Can we mix politics and business?
FOR the best part of a decade, Nigel Vooght led the work of the accounting giant PwC, in banking and capital markets, insurance and asset management industries worldwide.
He retired to Alderney and two years ago decided to put his name in the frame to stand for the States, a decision one suspects would have been welcomed by Alderney voters.
Mr Vooght is now moving on, clearly frustrated by the way that politics works, or rather doesn’t work, as he sees it, in the northern isle.
We don’t know the full details but the situation, and the frequency of similar occurrences, begs the question – why do so many people, drawn from business into politics, often hailed as ‘just the kind of person we need’, then struggle to deal with the reality?
We’ve seen them come and go, almost inevitably having pledged to achieve something, deeply frustrated that they haven’t. It can be said that government and business serve fundamentally different purposes, but one wonders what it would take to bring the two closer together.
Is our politics so poor? To return to last week's States debate, is it the system? Or the people? Something else?
It’s a shame when high achievers say they can’t make it work, whether it’s the system, the pace of progress, or the dog-eat-dog nature of the game.
We can’t afford to lose people who should be very able.