New website puts States under the magnifying glass
THE quest for openness and transparency was joined late last week by a new political website that aims to keep the States under scrutiny.
THE quest for openness and transparency was joined late last week by a new political website that aims to keep the States under scrutiny.
It says much about the current procedures that guernseypoliticaleye.info has sprung into being.
The man behind it is Gary Blanchford, a retired police officer who, over time, hopes to use the site to release reports that would not have otherwise been made public as well as grouping together others under topics so that the threads of decision-making – which can take years – are all seen together.
He said it would not become a 'Guernsey WikiLeaks' because he wants to keep control of the material that is posted – and it will also avoid comment.
At the moment the code of conduct panel's ruling that there was no conflict of interest in the chief minister's handling of his role as a non-executive director of Concept is the only topic online.
But for the first time we can see the panel's reasoning laid bare and all the information Mr Blanchford had used to make his ultimately futile case that there was a conflict.
The panel is another example of behind-closed-doors government – you would not necessarily find out that a complaint had even been made if those involved did not want you to know.
Mr Blanchford is no stranger to the political world – cast your mind back to the St Sampson's marina debate and you will see more of his work. The website is still online and includes other forays into issues like zero-10.
'I hate seeing things where I believe we are having the wool pulled over our eyes,' he said.
'I have always been really concerned about openness, transparency – something to do with 30 years in policing.'
Mr Blanchford has been retired for 18 years and almost stood for election.
The code of conduct panel's findings are not normally published unless a complaint is upheld, but Mr Blanchford thought it was important to release the information.
He has sent hard copies to all deputies.
'I think with this type of complaint, unless there's something that really shouldn't be made public, it should maybe be held in public or at least the whole report and the minutes of the thinking of the code of conduct panel should be published,' he said.
The States Assembly and Constitution Committee is investigating whether improvements are needed to the code and how it is upheld.
At the moment the chairman of the panel could throw out a complaint without consulting anyone if he felt there was not sufficient grounds to investigate.
Mr Blanchford believes putting the reports online will give them wider exposure and he aims to cover more issues in the future.
'Anyone going on it will be able to see all that happened. I will not write comments, everything will be statements or reports or media reports,' he said.
'If there's another controversial subject, like the Brussels office, then I will start a new page and put the facts up so everyone can look at that page and read all the factors in one go and get the full picture.'
He is keen to next collate all the reports on the Channel Islands' office in Brussels, the heart of the EU, and its costs.
While he is a supporter of freedom of information legislation, he can also foresee problems.
'One of the things others have found is they get bogged down by media putting out feelers trying to find things. This is apparently a huge, non-cost-effective problem with freedom of information because civil servants are tied up trying to sort out issues.'
He had experience of the UK's FoI regime over the collapse of Landsbanki, but is another who believes that government should proactively release as much information as it can.
It remains to be seen how Guernseypoliticaleye develops, but it has already ensured some harmless information which would otherwise have been locked behind closed doors is in the public domain.
Anything that acts to push the doors open further should be welcomed. And those who challenge that the States is not hiding anything from you have another example to chew over.
* Gary Blanchford's website is www.guernseypoliticaleye.info.
