Former States member Peter Ferbrache was giving his view yesterday of the type of deputy he thought Guernsey needed for the years ahead and was typically robust in his comments.

The island demanded representatives who respected its ethos and way of life, who were not afraid to ignore the advice of the Law Officers and others who looked to the UK for a steer, and who avoided being small-minded and abusing the headiness of power.

They needed vision and common sense and Guernsey did not want members who fudged things and there was no place for well intentioned idiots or well meaning fools.

Being a States member certainly was not a full time role and the pay should be £20,000 for deputies and £30,000 for ministers with definitely no pension.

Meanwhile, an independent review panel is currently considering States members’ remuneration and whether what is currently paid is fair.

What hasn’t been done, however, and nor has the current review been tasked with doing, is setting out what the role of deputy, of committee member or minister should be or how individual performance should be measured.

Another former member, the previous head of Health and Social Services, Peter Roffey, set out in these pages a short while ago the voluntary nature of what members choose to do.

That can range from a bare minimum, thus picking up £100,000 for next to nothing over a four-year period, to the obsessive minister who attempts to micro-manage the department to its detriment.

While that make-the-job-what-you-will void is problem enough, most criticism of ‘the States’ is of its collective actions and, again, there is little guidance on how to make a collegiate system effective.

Behaviours in and out of the Assembly are very different to those before being a deputy became a full time, pensionable occupation for some individuals yet the quality of performance does not appear to have improved.

These are not matters that the review panel can make recommendations on, because its mandate is – the cynic might think – limited to giving members a pay rise ahead of the 2012 general election.

It could, however, put down a marker that islanders expect to know what they are getting for their money when they pay a deputy.