Presidents pay the price in election cull

The fear was that island-wide voting favoured incumbents. Tell that to the 10 sitting deputies who fell from grace, some spectacularly.

In raw numbers, this election was little different to 2016. Just one more sitting deputy failed to be re-elected and there are just two more new faces than in 2016. Four committee heads went last time, four went this.

But as the clock approached 2am and the gathering of 100 or so candidates, friends and media were absorbing an extraordinary election the shift felt seismic.

For the new deputies did not just creep in to take their place quietly. They smashed the door down.

If there was a lesson it was that you can succeed in island-wide voting as a new candidate, but you cannot start from nothing. You need a strong, pre-built network of supporters from sport, business or charity.

Oh, and don’t be a member of Education, Sport & Culture. The island’s verdict on the two-school debacle was brutal. All three standing members of the Gang of Four were dispatched, despite strong records in the States and in district elections.

We are a long way, too, from a party system. Of the ‘true’ parties only one was successful, the other annihilated.

In theory that means that just the six members of the Guernsey Party will act as a policy group. The rest will act as deputies have always done, forming loose alliances and switching when it suits.

Of more importance perhaps is the political hue of the new candidates. With some notable exceptions, the Assembly has perhaps shifted a little to the right. Coming battles over how to raise revenue to cover the Covid crisis and maintain social policies will be intense.

Finally, as you would expect from people who managed to gain the attention of at least 6,400 voters, the Assembly has upped its game with good communicators.

They must be employed to bring a more unified air to the States and convince islanders that their government is really listening.

Without that, the painful decisions that must be made in the coming months and years will drive a wedge between electorate and elected that will see another exodus in four years’ time.