P&R to jump – or get the push?
FOR a committee often criticised for political naivety, the members of Policy & Resources pulled a blinder at the end of play on Friday.
They would have expected to field the question ‘will you resign?’ after their Funding and Investment Plan again failed to get the backing of their colleagues.
The media would not have expected to hear the response that not only should they go, so should 36 colleagues (Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq was understood not to be part of the ‘election pact’ due to illness-induced absence).
And so the headlines changed and the expectation began. But over the weekend, the fragility of the proposal has become exposed to the point that it was at one time thought it might not even survive until today.
So forget about Vote 2024 – focus this week will fall back on P&R’s future, and, frankly, what, if anything, this States can rescue from a government term that promised much and has delivered disappointingly little, and generally been conducted in a way that voters won’t forget.
The dilemma for deputies wondering whether to try to force P&R’s hand will be whether regime change can achieve anything in 18 months.
The dilemma for P&R will be how they read the States Chamber and whether, as was thought increasingly possible over the last 48 hours, they decide to jump before they are pushed.