The Health Minister’s future as a member of the Council of Ministers is in doubt as a result of the vitriolic outburst against States policies past and present and against some individuals, including editors of the JEP. In an open letter, ostensibly in response to criticism from a businessman with whom he clashed over plans for a private hospital, Senator Syvret calls a range of States decisions ‘the manifestation of disjointed chaos, institutional inadequacy and the foetid miasma of an environment completely in thrall to short-term business interests’. The letter is addressed to Richard Brocken, who hoped to turn the old Stafford Hotel in Kensington Place into a private hospital but had his plans turned down by Senator Syvret’s open letter to Mr Brocken, which moves from that subject to a wide condemnation of the States’ environmental, taxation and social policies and the relationship between government and business, was first submitted to the JEP for publication but rejected because editorially unacceptable conditions were attached. Senator Syvret demanded that it be published in full or not at all. Letters are not accepted under such conditions and, when that was pointed out, the Senator then sent it to his 52 States colleagues and to Mr Brocken’s home address.
Jersey Evening Post
