By Alastair Layzell
In 1860, the newly elected President of the United States did something remarkable. Abraham Lincoln invited the three Republicans who had challenged him to join his cabinet. William Seward became Secretary of State, Salmon Chase was made Treasury Secretary and Edward Bates Attorney General.
All were better educated and more experienced than Lincoln. They continued to resent the man the New York Times called “a fourth-rate lecturer, who cannot speak good grammar”. But, very quickly, they became devoted to him.
In the introduction to A Team of Rivals, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote of Lincoln’s “political genius”, which enabled him to “repair injured feelings that, left untended, might have escalated into permanent hostility; to assume responsibility for the failures of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from mistakes”.
I offer this small piece of history as a contrast to the political events of last week in Jersey in which the Chief Minister launched a scathing attack on a decision by the Assistant Environment Minister, Deputy Hilary Jeune, to reject the recommendation of a planning inspector that a scheme for apartment blocks in St Helier, part of which broke the Island Plan policy on height, be approved. Deputy Jeune did nothing wrong.
In fact, she did everything right; fulfilling all the requirements of the Planning Law and supplying a cogent argument for disagreeing with the inspector.
I presume the Chief Minister’s extraordinary, angry statement that she was “extremely disappointed” was issued without consulting other ministers, or wiser counsel would have prevailed.
The Ministerial Code, which Pierre Horsfall, Nigel Quérée and I promoted when drafting the rules for ministerial government in 2001, was based on Lord Nolan’s Seven Principles of Public Life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. The Jersey code says: “Before making an announcement with a consequence for the image and reputation of the executive … Ministers and Assistant Ministers shall adopt a ‘no surprises’ approach for colleagues.”
Ministers are required to act “with courtesy and respect at all times towards colleagues” in an environment that “excludes bullying and discrimination”.
Since meetings of the Council of Ministers are held behind closed doors, we see their interactions through a glass darkly.
But clues emerge: the departure of a chief executive in circumstances which have never been satisfactorily explained; the falling out of the Chief Minister and the Minister for Infrastructure; and, now, a public attack on a fellow minister the like of which I have never seen. There will be consequences.
At the next council meeting, ministers will be looking over their shoulders. Today, the Assistant Environment Minister; next week, perhaps, the Minister for Home Affairs, or Health or Infrastructure or Economic Development. Who knows?
The Ministerial Code is one thing. Interference with the planning process is quite another.
Running government is frustrating. It is especially frustrating if you’ve been a backbencher for years, challenging the executive.
Now, in power, you find yourself discharging heavy responsibilities. The Leviathan that is government takes time to slow down and turn around. There are few shortcuts. This is especially true of Planning, where the law dictates how ministers and civil servants may act and the Island Plan (the most recent version approved by the States Assembly in 2022) contains policies for development in the various zones. Policy, widely consulted upon and then agreed by the legislature, is the bedrock of government.
If change is desired, change the policy, not the minister.
Planning applications must be decided without fear or favour. In the six years that I chaired the Planning Committee it amused me to see that developers and those who regularly complained about “red tape” and the interference in people’s lives by “big government” were the first to reach for the Island Plan and lodge a furious protest at an application which would affect their private house or business.
The system is sometimes imperfect but Jersey, where many live cheek by jowl, is unimaginable without planning regulations.
None of this is to imply that leadership should be without passion and emotion. But, it must be based on consensus and, crucially, on consistency.
Our Chief Minister might look to Abraham Lincoln. The irony is that, unlike the 16th American president, she does not have a “team of rivals” in her cabinet. Her ministers are generally like-minded. Many have valuable experience of the wider world in everything from the United Nations to national broadcasting to public health. Others possess a legal background.
The Chief Minister should aspire to Lincoln’s example, of which Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote: “In the hands of a truly great politician the qualities we generally associate with decency and morality – kindness, sensitivity, compassion, honesty and empathy – can also be impressive political resources.”
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Alastair Layzell is a television and film producer, a former Channel Television journalist and a former States Deputy and Senator, having served as vice-president of the Planning and Environment Committee and chairman of the Planning sub-committee from 1996 until 2002.
