Wind of change is blowing

THE message across the Channel Islands appears to be getting clearer – it is time to prepare for more independence.

In Guernsey, Advocate Roger Perrot, who retired from Ozannes recently, managed to put the constitution debate firmly in the mainstream at the end of last year.

Now in Jersey, former Bailiff Sir Philip Bailhache has added weight to the argument by highlighting several areas where the UK has paid little regard to the current arrangements.

The Policy Council's External Relations Group has recently been reviewing the information passed on by Advocate Perrot, who at a public meeting won overwhelming support for a proposition that 'the States of Deliberation initiate negotiations with the UK Government to give Guernsey autonomy in international affairs and legislative process'.

Ministers and civil servants will be looking to ensure that when a States report is produced for debate it is fully researched and everyone well briefed.

The implications for more autonomy could be vast – especially on staffing and budgets.

Even starting to negotiate with the UK could have unforeseen effects through the message it sends out.

While the group is investigating the options, Sir Philip's contribution in the latest issue of the

Jersey and Guernsey Law Review might just be appearing on its reading list.

In it, he said that islanders were increasingly being treated as 'not quite British' and that ministers in Jersey should start preparing for the worst so that they are not caught out if the relationship breaks down completely.

In the article, called One or two steps from Sovereignty, Sir Philip cites the UK's refusal to allow the States of Jersey Police to import Tasers, the lack of consultation over border control plans dropped last year and the three-year delay of a 1998 finance bill to be passed on to the Privy Council, as examples of the changing relationship.

There is a clear read across – the problems with Taser cartridge imports apply here, as does the lack of consultation on border controls.

'The Crown's protection is being applied only to those living within the geographical perimeter of the UK. Whether it is in terms of tertiary education, public health, prevention of terrorism, or borders, the psychological line is being drawn around mainland Britain,' said Sir Philip.

'Channel Islanders have, in the author's view, no real grounds for complaint about this trend in that they have, perhaps, been enjoying the best of both worlds for too long.

'They have asserted their judicial independence, and their fiscal and domestic autonomy to the great benefit of the inhabitants of the islands. Taken in the round, Channel Islanders are much more prosperous than British citizens in mainland Britain.

'It may be unsurprising that the attitude from the other side of the water is increasingly that Channel Islanders are not quite British and can look after themselves.'

Sir Philip retired as Bailiff last July. Before his retirement he served as the head of a constitutional review group in Jersey, which recommended in December 2007 that its States undertake preparatory work for independence in case it became necessary because of a breakdown of the relationship with the UK.

He said that virtually nothing had been done since that report was presented to Jersey's Council of Ministers.

'There are cold winds of change blowing that we would be foolish to ignore,' said Sir Philip of the UK's changing attitude to Jersey.

As Bailiff between 1995 and 2009, he was in a prime position to see how the relationships with the UK government and parliament have changed.

'It is often said by ministers in Jersey, and perhaps Guernsey too, that the constitutional relationship between the islands and the UK is strong and in good shape,' said Sir Philip.

'One understands that it is prudent to be restrained, and that ministers cannot always speak their minds as openly as they might wish. But in the author's view, the constitutional relationship currently leaves much to be desired.

'Apart from a short period when Lord Falconer was Secretary of State with responsibility for the Crown Dependencies, and viewing matters in the round, the Ministry of Justice seems increasingly to be unable to prevent other parts of Whitehall from ignoring the interests of the Channel Islands.'

It seems that while the islands do everything they can to keep the UK on side – just think of things like the raft of anti-money laundering legislation and moves over zero-10 – things are not reciprocated.

Islanders it seems might be right to ask themselves whether the 800-year constitutional relationship could, or indeed should, last.