Guernsey Press

No sign of the poison of party politics

AS POLITICAL parties in the UK attack each other with increasing vitriol, the island should be grateful such tribal tensions are not part of local elections.

Published

With every denunciation, accusation, lie and verbal assault, the partisan nature of UK elections threatens to shatter what little remains of a sense of national unity.

With just over 200 working days to go to Guernsey’s first island-wide election, there are few signs of the political parties that people said would be essential if voting for 80 or more candidates was not to become a logistical nightmare.

Attempts to form island parties have been largely half-hearted and, aside from a few devotees, have failed to gain widespread support.

None has even gone as far as to call itself a party, preferring to be political associations.

The best organised would appear to the 2020 Association, ‘a group of concerned people working together to improve the way our Bailiwick is governed’.

Their stated purpose is to bring together a cohesive group of capable politicians who are ‘willing to act sensibly but decisively’.

With a series of similarly inoffensive aims and ambitions – including reducing non-degradable plastics and respecting broad public opinion – there is little yet for prospective voters and candidates, or opponents, to get their teeth into.

As the June election nears, a manifesto will surely appear and there will be the opportunity for the association to mark out its political territory with more vigour.

Until that time it is all rather vague.

Good intentions to comment on proposals brought to current States meetings appear to have dwindled away. The last such post was in July and even a seminal political moment like last week’s Budget has not drawn public comment.

So with the 2020 Association seemingly in stasis and no sign of a rival organisation to offer a different political perspective, the likelihood is that the election on 17 June will, once again, be fought largely by a collection of individuals with a whole host of political views, some of which voters will agree with, some they will not.

Based on the negative campaigning in the UK, the only answer to that is: thank goodness.