Terry Le Main

[mac]

I see he was trying his usual loud mouth bullyboy tactics with Deputy Labey. It appears that it's o.k for him to shout his mouth off when he likes

[Bea]

Should there be an age limit on some of these politicians serving our interests ?Bear in mind they would be unemployable in the real world ,or at best maybe get a few hours work at B and Q on a Saturday !!

[Al]

Don't forget that Winston Churchill, voted the Greatest Briton Ever (or something like that) in the BBC poll, was Prime Minister until into his eighties. Remember, also, that his response when told that islanders were starving during the occupation was 'Let 'em rot!'. 

[Davros Le Sueur]

Does anybody remember that clip of him jumping over a wall, to avoid Channel Televison?
Almost as good as our wonderful Chief Minister's press conference.

[Linda Corby]

Words fail me.

They don't fail me http://wordpress.com/tag/minister-terry-le-main/

[cyrillem]

He isn't liek he used to be, he very much used to be a man of the people, rough on the edges but with a decent heart, but over the last three years or so he really has sold himself and his integrity.

[Fritz]

He was never, "A man of/for the people". In my opinion, he has used that guise for decades to line his own pockets, whilst doing what developers insruct him to do in The States.

I wrote to Terry Le Maine,(of the people), many years ago asking for assistance.
I was one year short of my, "Quallies",and living in a bed-sit with my wife and new-born baby paying almost £200 p/w.

His hand-written reply, (in 1/2inch thick felt pen), will be posted here soon.

It more or less says, "You knew the rules when you moved here, you were never going to gain housing qualifications".

It angers me that this is the same guy who will, "jump through hoops", to help property developers shift their stock.

Who ,"cracks the whip", that makes terry Jump??

[newmac]

These days he doesn't even bother to reply to people, even when you ask him direct questions.
From what I've heard most of the work was carried out by Deputy Hilton who would always reply to any questions.

[White Knight]

POINT OF ORDER CHURCHILL NEVER SAID "LET THEM ROT"
CHURCHILL-BRUNEL & TELFORD ARE THE GREATEST  ENGLISHMEN EVER TO LIVE.

[danrok]

POINT OF ORDER CHURCHILL NEVER SAID "LET THEM ROT"
CHURCHILL-BRUNEL & TELFORD ARE THE GREATEST  ENGLISHMEN EVER TO LIVE.

More likely that he said, "Let them become bankers, and look after my dosh". 

[boatyboy]

A point of view that has taught me something, I thought it may interest readers, are the ministers high jacking democracy ?

From thisisJersey.com


33.    A Concerned Local
Posted February 5, 2010 at 1:35 pm

Whatever your views are on the whole “J-cat” question, and what rights and priviledges they may or may not be given, and the impact that these may have on the “local” population, I feel that there is a more important debate that needs to take place; namely do we, the local electorate, and indeed the members of The States themselves, fully understand our new ministerial system of government?

Apparently the answer is a resounding “no”! The confusion that the Housing Minister has created, not only amongst the local population (and here I mean both “locals” and “J-cats”, and indeed anyone else living on the Island and contributing to our society)but also his fellow members of The States, is concerning. Day “1? – he announces a change to the existing housing qualification regulations – a change which, whilst not fundamentally rewriting the Housing Laws, does, potentially, have a significant impact on the local housing market conditions. Day “14? – he announces a suspension to his original ministerial decision, as it would appear that questions have been raised over his right to make such decisions under his ministerial mandate.

I feel that it is quite right that Senator Shenton has tabled a debate regarding the Housing Minister’s decision – and this debate should not be about the rights and wrongs of the decision itself (that is a subject that should be held over for another debate), but more about what power is actually invested in each Minister. And this is a debate that the people of Jersey should pay very close attention to.

The last time I looked, we are still a democracy (although I am sure that there are those out there who would no doubt disagree), and I, for one, would like to know exactly what the powers of each Minister are to make apparently unilateral decisions on the future of the Island, without firstly taking the matter to the elected body of The States, for debate and agreement.

 Or perhaps I am just being a little bit naive, and have missed all the “benefits” of this system of Ministerial government? (which no doubt can be found tucked away on the gov.je website?)

[Ruddler]

The States of Jersey Law states that Ministers are "corporations sole", meaning in the end, what they say goes.  Which is why the Assembly cannot order the Planning Minister for instance to make a decision on a planning application one way or another (Plemont for example).  So it must go for Housing and all the other Ministeries. 

FWIW I thought it was a sensible decision badly handled.  But surely democracy is working here?  A decision was made and published, presumably Shenton and/or others made representations and not getting the climbdown wanted he tabled a Propostion to "request" the Minister to rescind it.  Notice they can't order him to do so.  Terry duly climbs down in embarrasing fashion, had he not he would probably have lost the vote on Shenton's proposition, triggering either a resignation (yeah, right....) or a motion of No Confidence.  But the States will in the end have the final say, which is as it should be.  The MD seems to have been published whilst Terry was in El Tel mode, south of the border.  Hmmmmm, so who down at Housing/Population has benefited from this fiasco?  Or do we subscribe to the cock-up not conspiracy theory? 

What is noteworthy is how few even threats of votes of No Confidence there have been since Ministerial government, let alone propositions.  Maybe Jimmy Perchard was one and then he resigned?  I think this is why the States have become so long winded over the last few years, far too many people with far too much time to promote their generally single issue agendas.  They like to make long speeches and appear regularly in the meeja, (JEP/Talkback/TV) needing to keep their profile up because an election is never less than a couple of years away.  They are, generally, deputies, Constables having a parish to run and little time left for the politicking game as practised by the usual suspects.  Under the old Committee system, at least most members were on one or two committees and that kept them busy and involved in decision making at the sharp end whereas Scrutiny is a pretty grim business and as far as I can tell mostly a futile waste of our money.  You end up with a group of pretty powerless members who are usually on the wrong side of most votes and who whilst making the most noise have little real sway on the final decisions of government - cue frustration all round, ending up with a lot of useless "guerilla" Propositions (sandwiches/Blackberrys/shall we boot the connetables out) and the blizzard of dim questions, most of which could be answered if they could be bothered to look at the gov.je and States Assembly websites.  Although as Plumber Phil said once (in that odd way he uses, referring to himself in the 3rd person) "when Phil Rondel asks a question its because he already knows the answer" and presumably wants to see what variation of the truth he gets back.  IMHO, a complete waste of our money and their time.

So if Democracy is being hijacked by Ministers, well the remedy is in the hands of the Assembly - bring a few votes of No Confidence where it really becomes necessary and that should make the CoM toe the line a bit more.

[Mark Forskitt]

The States of Jersey Law states that Ministers are "corporations sole", meaning in the end, what they say goes.  Which is why the Assembly cannot order the Planning Minister for instance to make a decision on a planning application one way or another (Plemont for example).  So it must go for Housing and all the other Ministeries. 

FWIW I thought it was a sensible decision badly handled.  But surely democracy is working here?  A decision was made and published, presumably Shenton and/or others made representations and not getting the climbdown wanted he tabled a Propostion to "request" the Minister to rescind it.  Notice they can't order him to do so.  Terry duly climbs down in embarrasing fashion, had he not he would probably have lost the vote on Shenton's proposition, triggering either a resignation (yeah, right....) or a motion of No Confidence.  But the States will in the end have the final say, which is as it should be.  The MD seems to have been published whilst Terry was in El Tel mode, south of the border.  Hmmmmm, so who down at Housing/Population has benefited from this fiasco?  Or do we subscribe to the cock-up not conspiracy theory? 

What is noteworthy is how few even threats of votes of No Confidence there have been since Ministerial government, let alone propositions.  Maybe Jimmy Perchard was one and then he resigned?  I think this is why the States have become so long winded over the last few years, far too many people with far too much time to promote their generally single issue agendas.  They like to make long speeches and appear regularly in the meeja, (JEP/Talkback/TV) needing to keep their profile up because an election is never less than a couple of years away.  They are, generally, deputies, Constables having a parish to run and little time left for the politicking game as practised by the usual suspects.  Under the old Committee system, at least most members were on one or two committees and that kept them busy and involved in decision making at the sharp end whereas Scrutiny is a pretty grim business and as far as I can tell mostly a futile waste of our money.  You end up with a group of pretty powerless members who are usually on the wrong side of most votes and who whilst making the most noise have little real sway on the final decisions of government - cue frustration all round, ending up with a lot of useless "guerilla" Propositions (sandwiches/Blackberrys/shall we boot the connetables out) and the blizzard of dim questions, most of which could be answered if they could be bothered to look at the gov.je and States Assembly websites.  Although as Plumber Phil said once (in that odd way he uses, referring to himself in the 3rd person) "when Phil Rondel asks a question its because he already knows the answer" and presumably wants to see what variation of the truth he gets back.  IMHO, a complete waste of our money and their time.

So if Democracy is being hijacked by Ministers, well the remedy is in the hands of the Assembly - bring a few votes of No Confidence where it really becomes necessary and that should make the CoM toe the line a bit more.

If you want some really democratic accountability give the public the power of recall.

[boatyboy]

Excellent post Ruddler but have to disagree with your view of Scrutiny. In my opinion, and judging by the excellent work done regarding the toxic incinerator site and several other scrutiny reports.

Had it not been for scrutiny's year long detailed work ( also bringing to Jersey their own expert), then the departments responsible for the leakage and problems would not have their poor work brought out into the light of day.

Sure its another issue that presented with the report from scrutiny, the house votes another route. At least the assembly has details and information from another source, and not just passed down by the Council of Ministers. Again this is not to say the CoM has made a poor decision just that checks and balances really are important. This includes the Auditor General Big Chris Swinson and also, is not the Verita report also scrutiny.   All very important for democracy and accountability.

Boatyboy

Sorry of thread.

[Ruddler]

Yes I take your point about Scrutiny Boaty but it seems to be turning into the battle of experts - who do you believe more (in the incinerator case)?  And I don't recall being asked whether I wanted my taxes  to go to funding this kind of thing.  I think you slightly made my point for me accepting it is a "toxic incinerator site" when my reading is that TTS say one thing and Phil Rondel and his merry (if windy) band say another and I suspect that the real truth is as usual somewhere in between.  Really, scrutinising things after the event when it is too late to change anything is a largely futile exercise.  I suppose it is perhaps the system at fault. 

Example - Minister brings new legislation to the Assembly (the Depositors Compensation Scheme is a good one).  The Assembly vote for (usually) the new laws with the minority Executive dragging enough members off the fence to get their way.  The Bailiff then turns to the relevant panel chairman and says "little Mike Higgins, do you want to scrutinise this?".  And, because he was particularly vexed about the whole thing, because they weren't going to use the model wot he rote when he was at JFSC, he says "yes please" even though most people asked him not to as it caused a big delay in getting protection for MY cash and, in the end, all the Scrutiny work made almost no difference.  So:

why don't the Ministers bring forward their slate of new legislation and then Scrutiny say "ooh, that looks interesting/might get a jolly to Scandinavia out of it/will enable me to embarass Minister X" and then do a Report to feed into the final legislation which, as both Executive & Scrutiny have contributed, will be far more likely to go through without interminable speeches opposing things on the floor of the Assembly?  Or is that too logical?  What we have at the moment is carping from the sidelines from people who can't/don't get their way instead of a more collaborative approach which would result in better legislation.  Kind of put the check and balance in first and not afterwards?

Sorry, also a bit off topic as well but I have nothing else to contribute on the disturbing state of affairs in the State of Jubilee Wharf!