A lost decade

Ten years ago we had an election in Jersey.  The senatorial contest was notable for having  three declared groupings - JDA, TimeForChange and Jersey2020.  I was a candidate alongside Daniel Wimberley and Nick Palmer as the 2020 group.  It felt as though some organised politics might actually arise from  that.  It was also of course run in the backdrop of revelations and investigations concerning child abuse in the care system. 


The saddest thing for me is just how much those topics we were raising then  are still relevant today, many more so. And how so little has been achieved by the States since on those issues. Despite the intervening  Committee of Inquiry  we still have  repeated reports of various parts of the care system not adequate, needing  change and failing  children.


It will be hard for some to credit that back then we didn't have  an energy policy and there was no position on climate change. Energy if it was considered was a matter of the Treasury Minister as  shareholder  dropping round for a cup of coffee to Jersey Electricity and informing the chief exec what level of dividend they expected to receive. The difference that election was the revelations concerning the  new incinerator , since it does produce a spot of electricty  from the burned waste.


It took the  formation of the JCAN on the back of our campaigning that election, and a few more years  to finally get an energy policy and a commitment on climate change.  In classic Jersey fashion that was based on two decades old material - the Kyoto protocol.  And it hasn't been updated since despite the rest of  the world (arguably absenting the USA)  having agreed the more ambitious Paris agreement.


An area I was almost alone in raising was food security, waste and the role of allotments.  At that time the only proper site was at Grouville and that only because the land had been in the same hands since before the planning law was introduced and hence not controlled by it.  We do now have a number of other allotment sites , but that is much more due to the work of JALGA than any assistance from the States.  And all that before food banks became a big thing in the UK  and almost a decade before Brexit talks of needing food and medicine stockpiles.   It is a forgotten truth in politics that the best time to tackle a problem is when most cannot yet see it is going to be a problem.


No one would be surprised to hear that a former software developer like me was arguing for diversifying into a tech sector, especially software development, and for online voting.  We have a sort of tech sector now, but it is far too intertwined with finance to be a proper diversification.  One small step  which I did call for back in 2008 came to pass in the last couple of years  - putting  official notices on the States own web site.


Naturally some of those big items were never going to get much progress unless there was a significant change in States members and their political priorities as a group.  Of course that didn't (hasn't) happen.  And the small victories.  Easy really when you know how the highly personalised and individualistic system works.  Make a fuss in an election , and then go relatively quiet.  At some point the info seeps into the consciousness of the elected members and you let them think they dreamed it up all by themselves.  It only takes 7 to 10 years!  The frightening thing is we don't have that long to get properly on top of the big issues from a decade ago - climate change, sustainability and  living within our means.