Leaking is a symptom of the culture
LEAKS often cause trouble – both those which release liquid, and those of a more political nature. Both can be destabilising, both can bring down well-constructed structures, or arguments.
The president of Education, Sport & Culture went to some lengths to try to ensure that her letter to colleagues in relation to the exclusion of committee member Deputy Andy Cameron from the committee’s discussions about secondary and post-16 education was not leaked. It was headed as confidential. It was watermarked ‘confidential for States members only’. Yet still it got through.
‘There seems to be an insistence in this particular Assembly to leak everything to the media,’ ESC president Andrea Dudley-Owen bemoaned earlier this week.
This enthusiasm for leaking is not new. It was also fairly prevalent in the last political term, as the development of groups, parties, cabals, call it what you wish, grew over its course.
Leaking is a natural phenomenon when there is mistrust. The intent to keep things private becomes more crucial, but it rarely pays off, and leaves those leaked maybe wishing they had dealt with matters more openly from the start, and couched their language to such effect.
The ESC president’s letter does a reasonable job of outlining how the committee came to invoke Rule 49 against Deputy Cameron.
But we still fail to understand why his challenge is not embraced in committee, leaving frustration on all sides as this matter continues to play out.