'Nasty Nick' - the talk of election night

From our Presenter Mark McQuillan

There could have been many issues to light up election night among islanders: who would come out on top of the Senatorial poll; which political heavyweights could be ousted; or how many women would make up the new States Assembly.

But, no. It was one man, and one tweet that dominated proceedings. Once Nick Le Cornu had failed to retain his place as a Deputy in St Helier No. 1 social media was awash with condemnation for his conduct.

The criticism centred on one outrageous, and extremely ill advised, tweet in which he - to put it mildly - questioned the timing of another Deputy standing again for election after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Many islanders were appalled. The timing of the tweet - a matter of weeks before the election - appeared very damaging. And so it proved.

Following his loss, he told us he was the victim of a "political assassination" by the media and the 'establishment'. Businessman, Kevin Keen, a guest on our 'Jersey Decides' programme last night viewed things very differently. "It's not political assassination" he told us, "it's political suicide".

The fact that Deputy Le Cornu still managed to attract 311 votes, in spite of the tweet, illustrates his competence. A solicitor by trade, he comes across as an intelligent, articulate man who speaks passionately about supporting hard working islanders.

Without his social media disaster he surely would have stood a decent chance of retaining his seat. Publicly, he is blaming others, but privately, he may well be blaming himself over his failure to get re-elected.

In our social media hub, it was Nick Le Cornu's predicament that flooded the hashtag '#Jsy2014', highlighting that despite all the important issues Jersey faces, we can't resist a bit of scandal on election night.