Shotgun marriage ends badly

It was a shotgun marriage and the result has been predictably messy.

Quite what the States expected when it asked five members of Treasury who were fundamentally opposed to free pre-school education to come to an agreement with four members of Education who were passionately in favour (predictably, Mike Hadley was the Education rebel) is hard to understand.

The result was an impasse. Just because 27 members of the States supported the proposals Treasury clearly felt under no obligation to bend their principles towards a compromise, especially one that involved cutting the grant for the colleges.

After all, if the funding cannot be agreed, pre-school education withers on the vine and Treasury gets its way. The incentive for them to accept a universal benefit such as free pre-school education was non-existent.

Under those circumstances the best it could offer was a grudging suggestion that budgets across the board might be cut.

This, of course, would upset every other department and was the least likely proposal to gain States' approval.

Not surprisingly, Education has seen that for the sucker punch it is and rejected it.

The result is going to be a real test of deputies' resolve. When there was no money at stake, almost two-thirds of the Assembly voted in favour of pre-school education.

The evidence is strong that it gives children a head start which can still be detected in their performance years later. Plus, for every pound spent early savings of between £7 and £18 are generated further down the line.

Now there is a chance of losing their own budgets, however, deputies might be less gung-ho.

Expect Treasury to get much stronger backing this time around. The urge to kick the whole issue into the long grass may be too strong for many.