THE deputy chief minister publicly apologised yesterday for the third time for the racist joke he told in late November.

In his most sincere and considered statement on the issue so far, he admitted that ‘not a day has passed without my questioning of how I could have done such a stupid thing. I have found no answer. It is a huge blemish in 20 years of international travel’.

It has become painful to witness the gradual unravelling of a proud man’s political career. If it were simply a matter of saying sorry in public then Deputy Bernard Flouquet has certainly eaten his fill of humble pie.

And for some islanders – and no doubt some deputies – that is enough. As Deputy Flouquet himself asks, ‘I hope we can see an end to this regrettable matter.’

Unfortunately, the nine weeks that have passed make that impossible. It is no longer just about the ‘joke’, it is about the man and whether he can continue to represent this island as its second most senior politician.

While Deputy Flouquet admits the stupidity of making the original jest, he must now see the equal foolishness of attempting to cling to office.

As this newspaper has argued – and as former minister Peter Roffey echoes today – the DCM should have first been astute enough to have seen the folly of telling the joke, then wise enough to see how serious an error it was.

The fact that he did not has meant a series of damaging blows for both his and the island’s reputation.

These culminated in the damning report by the States Members Conduct Panel which, in political terms, could not have been more condemning of the DCM’s response.

The last of those blows – let us sincerely hope – will be the States debate.

If some members of the Assembly cannot see that Deputy Flouquet should have resigned from senior office after telling the joke, they must surely see that the errors in his judgement that have followed, weigh against him and make his position as deputy chief minister untenable.