ELECTORS are a critical group. Their interest in and expectations of the people they put into office are what turns them into voters in the first place.

And Guernsey’s are better placed than most to comment on the performance of their elected representatives because of the smallness of the community and the profile of deputies and the government process they are responsible for.

Which is why, after the schools debate, attention is turning to the performance of this Assembly compared with previous ones.

While few would be displeased that two schools are to remain open, the question is how the States could reach such a decision on the evidence in front of it and – perhaps more crucially – irrespective of the economic reality facing this island.

This Assembly is rapidly becoming more disjointed than the previous one and further evidence of that is contained in the Burchill report on the operational management of Guernsey Airport.

Although this is a £50,000 or thereabouts document paid for by the taxpayer relating to a public asset, its findings are being kept secret. But what is known is that its author, a leading academic, recommends commercialisation.

The reasons for that and for his being commissioned are very revealing.

It is simply to get around the difficulties caused to the efficient running of the airport by the dinosaur industrial relations and Spanish practices endemic in the States and perpetuated by the Public Sector Remuneration Committee.

In short, Public Services as airfield operator is seeking to get around another agency of government and the Burchill report is a hostile act. That explains why the PSRC refused to cooperate in its making or even to meet Professor Burchill.

While that is unsatisfactory enough, it is a criminal waste of public funds at a time when the question should be how best can the island unlock the strategic asset value in Guernsey Airport for the benefit of the island and community as a whole.

Instead, the money has gone on asking how PSD can do its job in one small (but vital) area such as renegotiating fire crew terms and conditions.

That this is allowed to happen tells islanders everything they need to know about the promise of joined-up government.