From Ian Kenny.
I AM certain that I am not alone among your readers in being horrified by the wanton disregard by the Housing Minister towards the victims who have been made homeless by the Broadlands fire.

Hard-working low-paid workers and their families, presumably many without the benefit of insurance or spare money to replace all that they have lost, are being issued with ultimatums by the minister from the distant comfort of his holiday in France.

In the UK the minister would be responsible for housing the unintentionally homeless, having a statutory duty to ensure that they had shelter and basic necessities.

Our Housing Minister’s approach to the problem is not to return to his job and take charge of matters and find a solution, but to continue enjoying himself while issuing a bizarre appeal via the media for the public to solve the problem for him during his continued absence.

Now that his appeal ‘via satellite’ has apparently not provided the solution he had obviously hoped it would, he has resorted to whipping up support for his inaction by apparently justifying the xenophobic undercurrent that continues to undermine this Island into the 21st century, and has made the quite warped suggestion that the victims are somehow responsible for their plight because ‘no one is forcing these people to come and live and work in Jersey’.

‘Bob’, who is obviously of a similar mind to the minister, summed it up in his own words in his comment on your website www.thisisjersey. com: ‘The matter is simple: no quals = no housing = boat in the morning = no problem.’
In the civilised countries of the EU which surround us, such comments made against immigrants might well be considered as blatant racism.

I personally find them as offensive as those that have been reported by you as causing offence to the Jewish community in the Island so recently, although there is a stark difference in the level of outcry because these immigrant and unintentionally homeless victims do not have the benefit of an unintentionally homeless government minister and a respectable leader of the unintentionally homeless community to speak out on their behalf.

I respectfully suggest that the minister return to the Island as a matter of urgency and do what we are paying him for and find a solution to this urgent problem. As the boats have been off because of the storms, this may involve a flight home, but I am sure that such an expense is justified and there are direct flights now from Nice as well as Paris.

I further suggest that upon his arrival he may wish to consider knocking at the front door of that ‘substantial coastal residence’ which so recently changed hands following his exercising of his unaccountable discretionary powers to consent to the transaction by a very wealthy individual who has led an allegedly flamboyant past for a considerable number of years before being allowed to move to Jersey.
Ville au Bas,
Rue de la Ville au Bas,
St Ouen.