Two double page political podcast spreads in the Press (16 October and 18 October). The top Guernsey politician and the top public servant. There’s a thing. Bound to get some answers and promised actions on the numerous serious issues facing the island.
Dream on.
OK, the chief executive of the public service, Boley Smillie, admits current inflation-plus pay growth has to be reined in, the service needs to ensure ‘customer service is at the heart of everything we do’, 'the politicians should absolutely be scrutinising… the wider public service’, too much has been spent on consultants, and a stop should be made to forcing people to work from home. Well, he’s been in office for nine months already so what’s he going to do about it? In private industry that would be ample time to come up with solutions, have a critical path with timelines already in place, and the work already started.
But, no. According to Mr Smillie, ‘we’ve got to switch the emphasis so that change is promoted from the bottom up’. Excellent modern PC words maybe but it’s like asking people to mark their own homework, set their own priorities, discipline themselves, etc, etc. Is that leadership when the issues are so pressing? In my experience of driving change the most effective methodology is putting together a top team of like-minded and focused agents who are not deflected until the job is done. And if that means standing on a few toes in the process, so be it. And it doesn’t mean hiring yet more people on more pay than the UK prime minister.
Digesting the content of Matt Fallaize’s interview of Deputy de Sausmarez two days before had brought to mind Trevor ‘Barnacle’ Bailey. For the benefit of people neither old (like me) nor cricket aficionados (like me), Barnacle Bailey was an England and Essex cricketer who, if he was of a mind and he usually was, was notoriously difficult to get out. In fact the word (wrong, of course) among us pre and early teens in the 50s, was his bat was wider than anyone else’s…
He was so obdurate in defence, the BBC said of him in his obituary: ‘His stubborn refusal to be out normally brought more pleasure to the team than to the spectators’.
So what’s that got to do with your interviewer and the president of Guernsey’s key Policy & Resources Committee (i.e. senior politician), running our lives? Well, it seemed to me her answers were those of someone at ease at the crease but keener to stay in than score. And is that the correct stance for the team captain given all the serious issues Guernsey faces? Is that what leadership is about?
Nine questions and, in cricketing parlance, a mix of dead bat, padding up and letting the ball past, or of spurning run-scoring opportunities.
There will no doubt be people who think I am being facetious or disrespectful or guilty of cheapening the debate, or all three. The fact is there is a serious point to be made. Not least because though the assembly may be relatively new the politician in question has been a member of that company for nearly 10 years so should know the issues.
I and doubtless many other Guernsey taxpayers are heartily fed up with seeing local politicians stonewalling when they are asked perfectly reasonable questions on matters of serious public interest. In this sense they are much like UK government ministers. Don’t answer the question asked but another one altogether, parrot some lengthy pre-prepared words laden with public service jargon, kick the can down the road, do an on the one hand but on the other answer, or something else that doesn’t mean much. Anything but committing to anything.
As I said the senior deputy has been a member of the assembly since 2016. She may be new to this role but she is not new to the issues being faced and the way they were so often not addressed by the last States.
The living-beyond-our-means Budget just prepared by her committee and due to be debated shortly is a classic example of the latter.
We need more answers, tough-minded actions, and an end to platitudes.
Stuart Garner
St Martin’s
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