Government needs reviewing so deputies can tackle big issues

It was not the quality of the candidates, the quality of the chairperson or the validity of questions raised that resulted in our leaving early and feeling despondent. It was the renewed realisation that our current system of government has the same candidates who should be talking about how they'd safeguard our future by being ahead of the curve on issues, thinking long term and being globally aware, also having to deal with queries about bus routes and other more parochial issues.

The island's issues are huge, global and pressing. Like it or not we cannot ignore the rest of the world and the recent Panama Papers scandal resulting in our being named and more than a little shamed in Parliament, some national papers and who knows where else is recent proof.

We cannot afford to have the same people who need to keep abreast of global requirements and manage budgets into tens of millions also have to spend time dealing with the minutiae of very local issues – often daily.

What we're currently doing is akin to holding the MD responsible and accountable for the financial viability of the company and the future of our jobs – and to save money on the coffee and solve our problems with the photocopier.

I am not for a minute dismissing the importance of local issues. I would love to see a better bus service and complaints must be heard in order to get there. The issues preceding the compulsory purchase of those houses near the power station desperately needed resolving, as did those around burial costs at the Foulon Cemetery a few years ago.

I just don't want them handled in every detail by the very people we need to be focusing on more global and complex issues.

One of our previous greatest blessings – accessibility of deputies – risks becoming our undoing – distracted deputies.

Island-wide voting isn't going to change this issue. Nor is tinkering at the edges and dropping a few deputies. A more radical change is required.

Maybe we need a better resourced and more powerful douzaine to handle issues specific to our electoral district, regular meetings of all island douzaines and if necessary, serious issues are taken to the States of Deliberation consisting of fewer, more senior deputies, with a minimum critical level of relevant skills and experience?

There will be multiple other possible solutions – including one which gives us all the attention we deserve re our local and more personal issues as well as the ability to have confidence in a competent and appropriate government.

I probably should have stayed longer and asked a question to elicit the candidates' views on the current system. I failed as a voter at my hustings – but don't want to fail as an islander by not stimulating further thought about the system via which we're being governed.

I know I'm not the first to voice such concerns. I hope I'm not the last. I will stay active and lobby deputies to continue reviewing the system – but with greater urgency and more radically. If anyone else shares these concerns please lobby your new deputies too.

And if anyone else at another hustings feels motivated to ask a question about candidates' views on whether our existing system of government is suitable for the current times, I'll look forward to reading the answers in my Press. Even if I can't vote for them (yet) at least I'll know who to lobby first.

HELEN O'MEARA,

La Terre Norgiot House,

Rue de la Terre Norgiot,

St Saviour's,

GY7 9JW.