Instead, let’s contemplate regulators. Yes, I know they are a bit like hacks and politicians, there to be abused and to ease estate agents up a bit in the ‘least trusted’ league table.
Nevertheless, let’s take two apparently disconnected events – and certainly a way away from the leadership issue resolved by the Chief Minister rescinding the appointment he made that created the crisis in the first place.
And that’s Deputy Andrew Lewis revealing that personalities are preventing greater CI co-operation, and the Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities are looking at letting UK telcos compete locally.
Deputy Lewis’s point is that we need to be satisfied all efforts have been made to co-operate as islands and not let grudge politics get in the way.
At the risk of trivialising his comments, if, say, Guernsey was to specialise in CI joint replacements and Jersey in varicose vein and groin hernia surgery – both very common procedures – then transport links between the islands have to improve.
In short, a lot of benefit and a lot to lose if the respective ministers or civil servants block it because they can’t stand the sight of each other. Not, admittedly, something that could ever happen in the Council of Ministers…
Similarly with CICRA contemplating allowing islanders to take out contracts with UK providers like O2, EE or Three to benefit from cheaper rates and, particularly, to avoid roaming charges that only Jersey lawyers can afford.
Reading between the lines, CICRA is doing so reluctantly – it knows the incumbents aren’t likely to welcome such a move – but told this newspaper it had tried to encourage them to work jointly to get a better deal for customers. But they weren’t having it.
‘There is a certain amount of lethargy among local providers,’ CICRA head Michael Byrne was quoted as saying.
That’s hardly surprising. In earlier years, competition did shake things up when Sure etc came in but these are tiny, complacent markets. And that being the case, no wonder if the existing telcos got comfortable realising that achieving significant market shifts is hard work, so steady as she goes is cosier all round.
Cue Byrne and Co, who (among other things) try to ensure the consumer gets a good deal and resolve that which really infuriates us – either turning off mobile data when we go away or jiggering around with a UK Sim or taking a pay-as-you go cheapie phone from a UK provider.
I accept the local telcos aren’t ripping us off and merely passing on the rates they’re charged. But it doesn’t feel that way, and CICRA appears to agree.
Anyway, the point is that someone or something exists to scan the horizon on our behalf and poke the relevant businesses to try to ensure that, yes, we are all getting the best and fairest possible deal, given CI circumstances.
Yet when someone like Deputy Lewis says there needs to be a bit more rigour in the way the two islands investigate formal collaboration, you know the process isn’t going well.
So who looks after the consumer/taxpayer interest in such cases?
The short answer is that no one does. There is no formal system by which CI wins are identified and no scrutiny of whether those that are flagged have been fully or properly pursued.
In other words, we are taking on trust all that can be done is or has been done – probably as effective as a parish constable claiming the Chief Minister’s leadership isn’t up to snuff.
As for the effects of that, just look at you not taking our waste for incineration and us not supporting the pilot inter-island Condor service.
Both were fiascos, the reasons remain opaque and no one is looking for answers because, as I suspect Deputy Lewis was hinting, nobody cares.
Each States – and Guernsey is sadly ahead of you on this – are so enmeshed in ‘doing’ government that they’re like hamsters in those clear plastic bubbles chasing down a path that was set, in some cases, years ago and in totally different economic circumstances.
Here, because we don’t have ‘backbenchers’, our government is merely alienating the electorate – the discontent is palpable – while deputies purr over a job allegedly done well.
But because you have a them-and-us form of government, both backbenchers AND electorate are hacked off.
Which, I suppose, takes a certain type of leadership to pull off…
