Islanders will be consulted about cutting deputies

Saturday 13th June 2009, 2:29PM BST.

Ivan Rihoy. A MOVE to ask the public about cutting the number of deputies is being made by the States Assembly and Constitution Committee.

Chairman Ivan Rihoy (pictured), said a new report would look into all aspects of the political system, including island-wide voting and reducing the number of States members.

He has strong views on the issue.

‘I believe there are too many politicians, especially for the size of our population,’ he said.

Slimming down the States came to the forefront this week when former minister Peter Roffey laid out his ideas about political change.

They included a suggestion that the States could cope with as few as four deputies per district, adding up to a total of 28 rather than the present 45.

Deputy Rihoy is strongly against such a heavy cut. ‘We need to ensure we wouldn’t be going too far,’ said Deputy Rihoy. ‘We risk having a cabinet government with nobody to bring a balancing argument.’

He believed there were also other problems with the proposals.

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1
Jon

June 15, 2009 at 9:19 am

I think a cut to 0 would be about just right …

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2
slep

June 15, 2009 at 3:54 pm

I wonder if the next suggestion would be to change the name `deputies` to `MPs`, thereby making the island even more like the UK.

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3
Dave Jones

June 16, 2009 at 3:20 pm

Some people simply don’t understand our system of government, the reason we have 47 members (It used to be more) is because we don’t have party politics, within that number in any four year administration is a built in opposition. It is true that the opposition shifts depending on what’s being debated but the important point is that it is an opposition made up of deputies who are free from enforcers (whips) and who genuinely vote against something because they passionately believe it is the right thing to, not because they are forced too.The other point about numbers is that you must always have a majority on the floor of the house if you are not to have executive government by the back door.

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