A REFUSAL by the Treasury and Resources minister yesterday to confirm that an alternative proposal to the full acquisition of Aurigny by Blue Islands has been made is further evidence of how bad the department’s judgement has been throughout this debacle.

It could have dealt with what some States members are calling the emergence of a plan B at a stroke, by granting this newspaper permission to speak to the chairman or chief executive of Aurigny and ask if there was any truth in the rumours.

Instead, T&R said that the request had been considered ‘and is refused, as an interview with Malcolm Hart would not be appropriate at this stage’. Not appropriate for whom?

What could be more helpful than the boss of Aurigny saying, ‘Yes, I’ve heard the reports too, but there is no plan B…’? The reality is that the rumours are substantially true and, say some deputies, the head of Blue Islands has suggested a cooling off period to see whether the two airlines can jointly strip out duplicated services and return both to profit.

For that to happen, Treasury as shareholder has to instruct Aurigny to cease due diligence on a formal acquisition and, if it hasn’t, the minister might technically be able to claim that nothing has changed.

In fact, a hand grenade has been lobbed into the proceedings and it is a further mark of T&R’s inept handling of this that after a secret briefing with States members to take the heat out of the situation, deputies were leaving with very different impressions and two Policy Council members ended up rowing in public.

It is a PR disaster on top of the other news item yesterday that the States, as owner, has lost its able and energetic chief executive of Guernsey Post Ltd due to differences of opinion on the strategic direction of the company.

Surprises of that sort are not supposed to happen in well run companies, especially since the chief exec’s views would have been well known to his board and have so far been endorsed, even to going to court to contest the regulator.

Whether T&R had any involvement in the strategic disagreement is unclear.

For once again, it remains silent as the wreckage piles up.