TRUE democracy must involve a clash between competing ideas. With this principle in mind, it is easy to understand why the alternative draft strategic plan currently being compiled by 13 States Members is a fundamentally worthwhile and potentially productive initiative.

The 13 Members now working on their vision of Jersey’s medium-term future include one assistant minister and two Scrutiny panel chairmen, as well as four members of the Jersey Democratic Alliance. It is no lightweight grouping and its efforts deserve to be taken seriously – though they must be viewed critically and objectively.

In particular, the charge that the Council of Ministers is very keen on talking about consultation and launching consultation exercises but far less eager to take any notice of the opinions revealed by these exercises deserves the fullest examination.

From its inception, our form of ministerial government has attracted criticism because of the danger of its concentrating too much power in too few hands. The group of 13 clearly believe that this danger has already been realised. Irrespective of whether this is really the case, it is their right to present an alternative set of basic policies to the judgment of the House. It is, moreover, potentially highly beneficial for the Island as a whole to be exposed to ideas at variance with the executive line.

There is, meanwhile, a further dimension to the group of 13’s determination to offer an alternative vision of the way forward. The grouping can be described as a faction rather than anything approaching a political party, but its existence and its intentions offer clear evidence of radical polarisation in the States.

Some will see this as an adverse trend – a view all too often based on knee-jerk opposition to the idea of political parties having any place in Island life. Others might say that party division could well be the ultimate logical upshot of the decision to follow the ministerial route.

That said, the evolutionary path between the group of 13 – or indeed the formally constituted JDA – and a fully fledged party system would undoubtedly be a long one. There must be popular appetite for party politics if parties are to crystallise successfully around bodies of opinion.

If this process is ever seen, it is likely that the moderate centre, a potentially formidable but largely untapped and under-represented force in this Island, would eventually triumph over extremes at either end of the political spectrum.