From Bob Le Sueur.
AT THE St Clement hustings Mr Syvret, with great eloquence, wrung his audience’s collective heart with an account of all he had had to endure whilst serving us all as a Member of the States, of how finally he was quite unable to spend more time in such an atmosphere of alleged moral corruption, of how, after years of such hardship, he had felt it would be dishonest of him to carry on.

The more sensitive souls in that parish hall were certainly reaching for their handkerchiefs as they thought of the noble and personal financial sacrifice this man was making, as an act of strong principle, by not continuing to be part of such a charade of government.

Mr Syvret then continued, in the same breath and with equal eloquence, to plead with us to send him back into this allegedly squalid hell by voting for him next Wednesday! Could this really be true? Are we living with Alice in Wonderland? If, regrettably, his pleas should be successful, he would find himself in exactly the same assembly – nothing at all would have changed. Why, then, did he inflict on us this costly and unnecessary election?

Every legislature needs a group of people able to question government and perhaps moreso when there is not a structure of political parties. That, Sir, is why I voted twice for Mr Syvret in the past.

Mr Syvret must have realised that, by becoming a candidate so late in the day, he would be splitting what some of the electorate see as a progressive vote. Was this calculated? In short, Sir, is he Jersey’s top humbug of the year?