Senior politicians and States committees haven't always been keen on Guernsey's system of government.
Some of them have followed the old advice never to let a good crisis go to waste, invariably suggesting it wouldn't have happened if we had a ministerial system of government, like Jersey, despite just as much going wrong there.
Not so this Policy & Resources Committee. Whatever its other strengths and weaknesses, it is committed to making the island's system of government work as well as any ever can, and to putting right its deficiencies.
Hence its move to take the replacement or regrading of senior staff, and the creation of new roles, away from the civil service and put it into the hands of committees.
Committee presidents and members currently have no say over their senior staff structure, an absurdity which wouldn't be tolerated elsewhere. Perhaps it has been tolerated here because it suited weaker politicians to be able to claim they had no control over what went wrong.
P&R's proposal would give committees at least some influence over their senior staff structure and a larger part of their budget. They would have more control but also be more accountable. It would reverse the gradual emasculation of committees on staffing issues over many years.
This move is surely opposed only by overbearing or confused officials and lacklustre politicians, and it should sail through the Assembly at this week's meeting.
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