OPINION: You didn’t vote for this

WHAT did you make of Horace Camp’s column here last week?

You know, the ‘Things can only get worse, island running out of money, prices rising and taxes are too…’ cry of pain and anger on behalf of the squeezed middle?

Powerful stuff. And backed up by the chief minister’s admission in the States – ‘we will in reality run very short of money, our deficit is growing’ – that, yes, Digard’s warnings over the years have been unnervingly on the money.

You’re witnessing mismanagement of the island on a grand scale. Firstly, by previous Assemblies and now by this current administration, figure-headed by Deputy Ferbrache, which has given up any pretence of living within its means.

‘Budgets are drained. The demand for services is voracious. The expectations of our citizens are high,’ he told the States. The only thing missing was a freshly-laundered white flag and blank cheque drawn on Guernsey taxpayers.

This capitulation is notable for two reasons.

The first, given Deputy Ferbrache commands a parliamentary majority, is why he and P&R haven’t cut back budget demands from committees to a responsible level.

The other, way more troubling, is what islanders can do about it.

Recent States have committed two cardinal sins as judged by their predecessors – borrowing on a lavish scale and committing to increased expenditure with no idea of how it was to be paid for.

Hence Policy & Resources’ admission that we’re skint.

Before 2020, you’d simply not vote for those you held responsible. Or, if they’d skulked off at the end of their term rather than take the blame, put a cross against those you felt might be sensible enough to help clean up the mess. Now, thanks to island-wide voting, that’s simply not possible.

As is becoming ever more apparent, candidates who looked OK on paper have turned out to be unsuitable or – more chilling, this – morphed into some sort of political party majority that’s cheerfully killing proper debate in the Chamber and has the ability to ignore public opinion.

Attempts to explain mass walk-outs from States meetings when certain members speak as synchronised widdling merely confirm the contempt which some members have for parliamentary convention – and the degree to which the Bailiff as presiding officer is losing control over deputies’ behaviour when the States is sitting.

Guernsey politics are less democratic now than before island-wide voting was introduced, yet there’s no scrutiny of that decision, no questioning of whether island-wide voting works, has delivered the desired outcomes or needs tweaking in any way. No Plan-Do-Review, the very basic of performance management.

Yet why would there be? Plenty like it as it is. A majority – even if electors have no idea how it happened or how to vote for or against it in 2025 – means power.

It also means less work if you’re an amenable deputy and happy to follow the party line. Why labour through a Billet d’Etat when someone will tell you how to vote? Why stay in the Chamber to listen to telling, thoughtful contributions from Lindsay de Sausmarez, Peter Roffey or others when the debate outcome is a foregone conclusion?

If you care about Guernsey, and there are many who do, this is clearly an unsatisfactory and dangerous state of affairs.

I doubt many consciously voted for what we have now and, as things stand, won’t know how to ballot in 2025 to change it. Which is why some of the more challenging and constructive minds in government are quietly discussing how things might urgently be improved before the next election.

We should wish them well, while noting, alas, that the odds against success are high.

As high as the stakes.

Acute financial pressures, a cost of living crisis, a pressing need for more staff across every business, unaffordable housing and public sector pensions that increasingly look like a ponzi scheme are heady issues in the run-up to any election.

Last time, there were 119 candidates and no one voter can really know what more than a handful of them are like or how they will perform, and incumbent deputies (with some exceptions) seem to have little enthusiasm for engaging with the electorate.

As we’ve noted before, the parish link is broken, with douzaines struggling to get political representation on matters like failing bus services or issues such as infrastructure and development.

So who now speaks for ordinary islanders, those squeezed by global events and poor government?

Well, here’s a thought for you. Deputies frequently complain about social media but one of the most active and engaged forums is Guernsey People Have Your Say on Facebook, with more than 20,000 members. That’s 6,073 more than the 13,927 votes Gavin St Pier received to top the 2020 election yet promptly be excluded from meaningful politics by the party that isn’t.

I have no idea whether this is the longer term ambition of the forum, but what if voters, rather than candidates, get organised? If forum members start scrutinising deputy performance and posting details, comments and observations for other GPHYS-ers to critique?

The group ethos is to stimulate healthy debate, which it and the moderators do. And the result is frequently very political and often deeply critical of government, its motives, those of deputies and the policy outcomes as they affect ordinary Guernsey folk.

I’m not remotely suggesting that this is where GPHYS is going.

But imagine for a moment if its many knowledgeable and committed followers started scrutinising manifestos and behaviours with a view to recommending – or not – certain candidates? Or inviting those it wasn’t certain about to take part in live-streamed Q and A sessions so a block of 20,000 voters denied meaningful real-world hustings could see for themselves what Candidate X was really like under pressure?

We may have invisible and untouchable ‘political parties’, but social media could certainly put some electoral balance back in there and act as a pretty powerful selection panel and voting pool if it chose to mobilise and get political.

Now remind me, who was it advising nurses to reject the latest pay offer?