WHEN he spoke to the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce earlier this week this Island’s former Chief Minister, Frank Walker, made two important points, one of them amounting to sound common sense and the other likely to be the focus of considerable controversy.

Mr Walker repeated the manifestly reasonable idea that Jersey and Guernsey should discover ways in which they can co-operate more fully and effectively. However, he also said that each island should consider creating the office of foreign minister to ensure that their views and interests are represented as widely and fully as possible in an increasingly complex world.

The immediate response to the second of these notions might well be that representing Jersey and Guernsey in the wider world is the responsibility – and, indeed, duty – of their respective Chief Ministers. It would be no exaggeration to say that this was a role that Mr Walker often relished when he was in the top job.
Furthermore, although they clearly cannot assume the function of figureheads or even spokesmen, specialist civil servants are already working hard in this Island to support the more public efforts of the Chief Minister.

That said, the idea of a senior politician whose primary task is to represent our interests at an international level is worthy of further serious examination. It can certainly be argued that the chief ministerial role can be wide-ranging and complicated enough without the considerable burden of front-line international relations duties.

If, meanwhile, lessons are to be learned from other jurisdictions it is quite obvious that, around the world, prime ministers in regimes of all sorts delegate in the field of foreign affairs without any sense that their powers are being limited or that their sense of dignity is in any way diminished.

Two years hence we shall see the election of a new Chief Minister and the formation of a new Council of Ministers. Before those crucial events unfold, those currently in power should turn their minds to Mr Walker’s timely and important suggestion.

Focusing on the former chief’s other major point, they should also consider whether the time has come to put old, trivial rivalries behind us in favour of a concerted joint initiative involving Guernsey, and even the Isle of Man, which could play a part in the drive to promote the Crown Dependencies’ collective interests and represent their views at the very highest levels.