Here is my opening speech:
"Establishment Candidate" in District No.1
This is the point where I identify the "Establishment Candidate" in District No.1. A number of candidates were extremely uncomfortable that another home truth had come out - it showed their deferential and supine politics. Were they ever to be elected one could expect them to defer at all times to authority.
The chair of the meeting was of course wrong to seek to limit my freedom of speech. As a candidate I have the right to come back on issues that need corrected. I think that bravery shows that I will not be a supine lap dog in the States Assembly.
Gordon Forrest is the Establishment candidate precisely because his nomination paper was signed by the Deputy Chief Minister, Senator Paul Routier and was proposed by Advocate Rose Colley, a senior figure in the conservative right of Jersey politics and incipient candidate for Senator in the Autumn General Election. Pointing out these obvious truths did not go down well in a certain quarter of the audience and among certain candidates. Clearly they hit home with vigor. A new brand of politics is born.
This is not a personal attack on Gordon Forrest as some
candidates thought; far from it. He was my boss in Emeraude Ferries during a
summer job in the long distant past and he commanded respect. It is however a
fair comment to make in a political context. Since it is the obvious truth it
has to be denied by those that would continue all the mystification and falsification
that so befuddles the popular mind and makes change all that more difficult. It is essential we identify our interests and those who represent those of others, however personable.
We must transcend the politics of the personality that domintes so much of political debate and clarify the vested interests and policy issues that lurk beneath.
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