Election calm must give way to political storm

AFTER all the storms that raged around the chief minister election, last week's was a quiet affair.

It was certainly a show of remarkable unity, with so many seats won without a contest.

Now you can read into that many things.

A cynic might suggest that some felt they were better off out of some of the committees, which now face a tough four years.

The flat rate of pay may have acted as a disincentive to try and get as many seats as possible.

Or we may just be entering a term where contentment and the willingness to work together for the greater good will thrive.

There is certainly an, at times, infectious sense of optimism from the new members and clearly some ambition too, with a few finding themselves in absolutely key ministerial positions for the coming years – Gavin St Pier at Treasury and Kevin Stewart at Commerce and Employment, for instance.

There is going to be a very steep learning curve if the Guernsey States of Novices is going to succeed, although that is not to say it cannot be done.

Lessons from the past suggest it can be difficult for boards with no experience of their mandates to get straight on top of their brief, though – just look what happened at Education last term.

In one key way the internal election process, under which Guernsey's government was formed in just four hours, has been a disappointment.

Ask yourselves what direction you expect Treasury, Home, Education, Health and Social Services and Housing to take this year.

All five had their entire board elected without a contest and so

no chance for the States to hear about the members' ambitions or skills.

There must have been a lot of communication between the members before the elections took place, CVs being passed on, political beliefs being expressed, otherwise there has been a giant leap into the unknown.

And even if there was, what of the public?

Now, more than ever, the new boards need to be proactive and declare their hands and the direction they expect to take over the next term as soon as practical.

Some have suggested that this in a way puts even more pressure on the respective ministers – you named your team, so if there are any failings you are responsible.

On the key departments of Treasury, Commerce and Employment and Social Security only one deputy, Mark Dorey, has any experience of the department.

There are positives to be drawn from that clean slate.

It is clearly a chance to look at things afresh, to question ingrained practices and identify new opportunities.

But there is also the grave danger of novices being fed information that they take at face value without having the background to ask the awkward questions.

The balance to this last point may well, in two ways, be in the strength of the scrutiny function of this States.

The first is the ability of those who have been elected onto the three committees themselves, as well as the desire to work collectively shown by the chairman of Public Accounts and Legislation Select being given seats on Scrutiny.

In the likes of Scott Ogier, Andrew Le Lievre, Matt Fallaize and Peter Gillson, the Scrutiny Committee itself, chaired by Paul Arditti, has a lot of bases covered when it comes to holding policy makers to account.

But this term will also see another new dynamic which has not been in play before – independent scrutiny.

Expect to see former chief minister Lyndon Trott and West poll-topper Roger Perrot working in tandem to expose any weaknesses in policy letters coming to the States while also offering their skills to those in power as and when called upon – in the latter's case, particularly on constitution issues.

Deputy Mary Lowe suffered badly throughout the election process and is also left without a seat on any department or committee – she will not be sitting back quietly,

as already shown by her moves to move a requete on electronic voting.

The only other member without any committee or department seats is Lester Queripel. He had one eye on Scrutiny and has said he will now focus on areas where money is being wasted.

So the level of political debate and analysis has all the hallmarks of being high.

The calm which typified the last stages of the election process I suspect is not going to continue – there are too many strong characters for that to happen.

Nor is it a bad thing for some degree of opposition to form in whatever shape – rigorous, evidence-based decision-making is what is needed of government, not four years of self-congratulation.