PROGRESS is slow, but yesterday’s States vote on lowering the age of consent for gay sex was at least a step in the right direction.

Equality rights have been shoddily treated by a succession of Assemblies and even this obvious breach of the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights could be dealt with only once it was extricated from the bigger minefield of new sexual offences legislation.

For the second time in a week, the States emerged with great credit in showing it can listen to the people.

Gone were the embarrassing outbursts of a decade ago, when such a subject would have brought out the worst from a few deputies stuck in a morality of the past. In their place was an enlightened debate with members keen to show their modern credentials.

Opponents of the gradual liberalisation of Guernsey’s laws – including one prominent churchman and a disaffected doctor – have been left looking isolated and out-of-touch with both their colleagues and the general populace.

The message that can be drawn from that by both the island’s legal draftsmen and women and States departments such as Home is that the island and its parliament are ready for rapid further improvements to human rights.

Instead of shuffling forwards, grudgingly adopting equality legislation in this piecemeal fashion, the Bailiwick would be better served embracing and fast-tracking changes that other jurisdictions have long considered part of their basic rights.

If there is a bottleneck outside of the States chamber preventing that, deputies have a duty to exert public and private pressure to clear it. The European Convention on Human Rights, after all, was first drawn up and adopted across Europe not long after the Second World War.

Sixty years is a long time to catch up.

Turning to more recent legislation, it is now five years since the first same-sex civil partnerships were formed in the UK. Thousands of couples have followed suit each year.

Let us hope that the island does not have to wait a further half-century before catching up.