A BROADSIDE from the Housing minister aimed at Jersey’s political system – little more than an elected dictatorship and a failure of a fledgling executive set-up, he termed it – was an interesting commentary on the Channel Islands experience of government.
Both communities separately concluded that their respective systems were falling short and needed reform. What those changes should be were subject to expert scrutiny and resulted in the Clothier Report in Jersey and the Harwood Report here. Guernsey rejected any form of executive government whereas Jersey embraced a ministerial system with a strong scrutiny facility to counter any abuse of power by ministers.
While neither system is perfect, the flaws critics complain of are in rather different areas.
Although the key decisions are taken by the States in both islands, Jersey ministers have greater power to act on their own to ensure policy objectives are met. That, with the greater level of scrutiny, provides a system with a much stronger feel of opposition and more adversarial debates in the Assembly. Here, by contrast, the absence of any executive function means policy is always at risk of being blown off course, which is why the States still does not appear joined up.
It is also why a number of unrelated independent reports into aspects of Guernsey’s governance have all highlighted a lack of leadership and clarity of direction – not a criticism aimed at Jersey.
If the successive reports are correct – and the Policy Council has not come out against any of them – then this island’s system of government needs some corrective surgery that at the least requires the chief minister and/or the Policy Council to have greater delegated powers.
That could be as little as letting the chief minister hire and fire his ministers or as much as a full cabinet function, with the body of the States providing the appropriate checks and balances.
However, there is considerable resistance to any devolution of power, which is holding back efficient government. And while the impasse continues, criticism of Guernsey’s States will mount.
The issue is whether such opposition to further change is based on narrow individual views or what’s actually best for the island.