Benefits of being boring

It's often meant as a derogatory statement, but arguably, when done well, politics should be a bit boring.

When everything is running smoothly, controversies are kept to a minimum and any disagreements are handled professionally, then a sizeable proportion of the population is happy to let government rumble along without sparing it much thought.

It might engage more people when politics becomes more like a soap opera, full of drama, surprises, scandals and fights, especially when it involves ‘interesting’ personalities such as we saw with Donald Trump and Boris Johnson in recent years, but in the end that benefits no one – aside from news editors, that is.

In Guernsey, the spats which came to overshadow last week’s States meeting are a case in point.

It was certainly entertaining to listen to and resulted in some fine front-page stories in this newspaper, but few would consider it to be good for Guernsey.

What it did do was highlight that the divisions in the Assembly are more entrenched than ever, the clashes of egos even more savage. No matter whether the opinions espoused so publicly were justified or not, the manner in which they were expressed was unedifying to say the least.

Of course, we don’t expect all States members to get along at all times, but is it too much to hope that they might manage to show a little respect for one another?

'Boring’ politics has never seemed more appealing.