Guernsey Reform Group, the body committed to reshaping Guernsey’s political landscape by improving government, has had a very good response to its invitation to islanders to suggest ways that the States should save money.

The results are relevant on a number of levels, not least being the scale of the engagement with a fledgling pressure group and the informed nature of the comments that have been made to it.

What it indicates is that islanders are well aware of the need for government to economise and can see plenty of scope for it to do so. It will also be gratifying to the reform group that its initiative was supported by four prominent Guernsey companies, which have put up prizes for the best money-saving ideas.

There is increasingly a public sense that the States can and must do better, a feeling that will not have been improved by the inept handling of the proposed – and now dropped – closure of the Castle Esplanade toilets.

It is perhaps also revealing that the Bailiff felt comfortable telling a joke this week to the Chamber of Commerce about why the brainpower of local politicians isn’t taxed: because if Guernsey did, then all the deputies would be due a refund.

Not surprisingly, it got a laugh. But joking or not, a presiding officer of the States Assembly appearing to make remarks about the standard of those he chairs is going to convey a certain message that deputies will not find helpful.

In many respects, it is symptomatic of something deeper that this newspaper has commented on: who cares about the States? Not in the sense of ignoring it, but in taking ownership of it as an institution to be respected.

Clearly the States has a reputational issue and the quality of its elected members is called into question but who in government is tasked with improving these matters?

We have an externally-focused chief minister acknowledged to be doing a good job internationally but there is no one with an internal focus on trying to improve the overall performance and efficiency of government.

Which is why it remains the butt of so many jokes.