Why this minister should go

Unfortunately for Senator Perchard – and irrespective of any conclusions to the contrary that he might have reached – he is faced with only one honourable course of action: he should resign.

The Senator might plead that he is by no means the first person to have misled the States through a knee-jerk falsehood. He might also say that the intemperate language that he used amounted to a spur-of-the-moment indiscretion.

He cannot, however, entertain the faintest hope of convincing anyone inside or outside the House that advising Senator Stuart Syvret to make a suicide attempt was acceptable behaviour for any minister. That he is Health Minster is not only ironic but also compounds the offence considerably.

Senator Perchard must also recognise the contribution his conduct has made to bringing the States further into disrepute at a time when the Assembly’s reputation is anything but high. If he can find it within himself to fall honourably on his sword he would at least do something to restore faith in our parliament. He would also help to restore his damaged personal standing – albeit at the cost of relinquishing power.

But there is another side to this lamentable story that neither the public nor States Members can possibly ignore. Senator Perchard’s outbursts were beyond the pale, but so was the outrageous and prolonged conduct that provoked them.

The incessant, unprincipled, unsupported and most certainly unparliamentary attacks that Senator Syvret makes not only on colleagues in the States but also on civil servants, journalists and more or less anyone with the temerity to disagree with his view of life clearly tried Senator Perchard’s patience until his temper snapped. Even if this mitigation is not enough to save a ministerial skin, it puts the whole tragi-comic episode into its full context.

Meanwhile, other senior States Members seem to be determined to turn a blind eye to this whole unseemly affair. Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur has, unaccountably, said that, as far as he is concerned, it is now a thing of the past, whereas, at the very least, he should have referred it to Privileges and Procedures.

More appropriately, he should by now have demonstrated the leadership that the Island requires of him by making it clear to Senator Perchard that he had stepped over the boundary of acceptable ministerial conduct and that it was time to go.