More than a political sideshow

The by-election winner will serve just 16 months or so, but his position as one of only 12 politicians able to claim an Islandwide mandate will nevertheless carry some weight. Of the field of nine candidates, Geoff Southern, Patrick Ryan and Gerard Baudains have earned their places on the platform as effective and experienced Deputies, while Francis Le Gresley’s work as head of the Citizens Advice Bureau gives him the required credentials of Islandwide service and expert insight into major issues. Their participation has ensured that that this has been a by-election of some significance and neither a formality nor a sideshow, as it might easily have become.

Ex-Senator Stuart Syvret is, of course, also a candidate for the seat he forfeited by his self-imposed exile but wrong in his egocentric assertion that this by-election is all about him and the personal agenda he so obsessively and vindictively pursues, apparently blind to the inconvenient fact that much of his criticism of Jersey’s health and social services relates to a period when he had political responsibility for them.

As the progress of the parish hustings has helped to make clear, there are many other matters of urgent public concern also demanding the attention of a new generation of clear-sighted, collaborative politicians. They include, notably, the impact on our society of public spending cuts; the dangers of over-development and the vital need for economic diversification; future levels and types of taxation; the elimination of government inefficiency and unaccountability; and the ever more unmanageable cost of living in Jersey.

Anyone pondering which way to vote on Wednesday would be well advised to weigh up the likelihood of each candidate contributing constructively to the difficult coming debates on issues of that kind. The poll-topper on 16 June should, in addition, be someone capable of demonstrating to voters his genuine concern for the well-being of all Islanders and his willingness to help unite the community at a time when it faces so many new and complex challenges.

We hope that, having given careful thought to the candidates’ claims and personal qualities, voters will turn out in large numbers on Wednesday, regardless of the fact that this is ‘only’ a by-election and despite such rival attractions as the World Cup. The right to exercise a democratic franchise is a precious one and it can rarely have been more important for electors in Jersey, with one eye on the general election of autumn 2011, to begin considering the question of how the quality of the Island’s political representation is to be raised from its present lacklustre and divisive level.