Promises, promises, promises

As 119 manifestos landed with a thump on the island’s digital doorsteps yesterday the promises were piled high.

Politics never looks more cynical than at election time, when the electorate are asked to believe in a world of great services at minimal cost, delivered not with new taxes but with a smile through unseen efficiencies and fairy dust.

In this fantasy world the insoluble and intractable are quickly defeated through the simple application of common sense and communication. If only.

It is a game. One which voters play as well as candidates. The actors come and go, but the lines are the same.

In a few weeks the 38 winning candidates’ message will change. Rather like the ‘I’m afraid there is no money’ note left by Liam Byrne to his successor a decade ago, tough times lie ahead.

Faced with the grim reality of the situation, deputies will do what they have always done and look for ways to maximise revenue while trimming some fat off the bone.

Revenue growth can come only through a booming economy or wringing more cash from each taxpayer.

The hundreds of millions set aside in potential borrowings may look impressive but will be quickly eaten up by a few major infrastructure projects or, worse, scores of pet projects from each committee.

In the meantime, States incomes will still be reeling from the effects of Covid-19 while their costs remain stubbornly high.

At that point, pledges to turn Guernsey into an ecological paradise with social equality and good wages for all will look harder to achieve than they did in the first draft of that upbeat manifesto.

Realism is a difficult message to sell. The politicians willing even to try it are few and far between. Even rarer are those who can pull it off.

But if the island is to ride the stormy waves of Brexit, the pandemic and a shrinking number of taxpayers, voters must look past the tissue thin promises and search for substance and the ability to make difficult decisions.