Call to trust in local expertise may be doomed to fall on deaf ears

Local businesses have long suffered discrimination in this respect. To my knowledge, it has been ingrained in the psyche of our island’s politicians and bureaucrats for many decades. Unless the proprietors of ‘small’ businesses have influence with particular politicians or bureaucrats, they are always at a disadvantage vis-a-vis larger institutions controlled outside of Guernsey. Those incapable of discriminating between the charlatan and the adept will always opt for the larger, preferably offshore, competitor because they believe this protects them against criticism if things go wrong.

The problems local businesses face are complex but many revolve around these issues of responsibility and of comprehension. Both issues have become more problematic since Guernsey started to remunerate deputies and we saw the inevitable decline in the level of deputies’ business knowledge and practical experience.

Payment opened the door to an influx of a number of candidates with little or no business experience, sometimes more interested in the money available than any wish to use their abilities to serve the public. Even of those with more honourable motives, few have had any understanding of the issues that face legislators, particularly in an era of rapidly-evolving change (it is erroneous to say ‘progress’).

The shallowness of public thinking when voting has favoured the publicity-seeking demagogues and as a result the standard of debate in our States has plummeted. The value of reasoned, informed discussion has been swept aside in favour of self-interested issue politics.

Behind this tottering edifice lies a bureaucracy that is often inept yet adroit at imposing its views on deputies who are supine because of their lack of understanding of the issues involved. Unfortunately, how prescient Thomas Jefferson was when he said that ‘people get the representatives they deserve’.

MICHAEL WARD

Torteval