Bermuda looks nice … and the Island Games are spot-on

At their meeting in Åland all 23 members who attended the agm voted for Bermuda, which means that for the first time ever the Island Games will now be played outside European boundaries.

This is terrific news for Island sport. For a ‘proper’ Island Games, to bring in as many islands from around the world as possible, you can’t base the competing islands solely in Europe, and more than once I have thought about the Falklands competitors, as they stoically spend two or three days travelling to their next destination every two years after training on a grass running track, without much hope of ever winning a Games medal.

In its own way, since its birth in the Isle of Man, the Island Games has proved a problem to most island governments over the years, because they have felt obliged to back the concept of islands competing among themselves – no politician wants to be seen as a killjoy when sport, especially at a higher level, raises its head.

If, for example, Education, Sport and Culture Minister Mike Vibert chose to ignore sport and concentrated solely on culture and education, I wonder how long it would be before Islanders took exception and people would hint that it was time for him to go.

Sport is a big part of most people’s lives. That’s why I, and many people like me, always read the national newspapers from back to front; that’s why I fret when I listen to Test match commentaries; that’s why I walk out of the room when England’s football teams are doomed to failure; and that’s why, at a cost of £70 a ticket, I walk out of Twickenham when England are losing to France, New Zealand or Australia with only three or four minutes to go.

I am not saying that I am a bad loser. I just hate to see my country lose. There is a subtle difference between the two. Only once in my lifetime have I refused to shake the hand of a fellow competitor on the pitch, in any sport, when my side has lost a game. I would like to think that I’ve never been a bad loser, which is very different from hating to lose.

I love my sport, but my passion is such that I can’t bear to follow it unless there is some consolation in defeat, which is why I was pleased that Wales won the Grand Slam in rugby last year after England had blown their chances. I remember fondly the Welsh teams of the 1960s and 70s and I’m always glad when the French lose … although for the rugby season ahead I’m still worried about the French, the Australians, the South Africans and the Kiwis.

Martin Johnson will do a good job, but England haven’t been firing on all cylinders for at least the last five years, so who knows when we’ll win the World Cup again?

Moving back to the Island Games in 2013, although there are another two Games, first in Gotland and then in the Isle of Wight between now and then, I think Bermuda deserves credit for volunteering to host the Games in five years.

Having spoken to Jon Beard, Bermuda’s Island Games Association chairman, I know how keen he is to take the Games there. I have also read up on the island, and recognise that it is similar to Jersey, albeit narrower, and connected by bridges to another seven smaller islands.

The Bermudan IGA is taking a huge gamble because of the cost of staging the Games, and the cost of teams getting there – which brings me back to their, rather than our, politicians.

For Bermuda are committing themselves to paying US$1 million mainly towards the cost of bringing other islanders to their island, the second-most isolated island in the world, 600 miles away from the coast of America.

It hasn’t been simply the way that Bermuda’s politicians have all put themselves 100 per cent behind their IGA bid. For Bermuda, like Jersey, owes its government, ultimately, to the goodwill of the crown. It is an Overseas Territory, self-governing, but one whose responsibility for defence, civil aviation and the police are substantially retained by the Governor, a Deputy Governor, a Cabinet and a Legislature based on two chambers, a Senate and a House of Assembly.

It is a system that relies heavily on the existence of the organised political parties, each laying policies before the electorate for their approval. The party which wins the most seats as a general election, or who has the support of the majority party, is asked by the Governor to form a government. The largest minority party becomes the official opposition, with its own leader and shadow cabinet.

In terms of island politics, surely that kind of government is much better than the system we have, when a mish-mash of politicians, each with their own trumpet to sound, can easily be put in his or her place by the other 50-plus States Members, none of whom is part of an official party, be they in power or, which is just as important, organised opposition.

Too often Jersey is run in a hit-or-miss kind of way, when every politician has a personal opinion, and because of that, depending on the way they feel at the start of the week, they are perfectly entitled to change their mind.

We don’t have political parties with members working together, looking to the future with one mind. Too often here decisions are made on the hoof. As one politician told me about a vote he cast but then had doubts about afterwards: ‘It seemed a good idea at the time’.

Bermuda isn’t that much different from us in what the islanders want. But they seem to have a clear idea of what they expect their island to be.

In all honesty, does anyone in Jersey have any inkling, sporting or otherwise, where our future lies?