Frustration and failure – and how to fix it?

‘The process is stultifying,’ he said at the time. ‘Most days, I get things coming through and think my goodness me, it’s going to be more difficult than I anticipated just to get things done.’

So maybe it should have been no surprise that the Chief Minister seemed to cut a rather frustrated figure in delivering an update on the work of Policy & Resources to the rest of the States yesterday.

He concluded: ‘Much has been done or is being done, but much, much more needs to be done.’

So now the knives will be out for the much-vaunted Government Work Plan, new, simplified and slimmed down less than 12 months ago, but now seen as too big and too unwieldy.

Deputy Ferbrache says there is much more work on the States’ plate than there is money or people to do it. And that has been obvious for some while. So government is again faced with calls to prioritise more vigorously, something that eager-to-please politicians and committees often struggle to do.

That ever-present tension between small government and the ever-growing wish list of services the community wants, and deputies want to be able to offer, is becoming more acute.

Tellingly, he has effectively warned the States again that it needs to be better at saying no.

So is third-party involvement a panacea? ‘Do we really work in collaboration with partners outside the States?’ Deputy Ferbrache asks. ‘Or do we continue with the view that in Guernsey only the States can deliver?’

Deputy Ferbrache was also unapologetic in outlining how he believes ‘we have woefully failed to meet the concerns of the bedrock of our community – those who work, do not have a bank of mum and dad, and who want to advance themselves and improve the lives of their families’.

Not being seen to fail the ‘ordinary islander’ should be the bedrock of any government – so to turn this around is a must, but hugely ambitious. It’s putting a lot of stock in the next iteration of the Government Work Plan to fix these problems. Can the States really fixate just on education, health, housing and facilitating wealth creation?