Guernsey Press

Parties make hard work of the honeymoon

GETTING a party going is hard work.

Published

A political party requires trust and understanding between its members and organisational skills to meet a relentless series of challenges.

It also needs constant nurturing. Left on its own it will wither away. A quality leader around whom members can coalesce is a must-have.

The history of political parties in Guernsey shows how difficult they are to get right. Most have failed and few have influenced policy to any great extent.

The two front runners in the island’s embryonic party system will not be putting forward any candidates in October’s election. Either the island is not ready for them or they are not ready for the island.

Of the three remaining groups, one insists it is not a real party anyway, just a collection of individual candidates who share common values, not policies.

The other two are running short of time to develop their ideas and communicate them through their candidates.

With the election just six weeks away it seems the island is not to get the revolution some predicted when island-wide voting was endorsed in the referendum.

For, hard though it has been made to look, it is just the start. This is a honeymoon for candidates brought together under one banner, before the real business of government has even begun.

To come are a legion of difficult decisions, where deputies with passion for their politics will struggle to subsume themselves for the party good. If candidates have failed to stick together and agree policies when there was no real consequences at stake and no public questioning to face down, how will it be when the heat is turned up?

At that point, with no system of party discipline and four years before the next election, the glue will come unstuck and deputies will go their own way.

Perhaps that is no bad thing. Guernsey has always been lukewarm about political parties. Deputies are respected for knowing their minds and putting their ideas plainly without trying to ‘play politics’.

As the four-year term progresses the chances are that the States of 2024 will look just as much a collection of individuals as that of 2020.