In a string of comments made on Twitter over the weekend, Education Minister Tracey Vallois hit out at the ‘bureaucracy’ of the regime and the amount of money spent on consultants. She also said that she missed ‘the working relationships of the past’.
The 2018 election poll-topper added in her post that the ‘blame game is now the name of the game’.
A comment on the social media platform about ‘people politics and self-agendas’ prompted Senator Vallois to advise: ‘Never become a States Member who has an ambition or mind of their own.’
When asked by Islanders to expand on her comments, the minister continued to criticise the state of Jersey politics.
She said: ‘It’s the worst term I’ve ever served as a States Member, so yes, it’s that bad,’ She added that her comments were ‘nothing to do with being a minister’.
When questioned about whether she should be making such comments in public, Senator Vallois said: ‘Why shouldn’t we discuss [this] in an open forum? Is it or is it not a public service, or would you like me to go through the comms unit?’
She added: ‘I’m all about honesty and integrity. I won’t lie or falsify a position just because I’ve become a member of a bureaucracy that doesn’t serve the population effectively. Just because I’m a States Member doesn’t mean I am no longer a citizen.’
Senator Vallois was also asked whether the States former committee system was more effective than ministerial government, to which she said that she joined the States in 2008 after the switch to ministerial government but could not ‘see why it was any worse, but I’m sure less was spent on consultants’.
When contacted by the JEP, Senator Vallois said her comments were ‘out of frustration more than anything’ and were related to politics in general.
The minister’s online outburst came a few days after she took a 48-hour break from social media to oppose its misuse. Before doing so, she posted in a Twitter conversation: ‘Let’s go silent for 48 hours and when the silence is broken let’s make the 24 hours following all about the positives and excitement that social media has to enable us as a community to embrace the wonderful people around us.’
