minister), Trevor Pitman (Privileges and Procedures chairman), Senator Paul Routier (Health Minister), Deputy Geoff Southern (Social Security Minister), Montfort Tadier (Privileges and Procedures chairman), Deputy Peter Troy (Social Security Minister), Senator Mike Vibert (Education Minister), Adrian Walsh (Environment Minister) and Daniel Wimberley (Environment Minister).
Article posted on 25th September, 2008 - 2.59pm
3 Article Comments
Not completely correct I said that I would like to be involved in the education department. Not that I would like to be Education Minister, as I do not think Ministerial Government has been a beneficial move, as it has many problems, especially block voting, which in my eyes in not democratic!
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Jeremy,
First of all, let me wish you the best with your campaign. Secondly, I think that Ministerial government is a good idea, but what passes for that is not what happens here in Jersey.
The transition from committee based to Ministerial government was stuttering and shaky, which was strange given the size of departments involved.
Although Jersey does not have the luxury of economies of scale, which the UK has, the rampant overspending and top heavy civil service has not changed significantly since the changes took place. This is not the fault of the Ministerial system, but those charged with delivering and implementing it.
We can only hope that with fresh minds and ideas, allied to a more humane and transparent culture, Jersey can see so many more benefits in the future.
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If Guy de Faye and some of his senior civil servants would like to get in touch with the political zeitgeist when it comes to transport policy they could abandon their cars and reserved parking places for a day and hop aboard one of the Connex buses that trundle in to town each day.
Not much chance of that though…
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