Ultimate sanction against deputy has caused jaws to drop

THE Press headline on 30 March [Deputy ‘should be expelled’] was all about the findings of the Code of Conduct Panel which sat to evaluate the conduct of Deputy Le Tissier. I read this story with interest. His conduct to say the least was sheer stupidity. He had let his colleagues, his party members and the electorate who voted for him down totally and he has made himself look a fool. However, I cannot help having some sympathy with him when he described the decision as disproportionate and draconian. I am usually at odds with the author of the Opinion column in the Press, however I cannot help finding myself agreeing with some of his comments. The panel’s choice of the ultimate sanction against Deputy Le Tissier will indeed have set jaws dropping across the political spectrum and will no doubt find sitting deputies scrabbling to delete their own accounts. For those frequent users of social media, using a pseudonym is commonplace and in fact as the Opinion page quotes, many sitting (and ex deputies) continue to frequently use this sort of communication to get their political opinions across to the population. I can understand individuals who are not users of social media finding his behaviour more offensive and inexcusable than they otherwise would. This does not make his behaviour acceptable but because it is commonplace, in my opinion, it does go some way towards explaining Deputy Le Tissier’s behaviour. Deputy Le Tissier has not broken any law and if he were being tried in a criminal court as a first-time offender he would be treated as a person of previous good character and given a chance. In my opinion, his actions, distasteful as they are to some, do not warrant expulsion from the States. As the author of the Opinion column says, he has been publicly humiliated, and his reputation will be damaged for a long time to come. Surely that is punishment enough. He will have to undergo scrutiny from his peers in the assembly, who may or may not decide to follow the panel’s recommendation. If they decide that expulsion is the only route to follow, then may I suggest that they also consider putting a stop to all of the political sniping that is currently happening – overtly and covertly – on social media and in the Press by sitting deputies which in my opinion equally undermines the integrity of the States Assembly.