Current States ‘feels it’s gone on a little too long’ - Burford
This current States is ready for next year’s general election, one of its senior figures has said.
Yvonne Burford, president of the Scrutiny Management Committee, said that after nearly four years of government, a standard term of office, the current States appeared to be running out of energy.
‘I’m not saying there isn’t good work still going to be done but it feels as though it’s gone on a little too long and I don’t feel I’m alone in that view,’ she said on the latest in the Guernsey Press politics podcast ‘Kiosk Politics’ summer series, out now.
Listen to the full interview with Deputy Yvonne Burford on our latest Kiosk Politics podcast
Deputy Burford, who was not in the States from 2016 to 2020, having served the term before, said that from the outside she had hoped that in 2020 that deputies would have settled on a shorter term of three years and eight months, rather than extending the term to four years, eight months.
‘I felt that would concentrate minds a bit more, and in reality that’s how it’s feeling now,’ she said.
Deputy Burford said that she also understood a sense of dissatisfaction from the public, and that it had been a different and at times difficult States to be a part of.
‘Every States is the worst States ever until next one comes along but this States is more dysfunctional than in 2012-16, and I think it’s been on a continuum since then.
‘It was friendlier then, you could work with different people across the assembly and I don’t remember the same level of animosity.’
She said that she felt that island wide voting had helped to deepen this change.
And as Scrutiny president, she had overseen a review of the 2020 election and was keen to see some of its learnings adopted at some point.
‘But I think we need to see how this election goes, see what happens to the turnout and see what the voters say about it before making a decision.’
