Wilful ignorance is a dangerous path to take

We know that process and procedure has bogged down decision making and there is a need to oil the wheels to unclog the system – one glance at progress on capital projects and the burdensome list of States resolutions makes that clear.

But there is also a balance to be struck so that it does not become the wild west with unaccountable and poor decisions being made in the darkened corridors of Frossard House.

So while it is time for a bonfire of the resolutions, that does not mean an uncontrolled burn.

It also does not mean a free for all where committees can simply ignore instructions and directions from votes in the States.

The philosophy that one States cannot bind another, for example, only holds as far as the next committee comes along and brings what it wants to be rid of back to the Assembly for a decision.

Times do change, seemingly solid decisions of the past look ill thought out a few years later – but wilfully ignoring what has been asked of you creates a dangerous precedent that it is OK to continue to do so, whatever the circumstances.

If committees are free simply to ignore resolutions at will, than the States chamber becomes an empty, meaningless vessel where hours of debate and scrutiny in the public eye count for nothing.

At its worst this is denying the democratic voice of the electorate who put the politicians into power in the first place as more and more of them are sidelined.

All politicians are policy makers, law makers and also scrutineers under our system, but if decisions of the States are rendered meaningless there is no faith or trust left in the system.

Maybe we have not got that far yet, but the Education president’s unwillingness this week to commit to following previous resolutions, or say whether the committee would seek to get them overturned, was a low point.