Today, the Assembly voted in all the new ministers that will form John le Fondré's new government. A few inevitables, a few surprises - and a few disasters.
To begin, the inevitables. Senator Tracey Vallois is, of course, Education Minister. Having ruled herself out of running for Chief Minister specifically to run for this post, and with the backing of the new Chief Minister, Vallois has practically glided into the Education Department, facing no opposition. The Dictatorphile is External Relations Minister, as promised after his smashing at the hands of le Fondré - presumably our new Chief Minister shares the previous administration's view that sucking up to head-chopping absolute monarchies, state sponsors of international terrorism and ex-terrorist dictators is somehow paramount to Jersey's interests - while, as per the agreement signed in exchange for his party's support, Senator Sam Mézec is Housing Minister.
To my great surprise and irritation, the Wicked Witch was elected unopposed to the position of Treasury Minister (presumably having forgotten her pre-election promise to continue wreaking havoc at Social Security). It's something between ridiculous and tragic that Susie "Culture of entitlement" Pinel can simply walk into one of the Island's most powerful positions, especially after her Thatcher-style ideological war on poor people of the last four years, the result being that someone whose wrecking campaign has left anyone unfortunate to be on income support essentially to the dogs is now, terrifyingly, in charge of Jersey's purse strings. Her successor at Social Security, veteran Deputy Judy Martin, has a lot on her plate - a department beset with a culture of bullying and box-ticking, slipping living standards, increasing poverty to the point that 1/4 households in Jersey are now under the poverty line. The disgusting legacy that Pinel has left at Social Security can't be understated - this is not the sort of thing that Martin will be able to just sort like that.
Deputy Richard Renouf, in a mildly surprising upset, managed to beat JLF-favoured candidate (and homophobic climate change denier) Sarah Ferguson for the position of Health Minister, receiving 27 votes to Ferguson's 21. The chair of the committee that masterminded the overturning of Susie Pinel's brutal £40 cut to single parent benefits, and my own parish's deputy, I'm personally one of the man's fans. Although he voted for Gorst in the Chief Ministerial vote, he is regarded around the parish as an easy-to-work with, friendly, competent man who fears God and knows his stuff (he certainly had the biggest crowd of supporters at the hustings!).
Perhaps depressingly of all, the slimy, dishonest, idiotic toad that is Senator Lyndon Farnham has walked straight back into Economic Development. From his arrogant, question-ducking, Gorst-sucking-upto attitude at the Senatorial hustings, his litany of project failures and legacy of shrinking productivity, the man has been a failure for Jersey at every turn. My question is -why did no-one stand against him?
Other successful bids include Kevin Lewis for Infrastructure, John Young for Environment and Len Norman for Home Affairs.
Try not to vomit, eh?
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