Guernsey cannot afford to operate in the slow lane

For a while the noise all dies down, the public sector gets to knuckle down without the distraction of their political masters jockeying around policy and we can all breathe.

This break has come at an opportune time to take the sting out of some of the personality clashes that have begun to mire this Assembly.

Politics is never at its best when positions are taken simply in opposition to the person backing the policy, not the policy itself.

And some two years and a bit into the term, those cliques and groupings are now firmly established.

This States, though, needs to become much more nimble and active, so far it has underperformed in some key areas, while successes have been inherited from the previous Assembly, which was never much loved itself.

There has been little economic development to speak of – that remains the most damning sign of inertia so far – two wasted years with no fresh thinking to make sure the engine room is purring.

With a new committee in the hot seat there is optimism, but they will have to ensure they are not dragged down by those who can now snipe from the sidelines.

Of course, there is an interesting symmetry with Deputy Charles Parkinson moving in as Economic Development president while Peter Ferbrache takes on his old seat as president of the soon-to-be-expanded States’ Trading Supervisory Board.

They are two committees whose work should dovetail if there is to be success, but it is a natural point of tension at the moment.

Perhaps Deputy Ferbrache will want to bring in his former vice-president at Eco Dev, Jan Kuttelwascher, onto the STSB board? He has, after all, been vocal on some of the big areas of its responsibility, the airport and waste management, in the past.

It seems like a natural fit from the outside.

Deputy Kuttelwascher is, of course, now trying to see through a runway extension of sorts through a requete, a topic which he was in a prime position to ensure happened in those wasted months on Economic Development.

Wait a few months and there could be a new perspective on what Guernsey should do with its two gateways when we see the results of a report looking at the airport and harbour, just how they interact.

The impact of cheaper air travel on the ferry sector and therefore the cargo routes, for example, is something not well understood.

Two years on and the travel riddle has not been solved.

The reaction to the move to open skies was simply the loss of connectivity from Blue Islands, and a muted response from other carriers that are expected to improve the situation.

It is a major blot of this term that the States still does not really know what it wants to do with Aurigny – an example of how bogged down things have become.

Another example of the States wading through treacle is its capital programme.

It simply is not investing in the island’s infrastructure at anything like the pace it anticipated at the start of this term – that has economic and well as social consequences.

We know there are big projects in the pipeline that have been delayed because of political meanderings – the secondary and post-16 schools debate.

But there is a host of smaller projects that were down for delivery before now that are still on the drawing board – CCTV replacement, the Leopardess replacement, the new cremator, flood defences on the Bridge, work on the Town fire station and so on.

Last term capital spend was getting strangled by process. If that is not the case this time, the implication is that there is simply not enough staff resource being devoted to get momentum.

Dovetail that with recent warnings that some committees are pursuing projects that are not in line with the States’ agreed priorities and you get the impression that a renewed laser-like focus is needed to drive things forward.

This States, like others before it, gets overly consumed with looking inwards at its own workings, to changing committee mandates for example, areas of comfort around the navel that do little for positive social or economic change, which after all, really should be the main focus.

Members are also distracted by the embryonic stages of creating political groupings, the ‘not-party’ phenomena was not experienced by previous administrations.

Things will start to ramp up again now, especially if history repeats itself and the third year of a term is where all of a sudden reports and policy initiatives flow.

The culmination of the education debate is a big one, particularly when it becomes clear what the costs and consequences are, the island-wide voting referendum a subject members will revel in.

Managing the fall-out from Brexit is a challenge the likes of which has never been seen before.

And that returns us neatly to nimbleness.

Guernsey simply cannot afford to be operating in the slow lane any more.

The consequences would be an island suffering irreparable damage because of international political moves.