A PETITION to the States designed to restrict the ability of the island’s regulator to introduce (or mimic) competition in the electricity and postal sectors is now so well signed that it is virtually guaranteed to succeed.

Supporters of the two utilities will be delighted that, finally, they will have been successful in bringing the Office of Utility Regulation to heel and, they hope, stop its director general from harassing two well-regarded operations with costly and bureaucratic red tape that threatens their future profitability and survival.

Whether that view is correct – and the forthcoming Royal Court postal appeal which will be pre-empted by the requete might be a more forensic analysis of the adequacy of the regulatory model – it is certainly the case that the OUR does not have the confidence of many or most deputies.

Is that because the regulator is doing a poor job or because its role and the legislation under which it operates are misunderstood? Again, the Royal Court appeal may shed some light on that, but there is another way of looking at this.

The OUR is now virtually hands-free on telecommunications. Competition there is actual, not virtual. Customers have seen prices fall, number portability introduced and some excellent deals as the three operators fight for business.

But what cries of anguish would there have been had the director general tried to engineer the current position and consumer benefits using regulatory powers alone in the absence of real competition? Especially if Sure was still owned by the taxpayer?

Unless a lot of work has already been done in anticipation of the requete, its acceptance will give Commerce and Employment an impossible task to complete by the October deadline, at least impossible if it is to be done in any meaningful way.

What the petition does do, however, is to provide C&E with an opportunity to ask what the States wants from regulation – and on whose behalf it should be exercised.

Regulation? Let’s have more, say mobile phone users.

Regulation? It’s not appropriate, say… well, those who set the prices.

States members, who don’t earn the money they spend on behalf of islanders, need to remember one thing: customers must come first.