States meeting set to make big changes to island life

SOME weeks in politics shape everyday life.

In stark contrast to last month's debate, which trudged wearily through worthy but ever so dull internal moving of some political furniture, the meeting which begins today will have a decisive and tangible impact on Guernsey's society.

Complete deregulation of Sunday trading, and gay marriage are both divisive issues. One, Sunday trading, has been bouncing back again and again as members catch up with the public mood, while the other has shown that much of society is much more willing to embrace significant change than ministers themselves thought.

This could be a week of true modernising – but in celebrating that, members will be acutely aware, as some will reflect in voting against the moves, that not all are happy with the changes on the table and hold other beliefs and viewpoints.

It is rare that issues are a case of a simple right or wrong – even science, at its very heart 'evidence' based, has shown that as time moves on, so do the theories and thinking.

We are lucky to live in a society where free speech has been established and ingrained since the Second World War.

It is free speech that has allowed people to speak out against both Sunday trading restrictions and marriage inequality, which first slowly started to move thinking on the issues and latterly has taken on a snowballing momentum.

States watchers might cast their minds back to the Roffey requete which sparked the investigation into civil partnerships in 2006.

Even in those relatively modern times there were speeches that would make you uncomfortable because of how people were expressing their views, but the requete won through.

It has been a stain on successive States records that the investigation that should have been sparked by that requete was stalled, put in the 'too difficult to deal with' pile.

For all this States' faults, its members are to be credited with finally moving that forward.

The Roffey requete was a pragmatic one – it did not push so far that it would scare off all the chances of progress.

When the Policy Council led by the chief minister went out to consultation on its compromise union civile proposals, it no doubt felt it too was being pragmatic – that full marriage would not find favour with Guernsey's society.

Its error was to misjudge the public mood nearly a decade on, to come up with a proposal that most could see would not be understood by other countries, leading to further problems, and one that was not creating equality but stripping away existing marriage rights from one part of the population. Perhaps it too felt that any religious objections would be too difficult to overcome.

What it found was that people were much more accepting of gay marriage than it expected, that where it saw problems others saw solutions.

Some deputies, though, will vote against gay marriage.

They may also be some whom people would not expect to do so, given that they would normally hold liberal viewpoints on these issues. At the heart of those objections will probably be a religious viewpoint.

If real life operated by the same standards as some swathes of people using social media at the moment, those deputies would be deleted, stripped of their voice to speak on all issues and cast out.

It would not matter that they may be progressive, a real force for positive action for equality in other ways and not just a bandwagon jumper.

Pluralist arguments and differing viewpoints are healthy, at times acting as checks and balances, at others as drivers for change. Sometimes the maxim 'I disagree with what you say but will fight for your right to say it' needs to be reflected upon.

The strongest argument will always win out – indeed, those arguing against a change to gay marriage have only served to reinforce how wrong they are.

It can also be debilitating and ultimately regressive to hold onto a purist view without recognising that compromise can lead down the road to the destination you eventually want to get to. These proposals even have an opt-out for churches – a pragmatic approach that respects other beliefs yet still allows change to happen. Another decade on, the goalposts will no doubt move again.

The route to gay marriage has been slow, but in reality was in two waves – the requete and then the proposal to change the law. If, as is likely, it is passed, there will be significant pressure that the new law be drawn up and approved with the kind of pace that the States sees fit to apply to other urgent areas such as financial regulation. There is little point passing the policy without pushing through the legislation that brings it into action.

The route to total deregulation of Sunday trading has too been slow, but differs to gay marriage in that it has been tortuous, returning time and time again.

Only weeks have passed since members finally agreed to the move to be ready in time for Christmas and yet an amendment could still see them back away from that.

Traditionally, when debating legislation it is meant to be a time of simply scrutinising whether it matches the policy the States has already agreed – not for reopening debate on the issue itself.

Indeed, the States rarely does the first bit anyway.

Where there might be a case for more debate, that should only be about ensuring the legislation is current and reflects where society is – otherwise the States ends up merrily debating the same points ad nauseam.

In the case of Sunday trading, it is difficult to see how the argument can be the latter when that was already subjected to scrutiny in the policy debate at the start of October.

This is why those in the anti- total deregulation brigade who shout hypocrite at those who back free speech on the one hand but believe the time for debate on Sunday trading is over are mostly wrong; it is, perhaps, a practical hypocrisy, accepting that at some point the time for talk has to be over.

So by the end of this week, Guernsey could be just a couple of years away from its first gay marriage and days away from all shops being able to open on a Sunday.

Where will we be in another 10 years' time?