AS HOUSE of Commons speaker Michael Martin appreciates all too well, you know you are in difficulty when your own spokesman says you’re in the wrong.
Asked about plans to take limited action to improve road safety at Les Nicolles before the schools open in September, Environment member Ivan Rihoy was less than convincing.
While insisting that children were not being used as guinea pigs in a ‘wait and see’ approach to the first serious accident, the St Sampson’s deputy admitted he didn’t agree with the policy.
Instead of relying on traffic lights as the sole measure to calm traffic on the notoriously dangerous approaches to the schools, Deputy Rihoy would like active attempts to slow the trucks down, including speed cushions.
A majority of the department disagreed with him, however, and worried parents will have to rely on the general election and then a department election to bring in new deputies who, like him, can see sense.
It was a neat little political sidestep which prospective St Sampson’s High students would do well to master before they dare risk the Baubigny chicane.
Environment thus joins Education in the mind of islanders as a lame duck department, mortally wounded by a series of blasts to its own feet and limping along until next month’s election. Only then will it be put out of its misery.
And that is the most unsatisfactory aspect of this government system.
Regardless of how dysfunctional a department might be, how many U-turns, overspends or poor decisions it might make, nothing changes.
No matter how its minister and members struggle with the task, no one has the power to say ‘enough is enough’.
Investigative reports are commissioned and paid for by the taxpayer, but none gets to the point of saying ‘this man (or woman) must pay the price’.
Meanwhile, Environment plays Russian roulette with children’s safety to demonstrate whether Deputy Rihoy is right or wrong.
This article posted on March 8, 2008 at 9:28 am, filed under Comment, News.
Gambling with safety
AS HOUSE of Commons speaker Michael Martin appreciates all too well, you know you are in difficulty when your own spokesman says you’re in the wrong.
Asked about plans to take limited action to improve road safety at Les Nicolles before the schools open in September, Environment member Ivan Rihoy was less than convincing.
While insisting that children were not being used as guinea pigs in a ‘wait and see’ approach to the first serious accident, the St Sampson’s deputy admitted he didn’t agree with the policy.
Instead of relying on traffic lights as the sole measure to calm traffic on the notoriously dangerous approaches to the schools, Deputy Rihoy would like active attempts to slow the trucks down, including speed cushions.
A majority of the department disagreed with him, however, and worried parents will have to rely on the general election and then a department election to bring in new deputies who, like him, can see sense.
It was a neat little political sidestep which prospective St Sampson’s High students would do well to master before they dare risk the Baubigny chicane.
Environment thus joins Education in the mind of islanders as a lame duck department, mortally wounded by a series of blasts to its own feet and limping along until next month’s election. Only then will it be put out of its misery.
And that is the most unsatisfactory aspect of this government system.
Regardless of how dysfunctional a department might be, how many U-turns, overspends or poor decisions it might make, nothing changes.
No matter how its minister and members struggle with the task, no one has the power to say ‘enough is enough’.
Investigative reports are commissioned and paid for by the taxpayer, but none gets to the point of saying ‘this man (or woman) must pay the price’.
Meanwhile, Environment plays Russian roulette with children’s safety to demonstrate whether Deputy Rihoy is right or wrong.
Share this article:
What are these?