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Have the non-politicians got a better handle on the public interest than anyone else?
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The writer pointed out that although you’d think from reading the papers, and watching the news online and on TV that nothing else was happening anywhere in the world, the phone-hacking story was in fact someway behind a story about an owl flying into a window on the most-viewed list on the BBC website.
A couple of days later, that remark got me thinking about how Deputy Jeremy Maçon might be a political genius. I promise you that I can explain.
In the UK, the phrase ‘Westminster Village’ is used to describe the curious bubble inhabited by politicians and journalists, whose interests and enthusiasms do not always match up with those of the people they serve. We may not have a matching expression, but the phenomenon has certainly crossed the channel.
Without banging the drum once more about the mismatch in enthusiasm levels for the two Senatorial seats that will disappear in October, it’s fair to say that there are similar issues here. States reform is a decent example, as is the suspension of former Police chief Graham Power, or the ‘zero-ten’ corporate tax system, or super-rich immigrants and their tax rates.
Deeply interesting to politicians, and perhaps supremely significant to the Island, but a bit limited in the general public interest stakes – despite the protestations of those involved.
And then along comes Deputy Maçon and his Scrutiny sub-panel with a report about on the spot fines for dog mess and littering. And that’s what people will be talking about.
And then you cast your mind back to the last time that Deputy Maçon came out with a report – the one about which States Members missed the most votes. Again, just the kind of thing that people are actually interested in.
What makes all of this stand out is that while States Members are desperately scrabbling around for some kind of quick-win or publicity as pre-election paranoia sets in, you can’t help but feel that some of them are missing the point.
Have a quick look at the debates listed over the next two States sessions: GST on health foods, railings around the Millennium Town Park, anti-discrimination legislation, stalling pension reforms, reviewing ministerial government, using laptops in the States, and development on a site at Les Quennevais.
Worthwhile? Sure. Good ideas? Some of them, sure. Likely to grab the public’s attention? Probably not.
But when Deputy Maçon put out his report – which, for the sake of completeness listed the following as the top five vote-dodgers: Deputy Geoff Southern (37% missed), St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft (27%), Senator Ben Shenton (27%), Senator Freddie Cohen (26%) and St John Constable Graeme Butcher (24%) – you can rest assured that the people he named got some calls about it.
It also spawned a new States practice, apparently referred to in the coffee room as ‘Jeremy votes’, in which politicians wait to see if their rivals are out of the Chamber, and then ask for a formal vote to see if they can push up opponents’ absentee figures.
(On a related note, one of the politicians named in Deputy Maçon’s list recently said he almost caught the young St Saviour No 1 Deputy out with a ‘Jeremy’ – but that he arrived just in time.)
The point being this: there are few enough members of the public who can identify the Chief Minister, let alone name their district representatives.
If they’re lucky, States Members will be known for one or two things at best – no-one’s going to get back in on the platform of having sorted out the Millennium Town Park railings or having lost a debate on GST exemptions or having passed brave new proposals for using laptops or iPads in the States.
And particularly not if they happen to do these things on the same week that an owl makes an obliging impression on a window.
ON the same note, this seems to be a lesson not lost on election candidates. I’ve seen around a dozen manifestos so far, not one of which has excluded the phrases ‘fight inappropriate development’ and ‘do more for youths in the parish’.
Could it be that the non-politicians have got a better handle on the public interest than anyone else?
Finally, it’s one of the great modern political clichés that ‘we’ve got to get the message out that Jersey is open for business’.
Well, fine. Business = jobs. Jobs = good. But see if you can spot the trend – ‘vulture’ debt funds, online gambling, fulfilment. And last week it was whaling.
Come on. Can there be such a thing as too open for business?
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