With just a few days to go now until the political hopefuls for the next four years confirm their intentions, there is a word which each one will have to wrestle with: ambition. Perhaps for some, that ambition is personal, and voters will need to divine if each candidate is truly capable of putting the needs of the Island before their own; but personal ambition is not always negative, particularly if it feeds both resilience, and determination, qualities which are essential for anyone with leadership aspirations.
However, it is their ambition for the Island which one presumes will be more obviously on show, even for those standing in one of the Parish-based constituencies – all have the same single vote in the States Assembly.
Some will simply be relentlessly critical of what has happened previously, and while in a few cases that might be entertaining, it also does little to move the Island forwards, or to resolve some of the obvious challenges that we face.
Which is where that simple word, ambition, comes to the fore – and the its calibration needs to be just right.
We might presume that few candidates have ever been elected by showing too little ambition; by essentially arguing for the status quo to continue, albeit with some minor change. But for a largely conservative electorate, whose maintain objective is to preserve what they have, there can be an attraction for some in doing little, but doing it carefully.
Our general election is actually a combination of up to twenty-two smaller elections, and the extent of change required by the electorate in each one may well be different; at a local level, each note sounds clearly.
But show too much ambition, and voters will be quick to ridicule promises which are dripping with ‘tick-box’ adjectives such as “sustainable”, “innovative” and “inclusive”, but short on any actual policy detail whatsoever.
This is the first election in which AI will play a significant role, which means that requiring candidates to actually be specific about what they will do – and what they won’t do – and how they will pay for it, is more important than ever. Words can easily be generated at the click of button; genuinely good ideas take more work.
Finally, there will be those who can actually articulate, and detail, an ambitious vision for the Island, one which will unite their colleagues behind a common purpose. In the absence of developed party politics, it is that shared ambition which will actually be the determinant of success, both for the candidate, and for the Island as a whole.
