WHEN he appeared on the BBC phone-in on Sunday, the deputy leading what is proving to be a hugely controversial attempt to reinstate the Suez incinerator made a remark that many islanders will consider to be rather unfortunate.

In dismissing what he called ‘armchair voters’, Tony Spruce made the point that it was only States members who had all the information to enable them to come to the right conclusion on such an important matter.

While he might not have intended it that way, it came across at best as dismissive of others’ views and arrogant at worst – and it’s not even true.

Some of the chief opponents of incineration are ferociously well-briefed and have read the Billets and other official material in much greater detail than some deputies. More importantly, however, States members as a body do not have all the information, just that which Public Services deemed necessary to support its case for mass burn.

Its policy was to concentrate on selling the scheme to politicians, not people, and it held a series of roadshows to demonstrate why Suez was the only possible solution and why everything else had been ruled out.

This was no open-minded approach to selecting a strategy. The process over the years had narrowed that down and the tender procedure further restricted the options to the point where there was no plan B.

The phone-in was also notable for former conseiller and States member Advocate Peter Ferbrache describing this Assembly as an absolute shambles, and it was significant that not one of the senior retired politicians we spoke to yesterday wanted to disagree with that assessment.

Why? Because of the lack of any sense of government direction plus the in-fighting combined, as in the case of the incinerator, with no credibility in the decision-making process itself.

Until the end of last month, a majority supported incineration. There is no costed or proven plan B and islanders do not know how much it will cost to break with Suez.

Yet in the absence of anything changing – except the late realisation that they were ignoring public opinion – plans years in the making have been abandoned.

A shambles indeed, every step of the way.