MOST islanders will have been appalled by our page one disclosure yesterday that the full weight of the States is being brought to bear on a local family for having the temerity to carry on running a business they have owned for the past 17 years.

What makes this all the more disturbing is the exceptionally heavy-handed way the island’s bureaucracy is attempting to bear down on the de Carterets for opening their Pembroke kiosk, a facility that has been there since 1947.

The letter they had pushed through their door on behalf of the Law Officers was offensively bullying and threatening and its wording appears calculated to intimidate ordinary people. Not content with gearing up to send in the bulldozers at the de Carterets’ expense, the Law Officers’ letter also makes it clear that if the kiosk takes any money, that will be confiscated in damages.

The reason? As the letter puts it, ‘…your unlawful entry onto the land.’

There may indeed be a dispute over the ownership of the land, and one that goes back some years. Yet Treasury and Resources has accepted rent from the de Carterets which suggests some legitimacy but the Crown Officers – whom the Policy Council confirmed yesterday are answerable to no local political authority whatsoever – feel justified in treating them like common criminals.

If that was not bad enough, when the order is given to smash up their property, anything inside will be disposed of. In any other circumstances, that would be theft and criminal damage and it is being done in the name of the States of Guernsey government. Whatever the dispute over a tiny piece of Common land on a car park, the de Carterets simply do not deserve to be treated like this. It smacks of the jackboot.

The fact that so much pressure is being brought to bear now starts to look sinister.

What possible harm can there be in simply allowing them to operate as they have done for the last decade-plus? What is the real reason behind the strong-arm tactics?