‘All of our voices matter'

POLITICS is boring.

We’ve all said it and for many of us this is the default position. Long drawn out debates on seemingly irrelevant topics involving people we feel don’t really understand what we need.

Until it isn’t.

When politics suddenly becomes relevant, when it might impact the way we live or our safety, then it matters. It’s critical even. We all start to pay attention and make our views heard but sometimes, at that stage, it can be a little too late.

The thing is, we need to tolerate politics and pay it interest even when it’s boring – like the friend whose punchlines are great but who takes a long time to get to that part of the story. It can’t be exciting all the time but it does always matter and it’s worth it in the end.

The more we let even the slightest debate stir our sense of justice or trigger our fear for the planet, for example, the more likely we are to react, get others on board and make a difference.

This is without doubt the most important and historically significant period in Guernsey politics for decades. If you aren’t registered to vote, get registered. If you don’t normally vote, please do so next time. Democracy matters. All of our voices matter and do you know what, if enough people make themselves heard, democracy does work and so it should.

As I write this piece, the debates have yet to finish, yet arguably the most important events have already taken place. Deputies are finding themselves under enormous pressure to make the right decision and have been presented with passionate and compelling cases from all sides.

When any politician or group of politicians takes a strong and potentially divisive or controversial stance on a key issue, it provokes the electorate (that’s us) to respond.

We saw it last year with the anti-discrimination legislation and we’re seeing it again here. In that case the result was almost unanimous with a few potential tweaks and it went through in the strongest possible form. In this case, it is more complicated, more nuanced and everyone has a valid point to make. It is not about winning this debate, a win will be the right solution for Guernsey, not who has the best single proposal. As I see it right now, there are no wrong answers, only parts of a puzzle that we need to work together to make into the picture we want to see of Guernsey going forward.

Not everyone will like the responses and amendments to these proposals, just as not everyone likes the proposals, but opinions (as I’ve mentioned before in these pages) trigger healthy debate and can often strengthen positions unexpectedly. We need as many of them as we can get.

Thousands recently marched to Market Square to express their objection to the introduction of a goods and services tax and other measures and many more have proposed practical and productive amendments to deepen and widen the debate. We should welcome all of this. You might not agree with any of the ideas proposed, you might not follow all of the arguments or you might agree with one to the exclusion of all others, but you can’t deny that this has got us all talking. Oh, has it got us talking.

The outcome of the debate, which might or might not be known by the time this column goes to press, matters to all of us one way or another and it’s woken us from our apathetic slumber with a jolt. Politics clearly isn’t truly interesting for most of us until it really matters.

All those with ideas they feel strongly about have rallied their respective troops and we’ve seen fantastic examples of peaceful activism, electorate education, presentations and consultations. I’ve learned more about Guernsey’s recent history and economy in the last few weeks than at any time before and I suspect there is much more to come.

Unfortunately we’ve also seen the dark side of what happens when people’s positions are threatened.

Powerful people and groups have openly dismissed the views of thousands of islanders and belittled valid attempts to widen the debate and it’s been really disappointing. Others have let fear drive their interactions with open-minded deputies and perhaps they haven’t expressed themselves as nicely or as clearly as they could have. We’re all uncomfortable with much of the language that has been used in recent weeks and I’m keen to see that addressed in future.

Our deputies and the population at large deserve better than this, we want to discuss and debate things in detail, without being frightened to express our views and without worrying that we need to make decisions so quickly we don’t have time to consider the facts carefully enough. I feel our population and business groups have been underestimated in this case and that has probably been a big mistake.

We won’t encourage people to step up if we send the message that all new suggestions will be immediately dismissed before being fairly considered. I don’t know the answer any more than you do but I do know that the best outcome will be a mixture of proposals from a variety of sources and the more creative and diverse we can be in our thinking, the better. I know that dismissing dissenting views is now a recognised part of politics the world over but surely we are better than this?

It’s never appropriate to exert disproportionate influence over what should be a balanced debate and putting people under pressure will never yield the best outcomes. With power, comes great responsibility.

We’ve all taken sides in recent weeks and typically we’ve favoured the team that puts our own interests first. It’s nothing to feel guilty about, it’s normal human behaviour, but deputies are elected to serve a wide range of people and groups with differing views and needs. It’s not appropriate for them to feel obliged to vote a particular way – many have been painfully conflicted in their views in this debate as they can sympathise with all sides.

I have been saddened by the language used by many groups of people to criticise different proposals. They all have merit. They all deserve respectful debate and consideration and it is unhelpful to dismiss these out of hand if they simply do not serve your own political ideology. None of us has the right answer here and thankfully it’s not up to one person to determine the way forward.

Back to the positives, I am very reassured by the fact that we’ve all been provoked into reacting. The energy has been largely positive and it’s really got us all thinking, we need to work together to find compromises that set us up for a positive future.

I spoke in an earlier column about my passion for broad and frequent citizen engagement in all matters that impact this island and although the order of events wasn’t as expected this time, in that we got the engagement after the proposals rather than before, that’s exactly what we’re getting. We now have a wide variety of thoughts, proposals and ideas and the contrasting opinions of business bodies and interested groups such as retailers to guide our thinking. We’ve all been forced to consider where we stand on this in recent weeks and I think it’s done us all good, although it might not have felt that way for many.

Many views from all sides have been filled with emotion and some have been upsetting, so tough is life for many right now. People are worried about what happens next and who can blame them?

I’m pleased that all these views have had a forum and I’ve certainly made a conscious decision to direct more of my personal spending into island retail and to encourage those around me to do the same, for example. Far from feeling powerless as to how we can make our economy grow, I have a renewed sense of resolve to do my bit wherever I can and I’m mulling over other ideas.

As our own Peter Roffey wisely stated in this very paper in an article encouraging people to vote on 1 September 2003 (I’m nothing if not thorough in my research): ‘…people tend to worry less about politics when times are good than they do when times are bad.’

I would say that over the last few weeks we have reached peak interest levels. Let’s make the most of that.