From Clifford Wilson

FOR how much longer will the undemocratic, what is now tantamount to ‘block voting’ tactics now employed by a very significant proportion of our politicians, be allowed to be put up with by us, the electorate of Jersey?

At States debates when the votes are taken on a diverse range of matters of importance to the community at large, we the public are regularly witness to what has become entirely predictable voting patterns, with block voting techniques being employed either openly or covertly.

This is an insult to the intelligence of us all.
It is now patently obvious to the innocent bystander (ie, the average member of the public) that our much heralded democratic system of government is being fundamentally abused.

It cannot be by a mere quirk of coincidence that the voting pattern established within the States Chamber has become so transparently predictable, with a notable group of members (shall I call them the gang of twelve or whatever?) voting virtually always the same way and so usually achieving the outcome that the Council of Ministers desires.
Ministers, like all States members, should remember that they are, at least in theory, but servants of the electorate and are wholly accountable thereto.

Block voting, however well concealed or disguised, is morally reprehensible and undemocratic. Such tactics are reminiscent, on the greater world stage, of the right-wing manoeuvring in pre-World War II Germany and, more recently, of voting techniques that were commonly employed within the Kremlin.

A relative microcosm, such as Jersey, should not mimic the past political weaknesses of great nations, but should, rather, further learn from stable and well ordered democracies.

The manner in which certain aspects of democracy have of late been practised in Jersey has, whether we like it or not, come into question and scrutiny not only by a great many islanders, but by those in office within a far higher authority set well beyond our shores.

True democracy is never achieved merely by paying lip service to a set list of general guidelines but, rather, it is achieved by means of a collective democratic conscience.
That sense of conscience has of late in Jersey been seen to be all too lacking, resulting in the consequent erosion of both the stature of and respect for the States Chamber itself by many islanders.

It is, of course, the public who retain the power to vote out the States members in whom they are not satisfied, as well as to vote in those whom they feel that they can place their confidence in.

Come the next elections, it will be up to each and every one of us to use our vote and to use it intelligently, not forgetting the past below par performance of certain candidates and turning a necessary deaf ear to the vacuous ‘promises for tomorrow’ that will surely be made at election time by some individuals.

In the final analysis, government is only as good or as bad as those who form its component parts.

Le Châtelet,
La Billotterie,
Trinity