Richard Digard: Government – bad by design

A question for you – would paying deputies more than £100,000 a year and getting them to commit to politics as a full-time occupation, and therefore no longer tempted by self-gain, attract the calibre of States member we need to get the island back on track? It was asked, in all seriousness, by a chartered accountant and consultant whom I’ll call Alasdair who’s very interested in local politics and in seeing it done better.

My response, on Twitter/X, was one word. No. Brief and to the point, so let’s expand on that as we concentrate on the run-up to the general election and what we want and need from candidates at what everyone accepts is a critical time for the island.

I was pleased that Advocate Chris Green agreed with my rather terse analysis. He was, you’ll recall, one of our more capable deputies and took the view that money alone isn’t the solution, ‘not unless the other significant barriers are vanquished’.

Yes indeed, and what might those be? His reply: ‘One. The nature of local politics itself. The very slow or zero progress, the endless meetings achieving little, the criticism/abuse. Two. The loss of family time, freedom, privacy etc. Three. The gnawing feeling that there’s better things to be doing.’

Yes, nicely put, and almost exactly accords with my own views on this. Which means we have an odd situation in the current debate over whether the problems of poor government are due to the system – no executive function – or the people making up the Assembly itself.

What’s not generally appreciated is that it’s both at the same time. How come? Well, we already have executive government. As the independent review of good governance commissioned by the then States Public Accounts Committee put it in 2009:

‘In fact, the current system is an executive form of government, albeit not with a single cabinet or presidential style executive, but with 10 departmental executives with an overarching executive in the form of the States of Deliberation.’

If that sounds weird and clunky that’s because it is. In lay terms, committees can do pretty much what they want within their mandate with very few checks or balances, which is why pet policies get pushed through and Education pursues its grudge against the private colleges.

To make matters worse, there’s little control over who spends what, when or how. And if a department routinely smashes through its budget – Health, anyone? – all that happens is a bit of high level tut-tutting and extra money released to cover its inability to manage, er, money.

And remember that this rather dog’s breakfast approach to running the island was deliberate, created after the Occupation, when the 1948 Reform Law introduced representational democracy for the first time. Previously, in shorthand terms, the island was run by the toffs, the jurats and rectors, and 10 parish constables. Deputies, just nine of them, weren’t invented until 1900.

Guernsey and the then Home Office were a bit wary of letting commoners loose with the island so they codified the committee system (with their executive powers) and a balancing level of grey-haired experience to resist the populist tide, who were called conseillers.

Since then, we’ve lost parish representation, scrapped conseillers, kept the rest of the dog’s breakfast approach and introduced the lottery that is island-wide voting. Which means come June there’s a good chance you’ll be told what to do by someone who scraped in with just 5,000 votes and no real mandate to speak of. God help us all, eh?

So why won’t a £100k bung per deputy improve things? Two reasons really. One, it will attract those for whom the money is the driver. If you think you’ve got career politicians now, just think how many chancers a hundred thousand big ones and the easy ride of island-wide voting will attract.

Two, it won’t entice the talent and experience that can see the wood for the trees and put a laser-like focus on island priorities for the reasons outlined above in that quote from Chris Green.

And that’s because those who could and would like to enter the States – and their employers releasing their time – wish to tackle high-level issues, take decisions, see them implemented and monitor progress. The system totally prevents that. This is also for two reasons.

One, a lot of people like it that way, especially those talking up deputy as a full-time role and wanting to exclude those with external jobs or interests. Two, the civil service operates in a time warp all of its own with no regard whatsoever for the political cycle. That’s why it takes 18 years not to have dealt with noisy motorcycles.

When this dog’s breakfast system was put together it was for a single reason. After defeating a fascist dictator, Britain could hardly deny Guernsey democracy, but it wanted it to be restrained. No wild socialist policy swings here, thank you.

Fast forward 80 years and what do we need? The real wealth creators, the CEOs, are clear, as they set out in a recent PwC survey:

‘Step up investment in the infrastructure, affordable housing and quality of life needed to attract and retain skilled people on our islands. The more you can invest, the more this will strengthen business confidence and encourage increased investment from the private sector.

‘Support the development of the digital skills, infrastructure and incentives needed to drive innovation, attract new businesses and help our islands to thrive in an increasingly digitised global economy. Promote the islands’ digital capabilities as core strengths.

‘Develop the policies in areas such as upskilling and childcare needed to encourage higher workforce participation.’

There’s more, but you get the drift. All stuff this Assembly and its predecessors have spoken about – along with noisy motorbikes – but failed to deliver.

There’s been a bit of upbeat stuff about business investment and the economy recently, and I’ll not pooh-pooh any of it – let’s have more please. But here’s a scary statistic for you: 66% of Channel Islands CEOs see lack of skills as the biggest challenge to business growth. That’s business growth which keeps this island running through employment, jobs and taxes.

Yet how long have our old friends at Education and Economic Development been discussing (and failing to deliver) a skills strategy? Yes, since 2018.

So what we need now is clear, intelligent action urgently to unlock this island’s potential, decide what its future is and single-mindedly pursue that. Ah, yes, you’ve spotted the problem. All within a system where each committee and every senior civil servant has the power to say no, to delay or to confuse and where, remarkably, no one is in charge.

So no, Alasdair, £100,000 won’t attract the ‘right’ candidates. No one who is in that capability bracket can achieve anything in the Guernsey system. Worse, there is reputational risk for any employer releasing one of its higher-achievers to ‘put something back’ into the community because the States of Deliberation has become such a toxic brand.

The Guernsey system and how it operates was deliberately designed for incremental change enforced by consensus and an acceptance that 10 years to implement, say, new animal rights legislation is perfectly OK.

Today, of course, time’s a luxury we no longer have.