To progress, States must be willing to fail

Not before time, many critics would argue.

For there is no doubt that this States needs to pick up momentum, not just in the cloistered halls of Sir Charles Frossard House but in the minds of the public.

The final two years of this Assembly will be its last opportunity to demonstrate that this new political system can achieve substantial results in a timely and efficient manner.

Chief among the projects on target for delivery is the seafront enhancement, where a working party is looking at developing the harbour into a modern port.

It will be a controversial piece of work, not least because islanders are proud of the St Peter Port seafront and any development will be judged harshly in the court of public opinion.

Done right, however, and people’s eyes will be opened to the possibilities of a 21st century legacy development that delivers huge commercial and social benefits.

Some details on the harbour review are contained in the Policy & Resource plan update, a 200-page report that is intended to be a major step forward in transparency and accountability.

In doing so it attempts the impossible. It wants to look at the big picture of how the States is performing while including the finer details of myriad committee operations. It wants to look forward while all the time glancing over its shoulder at past events.

The result is a document that few islanders will take to bed. While it might be useful for deputies and their civil servants, most people will find it impossible to use as a gauge of how well this States is performing.

Part of that is because so few mechanisms have been set up to benchmark where we are on education, health, housing etc.

Until that is done, and committees have something against which they can be measured, the public perception of inertia will be hard to shift.

But to set those targets committees will have to be willing to fail in public.

Progress charts that show with clarity where the States is falling behind will never be popular.