Use of divisive language likely to put off the return of young people

A good start would be to convince them that we are a welcoming and inclusive community, where public political debate is conducted respectfully.

Young Guernsey folk who leave to attend institutions of further education will have instilled in them the importance of evaluating arguments on their own merit.

They will know that it might be reasonable to oppose someone for what they say, but it is always wrong to attack someone for what or who they are – for what they cannot change about themselves.

For example, perish the thought that they would ever hear a political commentator in the UK referring to legal immigrants as ‘flotsam and jetsam’, and so dismissing their contribution to political debate as illegitimate on grounds of their place of birth.

And heaven forbid that they will ever hear a set of political ideas dressed up as ‘the UK way’, as if anyone who considers themselves a UK citizen is a traitor to the cause if they don’t agree with those ideas.

Such language is, and is intended to be, divisive. The ugly scenes we have recently witnessed in the UK show how it fractures communities and almost inevitably leads to conflict.

But this, sadly, is precisely the language that Horace Camp used on 2 September).

Lord Digby Jones, perfectly welcome and entitled to live in Guernsey and a significant contributor to island life, has already rebutted with dignity the attempt made to illegitimise his opinions on our political system on the grounds that he is not Guernsey-born or raised.

Just like Lord Jones, I cannot change where I was born – Guernsey. But I do not like being told how I should think. So I emphatically reject Horace Camp’s approach to political debate and his use of the loaded term ‘the Guernsey way’.

His call for ‘us’ to fight for it and his frequent references to ‘our’ (be it island, heritage, laws, etc) suggest that he speaks for ‘locals’ – he doesn’t, and he certainly does not speak for me.

I would love to see more young Guernsey folk returning to the island. However, they are likely to be put off doing so unless such divisive language is expunged from public debate.

NIGEL P DE LA RUE

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