Poppy Murray: Your vote, your power

In November 2021, we held a one-night-only boycott of pubs and clubs in Guernsey in solidarity with boycotts across the UK to raise awareness of sexual assault and spiking in the night-time economy.

In listening to everyone who shared their experiences and thoughts with us, it quickly became apparent that, instead of one night in, we needed to try and do something to make every night out safer.

Over the last three years, we’ve read every comment, message and email, we’ve listened to every story, and we’ve used our platform to amplify the voice of victims.

In doing this, we learned that change is possible, but to achieve it we need the support of Guernsey’s decision makers – primarily our deputies.

Take, for example, our recent experience of engaging with deputies over the requirement, or more specifically the absence of a requirement, for deputies to have DBS checks, also known as police checks.

We emailed all 38 deputies to raise our concerns that, without DBS checks, we may unknowingly invite deputies who are offenders of sexual offences to events with victim survivors.

We are not suggesting that any current deputies are offenders. However, we have no evidence of this without DBS checks. We refuted the States Assembly & Constitution Committee’s assertion that the current disclosure rule is fit for purpose.

We asked the deputies for their support in making it a requirement that all candidates undertake a police check, and to disclose all spent and unspent convictions for sexual offences.

Of the 38 deputies we emailed, seven replied, with two (Deputies Lindsay de Sausmarez and Sue Aldwell) offering to investigate drafting an amendment ahead of the debate.

Deputy Aldwell spoke with other deputies and the law officers and came back with a comprehensive answer as to the two rights for offenders that would make a mandatory disclosure requirement for spent convictions impossible to impose.

She shared the reason why she cares so deeply about these issues, and mentioned that the Education, Sport & Culture Committee already requires committee members to undertake a DBS check.

We then emailed all 38 deputies again to propose a middle-ground option that would require members of certain committees to have a DBS check. We suggested this apply to ESC, as is already the case, the Health & Social Care Committee and the Home Affairs Committee, as the committees most likely to work with or be invited to events with vulnerable people, and the Policy & Resources Committee to ensure that members did not have convictions for financial crimes, e.g. fraud.

Three deputies replied to this email.

During the debate, 11 deputies spoke on the subject, eight of whom we had not heard from directly. So, out of 38 elected representatives, 18 responded in some way.

We were encouraged by the responses we received and comments made during the debate. It demonstrated how the relationships with deputies should work – we raised our concerns, we received help, we proposed a subsequent compromise, and then we heard our suggestion being debated by our elected representatives.

Since we founded, we have also been hugely encouraged by the support we have received from numerous deputies, the Home Affairs Committee, and the police.

It is imperative to us in fulfilling our aims that the next States Assembly comprises deputies who care about public safety in the night-time economy.

However, we know this will rely on voters more than candidates.

Over the last three years we have heard countless opinions from the public that trying to make change is pointless, that deputies don’t listen and, most concerningly, have heard many victims express that seeking help would be a waste of time because the government and/or police ‘don’t care’.

Whether or not there is merit to these claims, what we can say with absolute certainty is that this perception needs to change.

The feeling of them-and-us between the government and the people they serve contradicts the role of elected officials.

The job of a people’s deputy, to use the official title, is to represent us, which means successful candidates will likely be those who demonstrate that they are aware of, and care about, issues that matter to voters.

But this works only for people who vote. If 100 unregistered voters care about issue A, and one registered voter cares about issue B, then issue B is likely the one that will matter most to candidates.

It is easy to believe that, as individuals, we have no power. And every time deputies ignore issues that matter to individuals, this belief is reinforced.

Individually, deputies are the same as anyone else, but collectively they have a great deal of power. Change will come only when the public recognises that its collective power and influence is much greater. We outnumber deputies at a ratio of over 1,600 to one, and it all starts with our votes.

To be eligible to register to vote in the next election, you must be 15 years of age or older, although you won’t be able to vote until you’re 16, and have been ordinarily resident in Guernsey for the last two consecutive years or for a total of five years at any time.

But how many 15- or 16-year-olds are being educated on how, when, where, and why to vote?

How many Guernsey residents of other nationalities are being encouraged to register to vote?

How many manifestos will be available in languages other than English?

These two demographics have the power to change the entire make-up of the States Assembly with their votes if they want to. Yet they are not usually actively engaged in the process.

We would love to see polling stations in school halls to make voting easier for students, with the public still benefitting from a location with ample parking, with the public being granted access outside school hours, the same as any school hall hire policy.

We would love to see a public awareness campaign about who can vote and how, and for that information to be provided in multiple languages, e.g. web-pages with an option to translate text.

We would love to see candidates actively trying to reach out to first-time voters of any demographic.

Our deputies are representative of voters, but not necessarily of the population. The only way to increase the chance that the 38 people holding seats in the next States Assembly are representative of the public, is for the public to vote for people we believe represent us.

SafetyNet is committed to educating the public about the voting process, to asking candidates questions on the public’s behalf, and to sharing the responses to those questions.

Power does not lie with 38 individuals. It lies with over 30,000 registered voters and over 64,000 members of the population.

We hope to see many more people empowered to vote in 2025 and will do all we can to support this. It is up to each of us to elect deputies who represent us, and it is our responsibility to hold our deputies to account if they let us down.