Guernsey Press

What do you think of it so far?

Around halfway through this States and what have we got to show for it? Looking at current events, a leadership that appears out of touch with islanders, bereft of ideas and chasing the wrong priorities. Has the States of Action run out of steam already, asks Richard Digard

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Has the States of Action already run out of steam? (31310227)

THERE’S been a fair bit of navel-gazing in these pages – including by myself – over the last few weeks and I had hoped to move on: there’s more to be said about where education reform is going (or, more accurately, not going) and some searching questions into how the health service appears to be failing islanders.

But that, I’m afraid, will have to wait because Harold Macmillan’s famous ‘events, dear boy, events…’ dictate that we ask an even more pressing question. Has the States of Action already run out of steam? Is it a lame duck Assembly with more than two and a half years to the next election?

Odd that it’s even possible to pose such a question. Previously, States simply churned along oblivious to electoral cycles. Deputies came and went, the civil service provided continuity and decisions taken years previously were eventually brought to fruition, even if the need for them had long since evaporated or changed.

Now, we have a chief minister who pledged himself to getting things done, the appearance of Policy & Resources having a reliable parliamentary majority so much-heralded ‘difficult decisions’ could be taken, a bonfire of ‘extant resolutions’ (past decisions of the States that now have no use or justification) and… Well, what exactly?

Priorities for the ground-breaking Assembly put in power by island-wide voting have been agreed as: responding to the Covid-19 pandemic; managing the effects of Brexit and meeting international standards; delivering recovery actions; and reshaping government.

Just about at the halfway mark for this parliamentary term and what do islanders think of it so far?

Not necessarily the Morecambe and Wise ‘rubbish’ response but, at best, underwhelmed. And, I suspect, with mounting concern that these four priorities are the wrong ones for where we are today.

In fairness, taking control of the overarching policy-making process and aligning committee efforts and aspirations plus budgets to the Government Work Plan has been a significant achievement and deserves recognition. But it doesn’t put food on the table, generate favourable headlines, or make housing more affordable.

And today’s events mean that islanders’ priorities are far more domestic: coping with rapidly rising prices, escalating mortgages and rents, fuel poverty and the real fear that a madman called Putin will trigger nuclear conflict.

Again, in fairness to the chief minister, the timing of his latest update to the States and islanders wasn’t helpful. After all, it came before the States of Jersey launched an emergency £56.5m. budget to help its own people through the cost of living crisis and before UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled the biggest package of tax cuts in 50 years last Friday – incidentally triggering a sterling crisis and the threat of massively more expensive mortgages and borrowing.

That’s politics I suppose. But it does leave P&R looking rather flat-footed and out of touch.

Take Jersey’s Chief Minister Kristina Moore: ‘At its heart, this mini-budget has been targeted to put money back in the pockets of many islanders of all ages. The aim is to do this as quickly as possible.’ She added that the cost-of-living crisis was impacting on employers’ ability to ‘recruit and retain staff in both the public and private sectors’.

By contrast, Deputy Ferbrache’s update to the States was very downbeat: ‘There are a few… crumbs of comfort. I would again ask… for solutions and suggestions with how we can help middle Guernsey who are aspirational and self-reliant.’

I understand why he was asking his Assembly colleagues for their input on this crucial area but it doesn’t give the impression that government has it covered, does it?

Hence my asking whether this Assembly has hit the buffers – just as the going gets tough and the long-neglected issues of States expenditure v. revenues, housing, population/migration and labour shortages really start to bite.

Over the weekend, Jersey was pondering whether to create a task force to address the growing problem of recruitment at the same time as Deputy Moore was warning that government itself cannot keep hiring staff when there is an acute shortage of housing. Instead, the public sector had to increase productivity to demonstrate value for money.

That, too, is in contrast with Guernsey, where growth in the number of States employees has taken it to within a whisker of the same size as the financial services sector and now actively competes with it for available staff. If tackling this forms part of the GWP’s reshaping government agenda, Deputy Ferbrache and Mark de Garis, his hand-picked successor to former CEO Paul Whitfield, remain curiously silent.

To be honest, what unsettled me most about the P&R update to the States was this: ‘I would just say this, though – resources are stretched to the extreme. We need to be realistic as to what can be achieved.

‘There is always a vast amount of day-to-day work that needs to be done. We must though address our housing constraints as these permeate every part of our economy and daily life. We must devote resources to that core issue. Work is being done but wider solutions must be sought.’

Taken at face value, this is a disturbingly depressing statement. In effect it is saying there’s nothing much we can do for you, even the day-to-day tasks are overwhelming, and when it comes to housing, well, we haven’t a clue.

If P&R does have a majority on which it can rely, then it must use it. It needs to take control of payroll costs, improve labour relations and introduce a truly transformational climate with the focus on efficiency and outcomes, increased productivity and releasing staff into the more productive private sector. The current shoulders down, what-can-we-do? attitude has to be changed for something far more transformational that benefits people’s lives generally.

So far, P&R’s only ‘solution’ has been to increase the size of the state and to warn islanders of big tax increases to pay for its own inaction and unwillingness to tackle the underlying issues.

When times are tough, people look to their leaders for hope and help. They’re not getting either in Guernsey.