A wall of silence from the Policy Council over the 12-mile fisheries limit and the heavy cost to the island of it being declared unlawful has led some observers to draw parallels with the airport firefighters’ dispute and the subsequent tribunal of inquiry.

Although not directly comparable, the main charge was that the chief minister had in some way acted ultra vires, or beyond his powers, and that lessons should be learned.

In the event, the tribunal reported that it had been ‘afforded a degree of insight into the workings of States institutions, both through written and oral evidence, which we understand to be unusual.

‘We hope that it will henceforth cease to be so. Open government is essential to a flourishing democracy. We hope that a lasting legacy of this Inquiry will be a culture of greater openness and transparency.’

Alas not.

One of its recommendations was that there should be a presumption that reports commissioned from the public purse will be made publicly available unless there are specific grounds for doing otherwise.

In reporting back to the States on progress on implementing the tribunal’s recommendations, the Policy Council could have asked the States to make such a presumption. But it has not.

Instead, it has persuaded States members through a series of workshops that a freedom of information law is not needed but a ‘Guernsey solution’ is and has commissioned a leading former UK civil servant to help draft that solution.

There is some merit in the approach. The island is not ready for a full FoI law and there may be alternative means of achieving the same ends.

However, a general presumption of open reports is hardly ground-breaking and was made by an eminent tribunal panel which was surprised by the secrecy endemic to the bureaucracy and government of the island.

Yet the council has shied away from making a small, interim gesture while instead talking about developing a high-level information strategy.

Tellingly, it has not even given an explanation for ignoring a tribunal recommendation other than to repeat what it said a year ago, that consideration would be given to the publication of reports.

In other words, time passes, nothing changes.