Deputies oppose exec idea
Saturday 6th June 2009, 2:29PM BST.
TWENTY-SEVEN deputies have voiced their strong opposition to executive government.
A letter has been sent to deputies in reaction to recent calls for executive government from States members.
Some members saw the chief minister’s intervention in the firefighters’ dispute as an example of creeping executive powers.
The letter includes the signatures of ministers Carol Steere, Mark Dorey, Dave Jones, Bernard Flouquet and Peter Sirett.
Vale deputy Matt Fallaize (pictured) said the 27 were backing consensus government.
‘Executive government would inevitably concentrate power in fewer hands, lead to poorer decision-making, and weaken our democracy,’ said Deputy Fallaize.
‘In contrast, consensus government, based on a committee system, is a very pure form of democracy – proposals are carried only if a majority of department board members, or a majority of people’s deputies when in the Assembly, are persuaded of their merit.’
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Knocking the buildings down does not remove the problem of the people. Concensus should work, it is the deputies that are ensuring if does not.
Giving a tin pot meglomaniacs more power is not the answer. Removing the meglomaniacs that are purposefully trying to break concensus is the answer.
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Government by committee is flawed. It is overly bureaucratic and frustratingly slow moving and I agree it needs a shake up.
However, for all its faults, this is how the people of Guernsey have chosen to run their island and at least it is democratic and our elected representatives are obliged to operate within the constraints of that system.
They might not like it but surely this small clique of power-hungry politicians does not have a mandate to over-ride our due political processes, or to introduce an alternative system simply because it suits their personal political ambitions?
Our system may be a bit of a dinosaur but it is still our system not theirs.
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