Policies not calendar will define States

Much is made in political circles of the first 100 days.

President-elect Joe Biden says he will bring forward more than a dozen initiatives on immigration alone by the end of April.

Outside of that are ideas to battle Covid-19, including a vaccine distribution plan and a new coronavirus aid package.

Governments like to hit the ground running.

So much so that the island’s only true political party, the Guernsey Party, devoted an entire section of its manifesto to the First 100 Days.

The strategic objectives laid out were ambitious: a review of the capital expenditure plan, publish a plan for public sector restructure, conduct an emergency review of Aurigny and create a red tape hotline for the public and civil servants to flag up wasteful government practices.

Of course, the Guernsey Party is just a small part of the Assembly. Six members out of 40 cannot move mountains.

However, it is noticeable how many of the party’s key topics have come to the fore in the past 100 days. A better way of appointing quality non-States members, ‘engaging’ with nursing representatives to solve the pay dispute and reviewing the tender process for local businesses.

For a consensus government 100-day plans are not a panacea. They do help, however, to bring ambition and focus.

What may be more telling is the next 100 and 200 days. What will happen by the first days of May and August?

Which big policies are in the pipeline? Not just measures that a committee can enact on its own, but ones that require a policy letter and the building of a majority on the floor of the Assembly.

Policies such as secondary pensions, a new education system, changes to taxation or a Covid stimulation package.

These offer States members their chance to launch a flagship policy that will start to define this Assembly.