Realistic to temper our expectation
A deputy, not a present or previous member of the Policy & Resources Committee, let it be known they were disappointed that this column gave the new P&R no honeymoon period on its election last week.
We could argue there’s little point in spending a week or so dreaming of ‘sunlit uplands’ when the reality is there’s a real chance of experiencing more of the similar.
They could heed the wise words of that savvy political operator Deputy Carl Meerveld, who summed up the P&R reign, saying ‘great expectations lead to great disappointment’.
Certainly P&R gave cause, back in 2020, to believe in their great expectations. Sadly the prospects of delivering on them evaporated quickly. But there was an intent there, the likes of which we hadn’t seen before. Enthusiastic voters, buoyed by election fever, want to see their popular politicians talking tough, not being mealy-mouthed.
Maybe the cause not to over-celebrate the accession of a new P&R was recognition, as was pointed out by some of P&R’s former members, that it is easy to overestimate what that committee can achieve, especially when it comes to bringing the rest of the States along with it. Days of accepting the senior committee knows better than colleagues are long past.
So there’s a danger now of talking too much, and doing too little.