Blame the ducked issue first
While claims that have been made to States members that the chief minister abused his title while on a sales trip to Chile as a non-executive director of a private company might well be dismissed as a storm in a teacup, they are also symptomatic of a wider issue.
While claims that have been made to States members that the chief minister abused his title while on a sales trip to Chile as a non-executive director of a private company might well be dismissed as a storm in a teacup, they are also symptomatic of a wider issue.
It is unlikely that a group of South American brokers thought that the man helping to pitch tax-efficient pension products to them was doing so on official States of Guernsey business.
It is also evident that they would be interested in the backgrounds of all those involved in the Concept Group, just as much as the chief minister is aware that that there are many inside and outside of public life who, to put it mildly, do not have his best interests at heart.
And that is one of the sadder aspects of the Assembly today: the rise of personality politics.
This newspaper is regularly criticised for putting candidates off standing and it is true that it can be a critical voice – but of policies and performance only. Not of personalities or motives.
The willingness of members to question colleagues' integrity is what sets today's public life apart from that of even a few years ago and helps to explain why the vaunted 'consensus' government is a myth.
Members will fight again and again for their point of view to triumph, even in the face of previous majority decisions, because there is no sense of collective responsibility or of trying to pull together.
The other aspect exposed by the attack on the chief minister is the reluctance of the Assembly to deal with perceived conflicts. That was at the heart of the PEH clinical block/Fallagate affair, with the Wales Audit Office suggesting a debate on those interests and, in particular, the compatibility of political and business and other outside interests.
In a community like Guernsey, there will always be an overlap of personal, private and commercial life – unless and until islanders want to pay deputies substantial sums to be truly independent.
It is not dealing with that very real issue which justifies criticism.
