I was a signatory to the letter of 22 March 2025 in support of executive government and I would like to respond to Deputy Roffey’s reply of 3 April 2025 which refers to ‘deep suspicion of concentrating all the powers of government in a cabinet’ and ‘lurking beneath the surface…party politics’. Nowhere in our letter of 22 March 2025 did it use the words ‘cabinet’ or ‘party politics’, those are Deputy Roffey’s own interpretations, designed to scaremonger.
There are many flavours of executive government available and it is perfectly possible to include all sorts of safeguards, checks and balances. Indeed, in the current term of the Assembly we have seen the effective use of a motion of no confidence as a remedy to supplant P&R and to democratically change the course of direction. Executive government does not remove such remedies.
Deputy Roffey is sold on the current consensus system. A system that has failed. It appears to me that some deputies might like their own brand of self-serving chaos to prevail, to allow for disruption. Too often we see multiple dubious, late amendments that have little merit and which result in hours of wasted energy and debate laid. Deploying this type of deflection of purpose should not be regarded as the norm but sadly it has become such. The disciplines of executive government will allow the elected majority to get a grip on the wreckers and blockers in the Assembly and to focus on delivering timely policy that is in the islands’ best interests.
The absolute priority for the next Assembly should be delivering a long-term balanced fiscal budget. We cannot afford a repeat of what occurred in November 2023 Budget debate which was blown off course by 19 wrecking amendments. By the time the annual budget for 2025 got around to approving GST, the earlier amendments were all reversed and much precious time had been lost.
Executive government is not in itself a panacea that will fix everything. The disciplines of executive government will require prioritising the strategic decisions that go to the States and being able to say no to reckless spending plans and increased costs. Putative amendments should be argued in advance, in the committee stages, where they can be tested, costed and appraised. Too often we see one or two deputies in the Assembly, acting on the hoof, at the 11th hour and 59th minute, derailing time sensitive, serious and expensive workstreams.
Executive government works in other jurisdictions and is considered the norm and not the exception. Consensus government is unique and is unfit for purpose. I wholly agree with Polly Allen’s letter of 27 March 2025 that our system of government has paralysed progress on important decisions for the last three terms of the States.
Vote for sensible change. Vote for candidates who will choose a leader, who in turn is given the power to choose a number of other deputies to work together to form the executive. An executive that will be transparent and will want to be held accountable for their actions.
Reject the unworkable consensus system and more of the same type of self-serving chaos.
Reject Deputy Roffey’s lurking suspicions, scaremongering and conspiracy theories.
C. McHugh
Castel
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.