'No-one likes us, we don't care'

To the tune of Rod Stewart’s Sailing – ‘No-one likes us, no-one likes us, no-one likes us, we don’t care.’

We’re told it’s now also been used around the table at the Policy & Resources Committee as the senior States committee continues to try to exert some fiscal and procedural discipline on its colleagues through the Government Work Plan process.

The GWP first came out last summer. As we said at the time, one of its early aims was to take some of the joy from the job of being a member of the States, stopping ‘vanity projects’ and attempts at requetes to push pet ideas (and the funding for them) up the government agenda.

Deputy Heidi Soulsby, the politician who leads on the GWP for P&R, says the process is creating more rigour within the States, and order, and tries to make things work more smoothly.

‘What we’ve done is created order here, and for some that might seem unfair, because they want to put in a requete here and a requete there, but requetes don’t really help in this scheme of things,’ she said.

Deputy Soulsby says she and her colleagues are still seeking buy-in from fellow deputies to the plan, and its future iterations.

It should next be back before the States for an update in June, when the extent of the fresh ambition, the financial implications, and how that money will be raised, will be telling.

‘We’re helping and supporting other committees, which is really good. We’re trying, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will love us.’

The GWP might be on the way to achieving great things for the community, according to the politician behind it, but the true implications of some of its financial measures, which deputies voted through last summer, are still to be revealed. Members delegated authority for millions of pounds in capital spending to P&R, with barely any debate.

At the end of the day, we might not like it – and P&R might not care.