IT’S been a week when the Island has been asked to digest some home truths about the way it has looked after its main source of income, financial services; solutions have been described variously as a blueprints, defining moments and turning points for our future prosperity.
Whether that is true will only be accurately judged through the perspective of history, so it is interesting that in the same week, a proposal has also been put forward to conduct a “deep and searching review” of our system of Government, something which was introduced following the work of Sir Cecil Clothier and his panel, a generation ago.
In their report, published just before the end of the year 2000, they made this comment:
“The insular authorities have been able to cope with unforeseen overspends and with ill co-ordinated decision-making because the Island has been driven forward by a favourable wind….(they) clearly need the capacity to act or re-act both rapidly and decisively, as much on external as on internal issues…”
Fast-forward to 2026, and it is abundantly clear that such a “favourable wind” has died to a whisper. And that the “ill co-ordinated decision-making” which he referred to is still alive and well.
Despite Clothier’s work to create a machinery of government which was well co-ordinated, decisive, responsive and transparent (precisely to cope with the forecast that Jersey’s external threats would soon become pernicious) we have instead read this week about overlapping responsibilities, unclear policy, bureaucratic friction and a lack of centralised control.
To be fair, Clothier was describing the dislocation caused by having 24 States Committees – whereas the issues above seem to have stemmed from a lack of effective coordination between Government, the industry, and ‘arms-length’ bodies such as Jersey Finance and the JFSC.
Those inter-relationships are nuanced and complex, and seem to have suffered from a lack of overall control and command clarity; from an inability to see the bigger picture and work collectively towards a common goal – in fact, exactly like the old committee system, with Clothier set about reforming.
But whether the comparison is a fair one or not, the end result has been identical in either case: complacency – propelled by the belief that the “favourable wind” which Clothier referred to 26 years ago, would always continue to blow across our shores.
Despite our efforts to bring clarity and speed, to make sure the Island is fit to compete with its growing external threats, we still seem to have reached a position where another major turning point is still needed, if we are to finally achieve that objective.
