Bid to cut deputies is ‘gesture politics’
DRAFTING will start next week on a requete to cut the number of deputies by up to 10 before next year’s general election.
Mark Helyar said yesterday that his proposal had ‘overwhelming support’ from the public and the backing of another 11 of the island’s 38 deputies so far.
But one of the island’s longest-serving politicians, Peter Roffey, slammed the idea as ‘dangerous gesture politics’ and urged deputies not to be bounced into a ‘knee-jerk decision’ in the final months of the States’ term.
‘I think reducing by 10 is probably going much too far and opens up the risk of cabals wielding far too much influence,’ said Deputy Roffey, writing in today’s Guernsey Press.
He said he instinctively believed there could be a smaller reduction in the number of deputies, but only after careful research, a policy letter from a States committee and a fully informed debate.
‘But my real concern about this requete is not that it is ill thought out, but that it is actually all too well thought out,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘I really doubt that the end game for those pushing this agenda is consensus government with fewer members.
‘Rather, it is putting all of the power in just a few hands, which would be disastrous in my opinion.’
Deputy Helyar told the Guernsey Press that he was pessimistic about the chances of the States supporting his requete but that the issue needed to be debated before the end of the term.
He had created a poll on Facebook which had generated more than 550 votes and said that 95% of respondents were in favour of his proposal for a swingeing cut in numbers.
He said the public wanted to ‘reduce time wasting in the Assembly and avoid paying members for doing very little’.
When launching the online poll, Deputy Helyar had called for ‘a bit of people power’ to show deputies what was needed.
‘A debate on this matter will clearly demonstrate for the public’s benefit those who want to maintain the status quo and those who want reform prior to the next election,’ he said yesterday.
‘We have to try and do something or we will have another four years of dithering.’
In a letter published in today’s Guernsey Press, business owner and St Martin’s constable Dave Beausire backed Deputy Helyar’s proposal and claimed that a smaller Assembly could generate more interest ahead of the general election.
Mr Beausire also said that a smaller Assembly would attract more people from business into politics.
‘I have favoured a reduction in deputies for a long time,’ he said.
‘The current system doesn’t work and is failing the very people it should help, the voters.
‘Thirty-eight around a board room – basically, it doesn’t work.’
Deputy Helyar needs only six other signatories to submit his requete to the Assembly.
The earliest meeting at which it could now be debated starts on 20 November, but it is likely to be considered after that date unless submitted in the first week of October.
The number of deputies was reduced from 45 to 38 as part of changes to the island’s machinery of government in 2016.
