Consensus puts a smile on States
Aside from the muted celebration of, apparently once again getting the Les Ozouets monkey off their backs yesterday, deputies were a mix of frustration and incredulity at how, suddenly, books which just would not balance have seen the right numbers magically fall into place.
Having failed to steer his committee through choppy waters of unfunded borrowing, and repeatedly been told that the lifebelt of higher corporate taxes could not be unleashed, Peter Ferbrache could be justifiably frustrated that ultimately he had carried the can for a missing £20m. or so – what Deputy Trott was able to euphemistically call ‘a pinch of good fortune’.
Some members remained worried about the durability of this fortune and whether they were, effectively, sanctioning unfunded borrowing.
But we won’t know, almost certainly, until this Assembly have been replaced.
The big positive from yesterday’s States meeting, its first under its new regime, was the absence, largely, of open warfare and tribalism in parliamentary relations, replaced by cordial compromise and, as Deputy Trott trumpeted, the return of consensus politics. Such terms were discredited when this States was going to tear up the rule book and get things done.
But it’s the Guernsey way, and whether the Les Ozouets package and vote may ultimately prove to be flawed in due course, debate yesterday felt all the better for it.