HARD on the heels of a major investigation into why there are tins of Coca-Cola (or whatever) in States Members’ fridges and not in other public sector fridges, that lot in the Big House have made two more big decisions.

One is to reduce the number of Senators by four, thus severely curtailing the three-yearly opportunity for the Island as a whole to make its voice heard (and believe me, for the first time in decades there is a voice to be heard).

The second is to retain the extremely cosy ‘this is far better than working’ arrangement in which those with the loudest voices do the least work and throw out the concept of shared ministerial decision-making which might have addressed a seriously flawed existing system.

After all, giving some of them the real responsibility of having to make proper decisions and then having to support those often unpopular decisions in public – instead of the current cosy arrangement of occasionally asking headline-making questions and making predictable personal attacks on those with whose politics they disagree – in exchange for a brown envelope every Friday lunchtime, the contents of which must now be pushing towards 900 freshly printed pound notes, was never, ever going to be approved.

When we reach the stage when the contents of a damned fridge when compared to the contents of another fridge in the same ownership occupies even a miniscule amount of parliamentary time, then we might just as well all get the next boat out.

Is there any wonder that serious questions are being asked – by quarters as diverse as those of the editorial comment of this newspaper and former Senator Dick Shenton (and believe me, there have been many occasions in the last four decades when those two opinions could not have been more diverse) – about the calibre and competence of many of the current 53 elected representatives whose sworn objective is to do their best for their fellow Island residents?

• Read the full column in today’s JEP