WITH the benefit of hindsight, it can be seen that the hawks within the Education Department made a huge tactical error in their bid to close at least one primary school.

Those pro-cuts deputies who emerged shell-shocked from an intense debate on Friday saw the closure of St Sampson’s Infants as a given. St Andrew’s was merely the icing on the cake.

To lose both was unthinkable.

Yet the warning signs were there. Including St Andrew’s on the ticket broadened the argument and left the minister and her supporters vulnerable to attack.

Instead of the weeks leading up to the debate focusing on the rational argument for closing St Sampson’s, the air was filled with bitter invective from St Andrew’s parents who felt, rightly or wrongly, utterly betrayed.

Emotion, something that would prove fatal to the logic-driven hawks who wanted States members to vote with their heads not their hearts, came to the fore.

The economisers were now fighting on several fronts. While St Sampson’s Infants move to Vale affected just one other school, St Andrew’s was much broader and brought in deputies from several catchments.

Worse, for the second time in just over a year, Education was going to the States presenting a Billet its minister did not wholly believe in.

Unlike her predecessors – who chose the student loans debate itself to reveal their true colours – at least Carol Steere had the honesty to make clear her doubts before the States sitting.

Nevertheless, divided departments do not present strong arguments and a poor Billet was the result. Its flaws were plain to see. Why, for example, were the costs of turning the Vale Infants and its portable buildings into a school capable of accommodating 62 more pupils not included?

And why was it valid to put St Andrew’s before the States but not La Mare de Carteret Primary, whose costs per pupil were far higher?

The sense emerged that, far from a logical straight ball, this pitch had a good deal of swerve.

Those left ruing this decision would do well to reflect on a tactical blunder that ultimately cost them the day.