WHAT is known as the House Committee is shortly to seek to be called the States Assembly and Constitution Committee and new chairman Ivan Rihoy today sets out on page 17 a robust agenda for reform that would alone justify the name change.
Much of what he intends investigating – island-wide voting, electronic voting and guillotine motions to cut short tedious debates – will find favour with islanders.
Since the general election, there has been a lively debate, including on this newspaper’s sister website on IWV, or island-wide voting, and it is clear from the hustings that there is considerable local interest in such a change.
Whether Deputy Rihoy’s team can produce a package that resolves some of the difficulties remains to be seen but he has certainly embraced his new role on a reforming ticket.
Indeed, the House Committee is to look at how debates are timetabled and also whether there are further changes needed to the machinery of government itself, now that it has been in place for four years.
In particular, House is suggesting getting rid of ministers – in name, at least – because Guernsey does not have a ministerial system of government.
Yet the Policy Council has just received two independent reports (on two separate topics) that independently observed that without ministerial government or something very similar, Guernsey will be hard-pressed to operate effectively in future, let alone improve its role as an employer or as a planning authority, the two topics investigated by the consultants.
Neither the council nor the chief minister have yet expressed a view on those reports or on what action they intend in regard to any possible changes to the machinery of government, so the House Committee might be jumping the gun in seeking to scrap ministers.
The committee has an important job to do and needs to be able to think freely if it is to be an agent of change.
In this case, however, there is an argument for speaking first to the Policy Council about its intentions so that two arms of government aren’t seen to be pulling in different directions.
Dropping ministers is too soon
WHAT is known as the House Committee is shortly to seek to be called the States Assembly and Constitution Committee and new chairman Ivan Rihoy today sets out on page 17 a robust agenda for reform that would alone justify the name change.
Much of what he intends investigating – island-wide voting, electronic voting and guillotine motions to cut short tedious debates – will find favour with islanders.
Since the general election, there has been a lively debate, including on this newspaper’s sister website on IWV, or island-wide voting, and it is clear from the hustings that there is considerable local interest in such a change.
Whether Deputy Rihoy’s team can produce a package that resolves some of the difficulties remains to be seen but he has certainly embraced his new role on a reforming ticket.
Indeed, the House Committee is to look at how debates are timetabled and also whether there are further changes needed to the machinery of government itself, now that it has been in place for four years.
In particular, House is suggesting getting rid of ministers – in name, at least – because Guernsey does not have a ministerial system of government.
Yet the Policy Council has just received two independent reports (on two separate topics) that independently observed that without ministerial government or something very similar, Guernsey will be hard-pressed to operate effectively in future, let alone improve its role as an employer or as a planning authority, the two topics investigated by the consultants.
Neither the council nor the chief minister have yet expressed a view on those reports or on what action they intend in regard to any possible changes to the machinery of government, so the House Committee might be jumping the gun in seeking to scrap ministers.
The committee has an important job to do and needs to be able to think freely if it is to be an agent of change.
In this case, however, there is an argument for speaking first to the Policy Council about its intentions so that two arms of government aren’t seen to be pulling in different directions.
Article posted on 26th May, 2008 - 9.29am