Going to the dogs

The signs are everywhere. I’m not especially referring to governance issues, although Education allegedly politicising the recruitment process of its own staff, hiding behind a legal tissue and getting away with it is going some, even for this Assembly.

As Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen has been pursuing, a senior official was properly interviewed and appointed by a recruitment panel, only to learn that the political board led by Matt Fallaize would resign en bloc if the individual took up the post.

Since Deputy Fallaize won’t answer the charges, we are forced to conclude that they’re largely correct and are left wondering whether Deputy Dudley-Owen will follow it up by asking what staff turnover might be at the high schools. Similarly revealing, I’m given to understand.

Yet, as we’ve seen with Home Affairs, how individuals and committees behave is not policed.

Sensible, neutral advice from officers and staff is ignored in pursuit of other agendas.

Additionally, the code of conduct panel is a joke, while the Assembly itself is incapable of holding itself to account. Why? Consider this. Unbelievably, there is no secret ballot for votes of confidence and – trust me on this – you do not want Mary Lowe eyeballing you in a corridor after the event demanding to know why you didn’t support her.

Equally, purely as an, ahem, random example, would Deputy Fallaize support a vote of no confidence against Home Affairs when he and his team a) face a similar Professor Staite report themselves and b) need every vote they can get to push their wildly expensive and still deeply divisive education reforms through the Chamber?

So not only do we not care about political standards, behaviours are also deteriorating. As Jonathan Le Tocq put it the other day: ‘Civility is dying in our culture.’ While some wanted more representative democracy, it was already there – Guernsey and Westminster reflected the electorate now. Split along multiple lines (Brexit there, 11-plus etc here), ‘increasingly polarised and nasty in culture’.

Strong stuff from one of our more reflective politicians, but he went on: ‘However, when leaders try to lead in setting cultural standards of behaviour, morality, civility, the same leaders are accused of paternalism, patronising etc… plus it’s not so entertaining is it?’ he asked.

Final, worrying quote from Deputy Le Tocq: ‘The Romans saw this too #DeathOfACivilisation.’

So any checks and balances are effectively left to the ballot box and Guernsey voters really rather like bad boys and girls because, well, the establishment needs it up ’em. Will things improve or deteriorate under island-wide voting and will we end up with a more or a less divided Assembly? One more interested in advancing the island or pursuing individual agendas?

That depends on who stands, of course, but the people you and I know who have the background, experience and skills to deal with the increasingly complex problems facing the island and the willingness to honour the deputies’ code of conduct – to act in the public interest – seem disinclined to stand.

That’s for two main reasons. Firstly, the level of personal abuse politicians face, especially on social media. Yet you can’t not be on Facebook or Twitter because that makes you arrogant and aloof. Secondly, the very system you’re contemplating entering prevents you from achieving anything.

It’s why that chap in the hat wants to make the return of the 11-plus an election issue. I guess that’s because he sees it as a vote winner and to hell with further disruption for families, children, teachers and education generally. These are my beliefs and as an independent States member I must pursue them.

Which is a neat way of introducing party politics. It could in theory be Guernsey’s get out of jail card, but won’t be. And the reason is Lisia. Or Lesia, as the excellent Rev. Leslie Craske tells us the new school should properly be called.

The thing is, political parties spring out of social injustice. They are campaigning organisations and the discipline they can wield over members and representatives is based on trying to achieve their objectives or maintaining members’ values and beliefs.

Whatever the States stands for – and I bet you can’t tell me – it doesn’t have the resonance of a ‘for the many, not the few’. So all we really have to argue over is what to name that new school. Not much of a cause for a new political party, is it?

So where we are today is with an Assembly of independents, split over direction and how the island’s best interests are served, and not especially bothered about standards, governance or behaviours.

Why this is so potentially dangerous is because members have largely ignored the electorate in pursuit of their own ambitions. Whacking up Overseas Aid may make deputies feel warm and fuzzy, but that’s someone else’s money.

My Mrs Sebire to the Vale is not impressed. Her more vocal husband is angrily unhappy. In-work poverty ignored. Relative poverty untouched yet a real and visible blight. States-led costs up, with more to come. Wage growth certainly not for the many. Home ownership a distant and fading dream. Rents going through the roof and the quality of lower-end accommodation truly abysmal.

There’s not many of the current lot Mrs Sebire will be voting for next year.

Yet the States don’t care about these missed opportunities. The planet has been saved through 25mph speed limits and yet another strategy has liberated those who wish to wear socks and Crocs without being subject to hurtful glances.

Meanwhile, rather more than 11,000 islanders earn under £30,000. Another 5,500 are on less than £40,000 a year – far from huge sums after paying rent, raising a family or, if fortunate enough, paying a mortgage.

That’s actually more than half the working population, so if there is anyone in the Assembly speaking up for them, please let me know. Or point me towards States policies aimed at making their lives better and less financially stressed.

Which is why so many ordinary islanders regard this States as existing for the few, not the many, and will be voting accordingly next June. As we will see shortly after, forcing voters down a populist path will have consequences.