Ignore public views at your peril, deputies

This once again proves that there is such a wide gap of the States deputies and the electorate’s views. Do they ever take notice of what the public feel? And of course there will be repercussions in the next elections for quite a few of them. Fantastic to see the names of those who totally ignored the electorate’s views – not only that, also the people who really matter, that being the teachers themselves and their unions’ views also. Of course, there are a few of them who will not be standing at the next election anyway, but of those who do, it will be interesting to see who will survive. Maybe it was the green army who stood outside the States on the day of debate that made them vote against the requete, as one particular deputy remarked that ‘she’ does not like this form of shouting, as it was good-natured and certainly not abusive (?). Just people’s views on the subject, the people who vote them into power, not a ‘rabble’, but many intelligent people from all walks of life banded together.

Also in the same Press, two deputies remarked that there was a problem with teacher recruitment because of the requete. Surely this is due to the possible (one-school, two-sites idea) (?) option. To prove this, nearly 90% of teachers are against this idea, not about the requete; they and their union have no confidence in this format and support the requete.

It is such a shame that our government is split down the middle on such an important issue.

What is quite surprising is that there had already been two States votes to pass this one-school, two-site option, and yet the problems involved in this never came to light. No teacher or union involvement, nor put to the people who really count, which is the parents of children. It is their future these States members are playing with. The idea of just sticking your hand up to vote without any real knowledge of what could be involved in this ESC idea is just beyond belief.

In one respect, we can’t blame those who did vote for this idea without the pitfalls now being discussed, and that blame lies with ESC.

Can one imagine what further problems may have arisen if they had continued with their present option?

All deputies, please take note that the 17 of you who ignored the public views on this subject and that list published in the Guernsey Press on 4 March, beware.

Let’s look forward now to this review, and stop fighting amongst yourselves, for the future of our children’s education.

R. S. MAUGER

Valletta,

Rue des Frieteaux,

St Martin’s,

GY4 6XA.