New political alliances will need more than empty-headed spin

That all fizzled out, but the belief that there is a different and better way to operate politics here clearly did not.

A few things have coalesced to drive this forward.

One is discontent with the new system of government and how it is operating.

Another is simply personality clashes.

Yet another is the impending island-wide voting referendum – which has been set up on the basis of campaign groups forming to back different options.

Somewhat ironically given those involved in designing that referendum, they might just have helped trigger a move to what would, taken to its ultimate conclusion, eventually become party politics and executive government.

Now everyone is at pains to stress whatever they are doing is not setting up a political party, because in Guernsey, those are dirty words – an anathema to the consensus model.

So for now we have the ‘not a party’ phenomena, whereby members are increasingly going through the thesaurus trying to find new terms to describe what they are up to in an effort to make Guernsey great again.

We have the charter, we have a political association and we have the rather nebulous ‘new politics’.

There is a bit of one-upmanship going on here.

Policy & Resources president Gavin St Pier went public with his desire to drive forward a ‘new politics’ at a Chamber of Commerce speech in January.

With Deputy Heidi Soulsby on board, last week he met with 40 members of the public who were interested in taking things forward.

Not to be left behind, on Friday deputies Peter Ferbrache, Carl Meerveld and Joe Mooney came out with their vision of an association.

They want people to join to create a manifesto that candidates can stand on in the next election.

Both these moves are at very early stages, but putting them in the public spotlight creates a healthy pressure that they will have to amount to something or leave those behind them very red faced.

There is more public flesh on the bone at this stage of the associates’ plan.

And much of it is following a party pattern, whether those behind it like to admit it or not. Putting together a membership to draw up a manifesto that candidates from the group in the next election will stand on, looking to fund-raise, wanting people with experience in areas like policy development and public relations to join, all sound terribly like a political party functioning.

They say there will not be an executive structure, but there needs to be leadership for any initiative like this to work.

In arguing why it is not a party, they trot out a line about there being no whip – but that is only a character of party politics in countries influenced by the British system.

We wait and see how much interest there is in the association, whether its influence spreads much beyond Deputy Meerveld’s shed.

They have an open-door policy at the moment for anyone to get involved, but no starting vision of where they stand politically – you have to read between the lines for that, except to back island-wide voting.

How they would cope with a coalition of environmentalists turning up and voting through a host of green manifesto goals would be interesting, for instance. Although a slightly mischievous thought, that is the kind of conflict the association will have to work through and find mechanisms to do so in an open and transparent way.

They argue that deputies in the association would be free to vote as they wish, which is all rather sweetness and light and all things nice.

The reality, of course, would be somewhat different behind the scenes, the pressure from the (not) party members would be brought to bear.

Those signed-up members, if as invested in the decision- and policy-making process as the launch document described, would feel a right to have their expectations met.

It is a shame that the Association is playing the same game that the Charterists have done – arguing things are broken but not saying what, saying the key issues aren’t being addressed, but not what those are.

The public is tired of that empty-headed spin and is deserving of more depth.

Because fundamentally it is an exciting idea and one that should not dismissed lightly.

Done correctly – and for the right reasons – it will change the face of local politics.

But be upfront.

The goal is to field candidates with agreed policy positions.

To enact those, you would then want your members in positions of power and influence within the States – indeed, ultimately you would want majority positions on committees and in the Assembly as that is the only way to steer your new course.

That may make some uncomfortable, but it is an inevitable consequence if the association or any other body is to have any real effect beyond navel gazing.

What we do know is that the association will campaign in favour of island-wide voting, while the ‘new politics’ crowd are also making their minds up what position to take.

So we will get an early test of just how effective these operations are – and how well they are received by the wider population.

Is Guernsey ready for unelected members influencing the political process like never before, or will that be viewed as positive democratic engagement?

Will the association members – remember that Deputy Peter Ferbrache resigned as Economic Development president and Deputy Carl Meerveld from Education – have enough currency to get a sustainable operation off the ground?

Will the new politics come out with a coherent vision for the public to buy into?

Or will we be here in six months to a year’s time wondering whatever happened to the brave new world launched in a St Sampson’s shed one cold February morning.

History is not on their side here.