What if Mrs Le Patourel likes to listen to Dido?

The embodiment of the Guernsey housewife, stood at the door of her Torteval cottage with armfuls of chancre, bass and spider crabs bought off some burly fisherman, came up time and again as deputies sought to hammer home that they, not the opposition, were in touch with the ordinary islander.

Economic Development president Neil Inder took his ‘man of the people’ stance a step further, decrying wine-quaffing, Dido-listening, high finance types in the Assembly who could not see that his committee was backing ‘real people with real jobs’.

In the end the populist rhetoric proved, like the new legislation, to be overkill. Just four deputies voted against a proposal that will criminalise anyone buying fish off unlicensed fishermen.

Just how long that regulation takes to be drafted remains to be seen. It is easy to imagine the Law Officers have more pressing matters to hand.

Perhaps one day it will, like the redundant resolutions appended to the Government Work Plan, be expunged.

Of more long-term concern is the tetchiness that accompanied a debate which, in the grand scheme of things, is small fry.

Snide personal barbs aimed at fellow deputies were sneaked through under cover of humour, the give way request was thoroughly abused and dubious points of correction and order abounded.

Respect for the views of others was in short supply.

At one point there was a third attempt to guillotine the debate as members bridled with impatience. Although just a couple of deputies wanted to speak, the motion to cut short discussion was still pressed to a vote. When the Bailiff ruled that had been lost, a recorded vote was called for and the minutes dragged by.

It was not time they wanted to save, just time listening to opposing views.

If this is what it is like after six months it does not augur well for the years ahead when issues of much greater import are discussed.

Senior States figures have been quick to say how harmonious this Assembly is compared to the last. Perhaps they could take that conciliatory spirit into the Chamber?