AMONG the items in the chief minister’s rapidly swelling in-tray is a letter from Advocate Roger Perrot urging the Policy Council to hold a States debate on whether the island should attempt to negotiate with the UK Government to achieve autonomy in international affairs and legislative process.

How the council will respond, particularly given the enthusiastic and overwhelming support at a public meeting for the proposition, remains to be seen.

However, it is a fairly safe bet that the chief minister and his advisers will regard the request as an unnecessary distraction from more pressing matters. One of the reasons for that is the council has already had, via its own External Relations Group and the Constitutional Advisory Panel, a report advising against independence for Guernsey.

What Advocate Perrot and his many supporters seek is not, of course, independence, but the CAP was mandated to go down that particular route and its advice will be influential.

One of the problems for the council, however, if it seeks to rely on the CAP report to justify doing nothing is that the report is open to charges of selectivity. It was chaired by the then HM Procureur, who held office at Her Majesty’s pleasure and was in effect appointed by the Ministry of Justice. No matter how independently-minded and pro Guernsey he may have been, the role will be seen as irredeemably conflicted.

Unfortunately, that impression will be fueled by the report itself. While coming to firm conclusions, it is studiously silent on what led it to reach them. It is long on opinion but exceptionally short on what informed them. It is very much a ‘take our word for it’ document and not very compelling as a result.

The Policy Council is, of course, acutely aware of the issue of conflict regarding the Crown Officers, which is why it employed its own independent legal adviser, albeit recruited from St James’s Chambers, and the current Procureur has expressed no inclination to assume the chair of the CAP, possibly because he views it as too political a role.

Whatever happens next needs to reflect two things: islanders’ undiminished loyalty to the Crown and their increasing reluctance to trust HM Government to act fairly on their behalf.

That circle will take some squaring.