A question of questions

THANK heavens for interfering politicians, the kind of people’s representative who can’t resist poking his or her nose into the affairs of the day, and asking the kind of questions that the public, and the media, would like to get answered.

For as this week proved in the States of Jersey, there’s nothing like a bit of sunlight to bring a disinfectant effect to a thorny issue.

After a couple of weeks of not ducking interviews, but barely participating in them, Jersey’s sustainable economic development minister Kirsten Morel was finally held to account by his political colleagues. And, confidence bolstered by parliamentary privilege, they sought to really expose what was going on under the bonnet of the ferry tender process, including some of the raw details of Condor’s finances.

So interesting was the episode on Tuesday, that they repeated it again yesterday.

Now if there were to be parliamentary questions raised in the Guernsey States Assembly today, then we’re sure that deputies would get engaged. But isn’t it surprising, disappointing even, that no elected representative has decided that this ongoing saga is worthy of a public query or clarification?

Well it’s disappointing, but it’s not surprising. This States generally has shown very little appetite for pursuit of truth, or to improve their understanding, and thereby, that of the public.

To prove the point, this week’s Scrutiny hearing on Education has been well received – it just makes one wonder why we don’t have more of it.