DEPUTY Lyndon Farnham has stressed that he wrote his formal submission to be Jersey’s political leader – after documents appeared to show it had been authored by former Chief Minister John Le Fondré.
Each candidate in the running to replace Deputy Kristina Moore had to register and submit their “vision statement” for the Island by 5pm yesterday.
But the metadata for Deputy Farnham’s entry listed the author as “John LeFondre14”.
Speaking to the JEP today, Deputy Farnham admitted that he had turned to the former Senator for advice, but that the document was all his own work.
Explaining how Mr Le Fondré’s name found its way into the document’s metadata, he said: “We had very little time between the announcement of the vote and the deadline for submitting our vision statement to the Greffe, and we also had a States sitting. I didn’t have the luxury of being able to compile it at home in my office.
“I have a long-standing problem with getting the States Office suite to work. So I was compiling it on my iPad and iPhone and I sent it off to half a dozen people, including John.
“He gave me some pointers and very kindly copied it into a single document so it could be submitted to the Greffe. So that’s how it happened.
“I can absolutely assure you that it is 100% my own work and I am very proud of it.
“The cynics may want to read too much into it but I can assure you that I wrote it.”
Deputy Farnham said that one of the lines Mr Le Fondré provided was the phrase “it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” in the section about States Members working together with “respect and courtesy”.
Two other Members – Treasury Minister and former Chief Minister Ian Gorst, and Reform Jersey leader Deputy Sam Mézec – have also announced their intention to stand.
