A Guernsey Deputy has admitted giving an obscene gesture to anti-GST protesters as he entered the Royal Court on Friday.
Deputy Neil Inder, President of Development and Planning, admitted raising his finger as he entered the building through a glass door, after multiple witnesses said they saw him give the ‘middle finger’, including a seven-year-old boy.
One of the witnesses, who said she believed the gesture was intended for her, said she had asked officials for CCTV footage of the incident, and intended to file a code of conduct complaint.
“He turned round and gave me the middle finger,” she said, adding: “It looked like it was directed at me.”
Deputy Inder admitted the incident on social media, but defended himself saying the “level of abuse being waged by online campaigners” was “going to get a politician hurt at some point”.
He added: “Should I have reacted so? Probably not, but we all have our limits.
“It was below par and it won’t happen again.”
Speaking exclusively to Express, the woman admitted she had used a very strong swear word at Deputy Inder as he entered the building, while she was remonstrating with him about P&R’s tax proposals.
However, she still felt Deputy Inder’s response was inappropriate, calling on him to be “thicker-skinned” as deputy.
You don’t turn around and give your constituents the middle finger.
She said she wasn’t sure if Deputy Inder had heard her, but “even if he did hear it, at the end of the day, he would have been called worse than that”.
“He tried to make me feel small. Why?” she added.
The incident happened shortly before 09:00, as the final deputies were filing in and the last of the protestors were trying to make their voices heard.
A dozen or so people were on the steps then, and several of them told Express they had seen Deputy Inder’s gesture.
‘Completely unacceptable’
Another protester, who Express spoke to on the steps, later posted on Facebook that they had “just watched Deputy Neil Inder give us protesters the middle finger, and the way it happened makes it even more inappropriate”.
“Deputy Inder walked up the courthouse steps while protesters were gathered outside.
“He entered the courthouse, closed the door behind him, then turned around and gave the middle finger to the people standing on the steps outside.”
The man said the protesters were “members of the public exercising their democratic right to protest against decisions being made by their government”.
He said elected deputies “should have enough respect for the people you represent to conduct yourself with some basic professionalism”.
“Giving protesters the middle finger isn’t political debate. It isn’t leadership. And it certainly isn’t showing respect for the democratic process,” he added.
“Personally, I believe he should resign. Guernsey deserves better from its elected representatives.”
Schooled
Other eyewitnesses described Deputy Inder clashing with protestors over whether the seven-year-old boy should be at school, immediately prior to the incident.
His mother told Express she explained her son was home-schooled, but said the Deputy appeared to question her decision to educate him at home.
The boy himself, who turns eight tomorrow, said he clearly saw Deputy Inder raise his middle finger, but found the incident amusing.
But the youngest anti-GST demonstrator of the day said it hadn’t put him off protesting.
“That was fun,” he told Express.
Deputy Inder’s full statement
This morning before the start of the States debate I walked through the gathered crowd with another member of the Assembly.
Today, more than any other day there was some quite aggressive cat-calling and swearing at Deputies from the legitimate protest.
At the top of the steps there was some exchange, not with me, before we entered the building. As we walked through the door, someone shouted/swore with some aggression at me/us as we entered the building. They screamed at both of us “F****** T***” or similar; there was other shouting in the background.
As the door closed behind us, there was another scream of abuse. I did raise a generic finger behind me.
The level of abuse being waged by online campaigners and their leads is going to get a politician hurt at some point; I’ve experienced a number of physical threats and incidents over the last year are so which are directly related to social media output.
Should I have reacted so? Probably not, but we all have our limits.
It was below par and it won’t happen again.
