Last week we reported on the frustration of fundraisers waiting on a States committee for the all-clear to put up a new climbing frame at Saumarez Park and of pigeon fanciers banned by another States committee from racing birds over the island.
Not huge issues, but each important in their own way to many hundreds of people, and clearly of wider public interest.
Yet in each case the presidents of the States committees involved had been kept completely in the dark about decisions made by their officials, until the Guernsey Press published them.
The same thing happens week in, week out, year after year. Presidents and members of States committees frequently don’t know what’s happening on the ground or being done in their name because in Guernsey the practice of officials ‘briefing’ politicians is often inadequate or even non-existent.
Some in the States are worried about Mark Helyar’s bid for the presidency of Policy & Resources on a platform of deputies taking back control.
But if that does end in politicians – possibly unwisely – clawing back operational decisions long since delegated to professional staff, the moderate and established voices on both sides will have only themselves to blame, having for too long accepted a ridiculous state of affairs in which those we elect to the States learn to exist more like mushrooms than representatives and leaders.
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