GUERNSEY’S chief minister used a telling expression when addressing the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce this week. The way the role has been structured, he said, means that in the absence of ministerial powers, the job has to be done largely by force of personality and respect from colleagues.

He added that time would tell whether these attributes are either sufficient or sustainable.

While the short answer is that they are not, no matter how abundantly possessed, the issue is rather wider.

A number of independent reports, including those on the role of the States as employer, the review of the island’s planning service and the review of options for the future management of Education, have all considered the lack of a chief ministerial toolbox of powers.

They did so separately and independently and all concluded, in effect, that because Guernsey has a system of government in which no one is actually in charge, fixing the broken things they were reporting on was going to be exceptionally difficult.

It is possible – but can be discounted – that they are all wrong. In which case, the question is what response will, firstly, the Policy Council and, secondly, the States itself make to what are fairly far-reaching criticisms of the island’s system of government?

In many respects, the timing of these reports could not be worse. Just as the new House gets off to a flying start, the spectre of debate on cabinet or ministerial government rears its head and threatens to distract a new administration with many other issues on its agenda.

However, in referring to it on page three of an 11-page keynote address to Chamber, the chief minister is clearly acknowledging that this is a matter of substance and needs to be tackled.

Islanders will find that reassuring. Many of the debates ahead – particularly on population and growth and, who knows?, perhaps even the future shape of taxation and zero-10 – are likely to be resolved on a slender majority.

Unless the States can reach a consensus and then have some sort of executive implementation of that decision, it will constantly be open to being blown off course.

And that looks like weak government.