Monday, 10 July 2017
Divide and conquer?
Rather an interesting comment from Alexis Jay of the UK child sex abuse inquiry. Powerful want us to fail
I haven't seen anything to clarify who are the powerful who want to derail the inquiry. There are some obvious candidates. Well connected politicans? Mandarins at the Civil Service? The Church? The judiciary? The Monarchy?
Of course we had some 'senior politicians' here who wanted to see our recently reported inquiry fail even to happen. One cannot help but wonder if the carefully incised terms of reference of our inquiry weren't done to protect the same interests and prevent the really problematic questions being asked.
All of those on the list above have either influence or responsibility for important parts of Jersey governance. Form the Appeal Court to the Privy Council to the apppointment of Crown Officers they all have influence here.
If any of them is a vested interest wanting to see the UK inquiry implode, and given the role each has in Jersey's governance, one has to consider why our inquiry wasn't more closely connected to the CSA in the UK. And isn't it revealing that they have asked for the report to be forwarded to them. Why would they need that if there were no connexion? It seems a good bet that there are unresolved trans-jurisdictional issues here.
One obvious reason to have kept the inquiries separate of course is the age old tactic of divide and conquer.
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Would you please elaborate on who the "senior politicians" are? It is one thing to say that, but it is meaningless if you don't identify them? It is much the same as saying there are left-wing politicians in Jersey who have a plan to increase taxes to 55% for anyone earning over £35k.
ReplyDelete'Senior politicians' is a phrase much loved by local broadcast and print media. It is a signpost, a subtle appeal to authority, indicating to the listener/viewer/reader that this is somehow weight or value. There is no such thing - all elected States members have the same rights, duties, responsibilities and for the same period. Only ministers have a some additional powers within their ministry.
DeleteAs to who is usually citied as a senior politican, it is generally a long standing member with a history of ministerial or important committee chair. The most obvious one fitting all parts of the description is Sen Bailhache, external affairs minister, but there were others opposed to the creation of the CoI too.