Choices for the electorate

That said, if the States now agree to a referendum on the commission’s recommendations, there will still be a major opportunity for the general public to influence the eventual structure of the Island’s parliament.

If the referendum goes ahead, it will not be just on the question of whether the Constables should retain their automatic seats in the States but on the whole reform package, all versions of which put forward by the commission include the abolition of the post of Senator and the much-prized Islandwide mandate that goes with it.

Islanders weighing up the options will find themselves having to consider pragmatic practicalities rather than preferred notions about the nature of an ideal democracy.

In the absence of party politics, there is no magic-bullet formula which could ever satisfy all shades of opinion as to what structure might offer the most responsive representation for Jersey in the modern age.

Senator Sir Philip Bailhache’s commission has identified just three possible permutations: a 42-Member House composed entirely of Deputies, one comprising Deputies and Constables, also totalling 42, or the status quo as it would otherwise be by 2014 thanks to earlier tinkering – that is, a total of 49, including eight Senators and 29 Deputies as well as the Constables.

The futures of Constables and Senators are perhaps the major matters of contention, but there are other parts of the tabled recommendations which might also encourage people to vote willy-nilly for the status quo, once more scuppering efforts to fix a States structure which, before the tinkering began, was not actually that broken.

For example, the division of the Island into six constituencies to ensure that elected Members could each claim to be backed by a significant mandate has much to commend it as a compromise between keeping an element of the Islandwide vote and making elections more manageable but the proposed district boundaries appear somewhat arbitrarily based on arithmetical neatness rather than affinity of voter interests.

Then there is the matter of the number of representatives that the Island requires. It has become an article of faith that the present total is excessive, but is that really the case?

The commission’s favoured total of 42 represents a substantial reduction, and basic mathematics suggest that there might not be sufficient Members to fill all the necessary posts, particularly if other ministerial portfolios are introduced, while also keeping the executive in check.

The proposed terms of the referendum include neither a Senator-free option with self-contained parish elections nor a reformed House without a significant reduction in numbers, omissions which may inadvertently bring the whole elaborate process to naught.