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PERSONAL STATEMENT TO BE MADE BY DEPUTY J.A. HILTON OF ST. HELIER ON 28TH SEPTEMBER 2004
I wish to make a brief statement relating to a letter written to me and comments made about me.
I received an e-mail containing two documents from Senator Edward Vibert late afternoon on Sunday 19th September.
The contents of one of those documents was posted on his website from Monday 20th September. The other was a form of letter he wrote to me and I would now like to read this letter to the Assembly in full –
D ear Little Poodle,
J ust to give you a preview of what will be on my web-site shortly. You
may remember the efforts I made to turn you into a politician and get you elected, which included speech training and speech writing (you were one of my rare failures in this particular respect).
A s part of this training, I recorded your speeches and answers to questions
at the First Tower and Rouge Bouillon hustings.
I kept them and have now found them. I thought you might be interested
in the following transcript of what you said when the panel was asked about being a team player at Rouge Bouillon. You said –
N o I'm sorry. I don't believe that being a good team player has any part of being a deputy. If being a team player means being disloyal to my electorate, I will be a bad team player. If, for instance, I was on the education committee and the majority of the Committee wanted to put another school at Mont á l'Abbé and my constituents had good reasons for opposing this, I will speak out at Committee. Then, if they continue to go ahead I will continue the fight outside the Committee and in the States. If my Committee president asks me to resign, I will refuse and let the matter be decided in the States.'
In those days of course, you were principled and untouched by the power
of office. I will be placing this quotation on my web-site so that the public can
see what an unprincipled bitch you are alongside of Philip Ozouf 's pathetic statement to avoid a real fight on the floor of the House.
In Australia there is an expression that sums of politicians of your ilk.
If you lie down with mongrels you get their fleas'. That sums you up
nicely."
I believe this is not an appropriate way for one member to address another.
I hope that other members of the Assembly would agree.
It is true that the Senator did assist me in part of my election campaign but, so did many others. I was grateful to the Senator then.
However, I would like to point out that I had been a Centenier in the Parish of St Helier for just under four years before I was elected, and I believe that some of my work in the Honorary Police did help me get elected.
I wish to say that I am unaware as to why the Senator would address me in this way. We all have differences in the Assembly and we have learned how to deal with these differences in a civilised and respectful manner.
In my view this type of attack on one States member by another tends to destroy confidence in this Assembly and I believe that all of us are harmed directly or indirectly. I have requested the Privileges and Procedures Committee to examine the language used in the email correspondence to me from Senator Edward Vibert and to take what action they deem fit.
I want to thank all States members for their messages of support and I want to thank the members of public for their many messages of support again. I will continue to do my very best to carry out my duties as a States member.