STATES members protesting against the way the airport firefighters’ dispute was resolved managed to pull off an extraordinary feat yesterday by alienating themselves from mainstream public opinion.

While complaining they had been sidelined by the actions of the Emergency Powers Authority, deputies simultaneously found themselves at odds with the views of a majority of their electorate.

The evidence was a groundswell as measured by an online opinion survey and comments from the main business groups and other feedback indicating substantial support for the intervention of the chief minister that led to a 12-month settlement of the industrial action.

Also out of step was the attempt by the chairman of the discredited Public Sector Remuneration Committee to maintain that they should not have been taken out of the negotiations.

Had he been speaking anywhere else but the States, he would have received a hostile response. The reason? His statement confirmed that, had it been left to the PSRC, the airport would today still be closed.

His comments reinforced the belief that the committee is unable to think beyond one size fits all circumstances. When dealing with negotiations, the PSRC’s favoured approach is RPI or arbitration.

It was criticised by the Robinson review more than a year ago as compromised, having lost trust and respect and was regarded as excessively adversarial and insufficiently supportive of departmental needs and priorities.

The current political members have done nothing to change that and, for that reason, alone deserved to go.

The in-haste settlement now brokered through the airport management is clearly not ideal but is streets ahead of what the PSRC failed to deliver: fire crews are working normally and the settlement is only temporary until a proper deal is concluded.

This was a States of Guernsey problem requiring a States of Guernsey solution. Instead, PSRC was allowed to operate in its silo and walk away from the consequences of its inability or unwillingness to manage an island-wide problem.

They are not alone, as deputies’ cries of ‘…but we weren’t involved…’ indicate.

There are serious questions about how the Emergency Powers Authority operated – but  members should pursue that rather than complaining the airport is working.