Now Public Services may face a confidence vote
Thursday 4th March 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
THE Public Services board should resign, Deputy Mike Hadley has said.
He said that he would propose a vote of no confidence if there was a chance of it succeeding.
‘Scott Ogier and Tom Le Pelley originally voted for Suez. To my mind they are the people who should resign.
‘By switching their vote it means we’ve got rid of an approved policy with no alternative,’ he said.
After Suez was rejected the States voted in favour of a zero waste strategy.
‘It could be that Suez was wrong, but it went through all the correct procedures and on a whim it was thrown out.’
Deputy Hadley (pictured) said the department’s minister, Bernard Flouquet, should also resign because his flagship programme had failed.
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Scott Ogier is the right man for the job: he has always preferred a waste minimisation policy over a big expensive technological solution and unlike some of the other deputies (such as Tony Spruce) he is very well informed and knows what can be achieved and how. Throwing him out would be a big mistake – he’s one of the few people in a position to do something constructive that actually knows what he’s talking about! Bernard Flouquet, on the other hand, has been blinkered by the one-stop-shop solution for so long that he is not well enough informed about alternative strategies such as zero waste, and he himself admits he is not the person to lead us in this new direction. Whether he resigns as head of PSD or not, the arrangement the department has come to (i.e. with Ogier leading the drive on waste minimisation and Flouquet concentrating on other PSD work) is infinitely preferable to what it was. We might finally get some sensible suggestions from PSD now! Let Ogier get on with the job…
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oh for xxxx’s sake – where will this stop?
Deputies changed their minds due to public pressure. End of story.
Now move on and put in place a plan for the future.
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How about a vote of no confidence in the entire States?
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Has Bernard Flouquet forgotten his promise to resign already? To be fair this Box Ticker Hadley does not seem like much to me either. “It could be that Suez is wrong, but it went through all the correct procedures and on a whim it was thrown out”. I would hardly call political pressure by at least 1 quarter of the Island a whim. It was thrown out because it was wrong (for Guernsey). Who cares if it followed application procedure? Surely the political procedure of a Requette is there to ensure that, should something need to be changed, then it can be?
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“Neither the minister nor the board members should resign (16%)” Probably Bernie voting, using all the PSD computers.
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Flouquet has to go!!!!!!!!!
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“and on a whim it was thrown out” – just goes to show what he thinks of the opinion of his electorate!!!
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IT shows that ALL states members are not to be trusted;
And why?
Well they have a man in their midst is honour bound to resign on his own spoken words.
Therefore if his fellow States members will not force him to resign -
Well then they are also tarred with the same brush- there is no other way they can wriggle out of the fact the one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel.
‘So States Members are you Honourable?
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Scott Ogier is the right man for the job and that is the end of the story.
Flouquet should undoubtedly resign, but we all knew that long before this debacle.
Roll on the next elections…
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Eric
I listened to the tape of that “phone in” and Deputy Flouquet in answer to a direct question from Sue Coryndon said that he would resign if the Suez option failed and it caused great upheaval to the population. The Suez option did not fail, Deputy Flouquet had the Suez option taken from him and his board by the majority of the States of Deliberation after the States on at least 3 occasions indicated that the Suez option was what they wanted and indeed instructed PSD to get on with it. That was right up to a week and a bit ago. And to describe Deputy Flouquet as a “rotten apple” just shows how limited your knowledge of individual States members is. I don’t believe that you have ever worked with him nor do I believe you have any experience of what it is like to run a government department. We have government from the bottom up, not the top down and it is the States as a whole who decide what is going to happen not an individual Minister or his board.
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Dave Jones
So what you are really saying is that no States member is at all accountable, in which case (a) why bother having them, and (b) why bother paying them ?
I was in no doubt that when BF said what he did, the context was that he would resign if the Suez vote failed, not the project itself. I think I am right in saying that BF has already announced that he won’t stand for re-election in 2 years time. The Suez project, even if it had gone ahead, would barely have been built or operative by then, so he couldn’t possibly have been judged on its success by then. So what else could he possibly have meant when he said that he would resign if he failed ?
I think you are clutching at straws, as indeed is BF.
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As I understand it, the Public Services Department now intends to present a green paper later this year on options for the new waste strategy.
The minister, Deputy Flouquet, has committed to respect the will of the States and work as hard as possible to establish a new policy direction in the management of solid waste.
I am sure that PSD knows full well what the States expects of it, and equally knows the likely consequences of failing to deliver. On that basis, it seems to me far too premature to be talking in terms of motions of no confidence.
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If we are to have a ‘consensus’ type arrangement then we need consensus accountability.
Departments that are asked for solutions must be held accountable if their research, presentation and delivery fail to win a majority.
The system of electing Deputies to perform specifically mandated roles requires those that elected them into those roles, as representatives of the public, to be able to reassess their performance as an on-running consensus.
Therefore there should be a mandatory vote of confidence for those that submitted failed proposals. Obviously the incumbents would be re-elected to try again, but if there were a deeper insecurity in someone’s ability then at least it could be aired without any ‘personality’ accusations.
However, as much as I feel Flouquet should have taken himself into the ‘backbenches’ after his racist remark lack of judgement (and stuff), it is irrefutable that the States have until now backed PSD’s presentations of process that led to Suez, and as such, this welcome enlightenment regarding waste management should preclude any further personal bashing (on this subject).
Consensus of political decision making can only be justified when there is consensus of knowledge. I do not believe that our Deputies are suitably knowledgable to be able to vote on certain issues to satisfy true democratic representation.
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David sometimes we only hear the things we want to hear.
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Why, amongst all the mutual back slapping and huzzars, do a few people think that mr ogier is the only man to carry us through to the next round of trials and very expensive errors .
As with most politicians, when his pet project turns up, there he is flag in hand right up the front showing that this might be something he knows a little about ,and for the rest of his tenure we hear absolutley jack nuthin.
Being as he is so closed minded now ,regarding the use of an incinerator (and we WILL need one soon, if we find a mug willing to waste time preparing another estimate).Someone who cant see the problem for the trees, and heads blinkeredly into some half a***d scheme to rid ourselves of rubbish ,just because the noisy minority has read up on it and are now experts , dosent mean that he himself is an expert ,the loudest shouters in this farce are the so called academics (or think they are) ,who dream of the perfect solution ,but in reality are not practical people who live in the real world .
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Typical of one member to support another.
But then again I expect no favours from those Northern peoples.
They are as ruthless and selfish as their concrete cousins were.
Any feelings I ever had was quashed by the behaviour post war.
And they’re still at it.
They ruined a beautiful Island, after they ruined their occupied country. It was never Anglo-Saxon. and you do the same to our Island and you all complain about other countries, and war against them. You have no shame–
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Yes Dave Jones, you often only hear the things you want to hear.
I’m sorry to say that my recent experience of you was very positive, however, further developments have sadly brought about a change of heart.
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Cheesed off
Which only goes to show that you can’t please all the people all the time.
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Eric, you really are tremendous.
By following your arguements, the only people who should be allowed to “run the island” are all 5ft1 tall, married to their cousin, have children with eleven toes, live in a granite cottage, be called le Poidevin Page, finish each sentence with “cor la” and only take their horse and cart to that town once a week to buy their gache and itchy jumpers.
Vive la revolution, eh cor la
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i have an idea…if you dont like the way the island is being run…..stand for deputy the next time around.
simple….
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Touche Dave Jones! Or you could put it another way: if you try to please everybody you end up pleasing nobody. :-)
Still, on this particular matter, to the majority of the population Deputy Flouqeut’s meaning was “if Suez goes, I go.” Of course Deputy Flouquet didn’t actually say that – however what he did was to speak in political lingo that can be interpreted in a number of ways depending on what level of spin or interpretation you apply. Of course, as a politician, that’s his prerogative, but it’s worth noting that the majority of the electorate aren’t politicians (thank goodness for that!) and don’t speak the political language. So, although your points are technically OK, Deputy Flouquet’s words were sufficiently ambiguous to excuse the different interpretations we have seen here. So, while accepting your point, I would respectfully ask that you take that into consideration when responding to peoples’ legitimate questions.
billythefish – b*gger – Although I’m a Le Page and I do say “la la” but without the “cor” I don’t meet the other critera – am I excluded?
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Paul Le Page
Yes – may your ten toed feet never set foot (boom boom) in the Assembly, cor dammee la!
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Cor dammee,
I thought I would be OK, but on checking it seems my grandfather once went to that England to sell some toms.
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I used to think that Eric was just trolling around for his ( and sometimes our ) amusememt.
Now I’m beginning to fear that he really means, and believes in, what he says …..
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Paul le P
I accept your point.
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Thank you Dave Jones :)
billythefish – sadly I have counted my toes and woe is me, there are but ten….
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