If the money’s right
The ‘have your say’ offer is omnipresent nowadays in Guernsey. We are invited to offer our thoughts on almost anything the States thinks about, except, of course, generally the stuff we’d want to have a say about.
The culture of consultation matches the spread of ‘government by Facebook’ – people more than ready to offer some unofficial, unprompted thoughts in the hope that enough of them get picked up by supine deputies and dictate the outcome of debate in the Chamber.
Certainly there’s plenty of anecdotal feedback for the new independent States members’ pay review panel to analyse on social media about how much our politicians should be paid. Along with complaints about how many of them couldn’t justify an above-median earnings salary anywhere else in the island apart from in government.
However (marginally) above median earnings is what our deputies currently receive, and based on a finger-in-the-air analysis, and by now, long-standing practice, it feels about right.
Once the decision to pay politicians was made, it can’t really be withdrawn. Once a level is found, it can’t be seriously dropped, but it would be a major surprise if the panel proposed a leap into the realms of big money.
As we aspire to proper representation, salary is important.
But it will never be more important than the willingness to offer oneself for public service.