I, like some 30,000 other voters, must make a decision about who to support in the polls. We all know our next government will have a renewed committee format, led by an overarching Policy & Resources Committee, and that the total number of members will also be smaller, at 38 (excluding two from Alderney), rather than 45 last time round.
So, a common platform might help. A broad manifesto which shows a direction of travel for the island and which candidates can choose in advance whether to support would mean voters will have less trouble making a discriminating judgement. Better still, if a significant number of those elected had already converged on a pre-defined programme, we could expect the island to follow a path we have previously approved and they could be held to account.
The tricky question, of course, is what that programme might contain. The short answer is almost anything realistic and coherent. Not everyone in the electorate will back it, but if candidates can be challenged with it during the campaign, those who disagree with it would be almost obliged to suggest alternatives.
So in a spirit of constructive argument, here for starters are a few suggestions for possible inclusion:
- On the spending front, the States should be curbed in its ambitions. Government’s primary task is to maintain the peace and ensure the rule of law. After that, every major item of spending is surely a legitimate matter of debate, be it subsidised bus fares, ownership of airlines and ships, free secondary health care or provision of pensions. And borrowing should be solely for capital investment which shows a return.
- On the revenue front, the tax base should be widened. In a world of moveable labour and capital, it should extend to ‘immoveable’ items like property and expenditure. But a low tax burden is to everyone’s benefit, so the requirement should be: don’t increase it. As we know in our personal lives, if you don’t earn it, you can’t spend it.
- On the population front, we should allow young, skilled, entrepreneurial people to come and live in the island to confront our worrying demographic imbalance, and we should attract home those who are abroad with rights to live here. We should encourage others (especially wealthy people) here as well. Maybe a citizenship scheme could be part of our overall welcome.
- On the operational front, the States should allow a Domestic Audit Office to review government spending and it should encourage the establishment of a ‘Fact Tank’ to provide independent informed input into major policy decisions. Importantly, it should restrict rather than permit conflicts of interest among deputies, and discourage cartel-like commercial behaviour in both the public and private sectors.
- On the development front, future development should be concentrated along the eastern seaboard, especially the harbours, allowing low-rise apartments and ensuring adequate green spaces. Elsewhere the only ‘urban’ development should be village-style, with a limited number of retail and other outlets.
- On the diversification front, activity tourism and secondary health care offer just two of several opportunities which could be chased as new export earners. We should attract one large new business to the island each year.
- On the diplomatic front, in the new world of advanced technology and innovative ways of conducting business, Guernsey will struggle to survive alone (and Sark and Alderney even more so). The case for collaboration at government level with Jersey is overwhelming – following a trend already set by business.
I’m sure current deputies and public servants will find all this a bit glib – easy to propose, hard to dispose. But without us extracting clearer positions in advance from candidates on such issues, I fear we will go on suffering the dead hand of jostling self-interest that stunts our unique democracy. And unless we become more go-ahead, we risk seeing more of our children leave the island altogether.
The fly in the ointment is that few of these ideas can be understood without more figures. Voters like me struggle to find a sense of perspective about matters of spending and tax, let alone about the scenarios on offer if any of these proposals win support. That is why a ‘Fact Tank’, in particular, is essential – we’ve had enough strategies, plans and opinion surveys.
Some people think the new States arrangements which will emerge after the election may be the last chance for our consensus system of government. It is my view that if we want to get things done next time round, our government needs to hit the ground running. Better, therefore, that the consensus is even wider – and agreed in good time.
