Friday, September 9, 2011

Senator Ian Le Marquand - Jerseys' next Chief Minister?


Senator Ian Le Marquand is half way through his elected term and not required to be re-elected during the current election to take place on 19 October.

He has declared that he intends to put forward his name to be Chief Minister when the new States assembly is formed and if successful would give up his current office as Minister for Home Affairs which administers Police, Prison, Fire/Emergency, Immigration and Customs matters.

Unlike current Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur, who maintains a “Trappist Monk” like refusal to communicate, Senator Le Marquand has generally been approachable and has always allowed video recording by the public or bloggers of his appearances before scrutiny panels. Most other Ministers and all civil servants refuse such permission.

To date, Senator Le Marquand is the only certain candidate for the Chief Minister’s job although Senator Ozouf is almost certain to run if he survives the current critical examination of his role, as Treasury Minister, in the Lime Grove House transaction failure.

It is significant that Lime Grove House was to be purchased as new Police HQ accommodation and that Senator Ozouf is not Senator Le Marquand’s favourite political person.

Here, in 70 minutes or so of video interview, Senator Le Marquand is afforded the chance to explain how he has performed in three years as Home Affairs Minister, of his views and policies on many matters and his aspirations to be Chief Minister.
As always, it is hoped that the interview will stimulate discussion at this particularly important time in the political calendar and inform candidates and voters during the election proceedings.

The interview is split into 6 parts:

1 - Achievements at Home Affairs review. Lime Grove House. Prison and repatriation of prisoners etc
2 - Sex Offenders register, Vetting & Barring, Information gathering and Data protection, Chief Minister’s role and oversight of police, Curtis Warren
3 - Police funding, corrupt police, Police law and Authority, Stuart Syvret, political interference
4 - Finance industry, Faith, money laundering
5 - Chief Ministerial role cont’d, Jersey Independence, Non-Discrimination and Human Rights
6 - Child abuse/HDLG, Children’s Rights, Ministerial role, Verita.

3 comments:

  1. Tom Gruchy.

    All very nice. If you get the opportunity to speak to/interview ILM again could you remind him that Lenny Harper is still waiting for the answers to these 4 questions, or even an acknowledgement of the e-mail they were sent in?

    "1. Why do you find the fact that I used a legitimate hospitality budget to spend around £70 -£80 on a reporter in an attempt to control some of the wilder allegations the paper had been given more disturbing than the unlawful leaks of Messrs. Gradwell and Perchard?

    2. What evidence do you have to support this slur, or are you simply plucking it out of thin air?

    3. Why do you pretend that the only mention of the Perchard leak is the one by me in Scrutiny evidence? You will be aware that the SOJ made a formal complaint about it but the Chief Minister refused to investigate. You will also be aware of the tape recording of David Rose stating that Perchard did indeed leak the police e mail to him. There is also other evidence to support this. Why do you ignore this?

    4. Seeing as you deplore leaks to the media so much, can I now assume that you will authorise a full, independent, and rigorous investigation into leaks during the HDLG enquiry which will cover the Perchard leak, the Gradwell and Warcup leaks, and of course, the "leaks" for which there is no evidence, but which you, Shenton, Perchard, and Power, all seem to be trying to infer, without having the courage (or in reality, the evidence) to actually come out and say, that I am supposed in your imagination to have instigated. I would remind you that, despite the relentless attempts by you, Gradwell, Perchard, Power, Shenton, and the JEP to dig some evidence of wrongdoing up by myself, you have come up with nothing. I now demand that you come clean with the evidence you are pretending to have when inferring that I passed information to the NOTW in the same unlawful manner as Gradwell and Perchard did to the local media and the Daily Mail."

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  2. Unlike current Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur, who maintains a “Trappist Monk” like refusal to communicate

    Actually that's not entirely true. It's not that TLS won't communicate - it's that he is fundamentally quite incapable of doing so. (But what else would you expect from a tax accountant?)

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  3. Well, there we have it, in his own words....if he does become our next chief minister then he would be quite happy to accept Verita's recommendations regarding the way in which the historic child abuse enquiry will be carried out.
    I won't hold my breath!

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