Parties are no fun for pragmatists

Do we aspire to the yah-boo politics of the UK, where speakers are shouted down as much for their party loyalty as what they say?

Or is it to be like the USA, where even a subject such as gun control and the murder of children in schools is polarised and politicised to the point that progress seems impossible.

Since when has increased division been the answer to any problem?

Whether it is the prospect of island-wide voting from 2020 or the frustration of a flawed consensus political system in a world where compromise is seen as a dirty word, the States of Guernsey seems increasingly drawn towards some form of party structure.

Charter 2018 insists it is not a party. It has no leader and no mechanism to force a block vote.

Yet it aspires to shared values and its charter could be construed as a manifesto, albeit one devoid of detail and full of contradictions.

As a political group it is hostile to ‘left-leaning’ deputies, whoever they may be.

In the wings we hear there are plans for another more traditional political party to be announced shortly, one which will presumably invite voters to back candidates in the 2020 general election.

These are bold steps.

The formation of parties will divide the 38-member States into a ‘them and us’. Inevitably, it will become more adversarial. Loose alliances will transform into tight bonds.

What place is there in all this for the centrists, the practical politicians willing to look at each issue on its merits, to yield and compromise when needed?

Traditionally, such people have been the backbone of island politics. Common-sense deputies who do not identify with left or right, just right and wrong.

They are the glue which holds the island’s unicameral system together, who hold us to a central course and give the island its reputation for stable government.

Is it in the island’s interests to abandon that stability in favour of the blinkered visions of party politics?