An Islands’ MP won’t see us heard
IT’S been a week for the media to set hares running. Some of them justified, some of them far-flung ideas, all of them producing plenty of heat and ultimately, little light.
One trying to race away has been the suggestion that the Channel Islands should be represented in the House of Commons, following vague comments from Sir Lindsay Hoyle as he unveiled the islands being represented in stained glass in the Speaker’s House in the new Palace of Westminster.
It’s one thing saying the islands have been ‘overlooked for too long’, and was certainly let down over Brexit, but quite another extending that to a desire for elected representation in the House of Commons. Understandably, nobody has signed up to that idea – indeed, the opposition is strident, and limited only by the fact that it’s an idea that won’t be running any time soon.
Guernsey is perfectly happy with its relationship with the UK being through the Crown, rather than politically. We can make our voice heard through Whitehall discussions at officer and ministerial level, rather than in a Commons debate. Respect for those historic arrangements is more easily managed behind closed doors.
That relationship may be subject to further scrutiny, and a need for reinforcement, over time, but at present it serves us well. Being one voice in 650, and the sacrifice that would come with that, would do us no good at all.