INSIDE POLITICS yesterday took a look at the role of States members. With a general election fast approaching and many significant issues facing the island, the current system – based on ‘thanks for the vote, what did you want me to do?’ – has rarely looked more inadequate for today’s challenges.

That’s not the fault of politicians, particularly since the pace of change and the complexity of government has grown at a prodigious rate.

In crude terms, the bulk of post-war governmental reforms up to the 1990s have been a continuation of taking the administration of the island away from the Royal Court and making the Assembly democratically accountable.

The machinery of government reforms in 2004 were an acknowledgement that times had changed and that islanders did not think the then system was working particularly well, which is why a more joined-up approach was promised.

Islanders will have their own views whether that has been delivered but what a deputy does is under scrutiny as a result of the Policy Council having established an Independent Review Board to review the pay of States members and to ask  ‘whether the current system fairly and properly reflects the nature of the roles of all members…’

Elsewhere, the job of elected representatives is to hold the executive to account but since the executive in Guernsey is either the full Assembly or individual departments, that does not happen.

The closest there is to a job description is to act in the public interest, which few would disagree with. However, not only is that open to wide interpretation, public expectation of a salaried (and currently pensionable) position is high and growing.

As the review board was collecting evidence about what the right level of pay for States members is, it is hard to imagine that no one asked, ‘the right rate for doing what?’

Equally, what do taxpayers, who this year will pay £1.8m. for their political representation, want from deputies and how do they know whether they are getting value?

Improving the performance of members and the States as a whole is further government reform in waiting.