Unmitigated foul-up on the way?

Politicians, senior civil servants and their comms officers across the islands would much rather that this issue was kept firmly under wraps, with a neat, joint deal soon to be announced and most – apart from the unsuccessful tenderers – looking forward.

But this week in Jersey Deputy Kirsten Morel has been bounced into a hasty defence by urgent questions from political colleagues. Oh for the same level of scrutiny in Guernsey, where we move serenely on to goodness knows where.

Destination unknown, because the one persistent rumour that has slipped from these tightened lips is that the two islands are apparently split over their choice of operator. Just as they were 26 years ago when the islands last ran such an exercise.

Then, after weeks of wrangling, thrust and counter-thrust (and almost all of it in Guernsey alone) the States ultimately made a decision which many members felt was a fait accompli, after Jersey, just the previous day, had rolled with Condor.

That is surely not what Guernsey wants to do this time around, but taking a similar pan-island approach must have carried a high degree of risk that history would repeat. It’s not hard to see potential for a clash.

The Jersey episode is being brushed over as ‘blunder not bias’, but that might be far from the end of it. And as the process there restarts, with a new senior officer at the helm, the clock continues to tick on and nobody is any further forward.

As an Evening Press editorial comment said during the 1998 tender process: ‘Forgive the blunt language, but what an unmitigated foul-up.’

This could be heading the same way.