OPINION: ‘Let us look forward in a more united, constructive and realistic manner’

IT WOULD be helpful, in the light of the comments from Deputy St Pier on social media, to which I have previously referred, about lack of action, if he could list in his next article in your newspaper why he failed in his lengthy tenure, both as treasury minister and president of the Policy & Resources Committee, to address some of many key problems in any material way, including, but not limited to, developing our infrastructure; addressing our fiscal concerns and difficulties; and, to a lesser degree in the sense of less seriousness, but still something that needed to be done, why he failed over a number of years to deal with having the States Accounts meet IPSAS standards, an issue that has seemingly concerned so many; why he failed to address, in the second half of his tenure as president of Policy & Resources, the matters still outstanding and unresolved from the binding mediation concerning judicial pay, and why he has been pursuing that topic by questions during the Assembly when we, the current Policy & Resources Committee, are addressing them; why also he failed to be able to satisfactorily resolve a reciprocal health agreement with the UK; why he failed to be able to make any inroads at all into our housing problems; and why he failed to deal satisfactorily and efficiently with our long-standing IT issues. There are others I could refer to, but I think what I have listed is a sufficient taster.

I turn to some of the issues this Assembly and this Policy & Resources Committee have dealt with:

n We now have a Reciprocal Health Agreement;

n We have entered into an agreement with Sure to upgrade our IT infrastructure (and most of us have suffered from road closures as a result thereof, but we knew that that was a five-year project);

n We have advanced public monies in the sum of over £30m. towards the purchase of sites for affordable and social housing;

n We have taken steps to address the IPSAS issue in respect of Accounting Standards for the States Accounts;

n We have taken steps to address the issues still outstanding from the finding in relation to judicial pay to which I have referred; and also, just recently;

n We are taking steps to address an issue that has been outstanding now since 2010 and 2011 in relation to discrepancies of certain payments that exist between airport firefighters and the other firefighters.

There are many other issues that I could refer to that we have sought actively to address, but this would then seem to be a list of achievements and endeavours, rather than a relatively brief response to inaccurate and unfair comments.

Externally the battle has always to be fought on behalf of the Bailiwick. This is an issue I turn back to.

Deputy St Pier seemed to think that the pressures arising from Brexit have gone away and so indicated I believe in comments he made in the States. The truth is such challenges exist every day and our able external relations team, very well led politically by Deputy Le Tocq, are addressing those issues week in, week out.

We also have the challenges of Moneyval from those that do not favour us, do not like us, and do not really want to countenance our fiscal existence. We have to deal with that and are dealing with it.

Deputy Rob Prow, one of the unsung heroes of the States, has been at the forefront of dealing with the myriad challenges arising therefrom, ably assisted by other colleagues politically and in our civil service.

I regularly have briefings, and action is taken to follow up on the issues arising from those meetings, on all kinds of what I call external-related matters, whether it is beneficial ownership disclosure and how open the register of such interests should be; tax issues generally; relations with UK political authorities; relations with overseas authorities of every ilk and type; and many other matters pertaining to our status as a valued and respected financial sector.

In the past, when we were just considered to be an island that had cows and tourists, and thus not seen to be important on the world stage, we were not under much external scrutiny. Referring to the comment from Deputy Murray, Guernsey has changed and its position in the world is seen to be different, and we have had to address those changes and the constant external scrutiny.

Why then have I, if I am commenting adversely on unnecessary personality politics, spent some time commenting upon the same? Because I am sorry, I will not continue to accept the drip, drip effect on the consciousness of our citizens from Deputy St Pier and his colleagues, who are given opportunities others do not have to communicate their opinions, that we have done nothing, and it all would be better if there was a change.

The real truth is that we have done a lot. We have though failed to achieve as much as I would like, because of our system of government which is a consensus style of government writ very large.

We also live in a democracy, and long may that continue, though that does mean (and the responsibility is partly that of all politicians) that we have to be better at persuading the people of the Bailiwick that many difficult and urgent decisions have to be made in the long-term interests of our current citizens, and our future citizens.

I will address that in a future article, but I conclude by saying please do not lay the accusation of personality politics at my door. That is simply not true. I am simply responding and commenting on the inaccurate repetition of a mantra that reminds me of the chanting of brainwashed disciples of some 1960’s cult. The fact that something is said and reported does not make it necessarily true.

Instead let us move forward, and during the rest of this term and beyond take active and radical steps to address the problems that face the Bailiwick, rather than say: ‘It was all the better in my day and I knew what I was doing, and they are hopeless.’

Deputy St Pier and his colleagues had to address Covid for eight months. I and my colleagues had to address it for 16 months. It is all relative and everybody made their contribution. This is not the time to bemoan our subjectively-considered sleights.

What we must do now is our best and stop personalising, politicking and ignoring difficult solutions to very difficult problems.

Let us try please and look forward in a more united, constructive and realistic manner.