Judas

What is the point of an election manifesto if, once elected, you tear up your promises?
 
Why show one face until you’re safely ensconced in the States of Deliberation with salary confirmed and then turn that face away from your parishioners, the very people who chose you to represent them?
 
Is this the sort of Deputy we want in the States?
 
It’s a very powerful and simple argument but does it hold water?
 
It's rare to be able to make any decision in the light of full and complete information. It is also very rare for any situation to remain static. Life moves on and things change. We either change with them or we get left behind.
 
We already have enough politicians content to be left behind and indeed looking wistfully back to the good old days. What we need are those who recognise the reality of where we stand and what needs doing for the good of the Island.
 
We may still more or less elect parish representatives but we do expect them to govern for the good of all of us. Anything otherwise and we’ll end up with a parliament full of parochial bickering and point scoring, a governing body which gets nowhere and does nothing because it is eternally split along parish boundaries.
 
Now look at the initial argument again and put it into context.
 
As a would be deputy, I want to represent my fellow citizens, my local community and specifically those who will elect me. I need to understand their concerns and seek to express their will.
 
A few years down the line I am now, as a Deputy, privy to a lot more information; facts, figures and advice from professionals. I’m also much more aware of the overall situation and how it has changed since I made those promises way back.
 
If I had known then what I know now, would I make those same promises? I hope not, but I’m not sure I would have been elected as so few of those who bother to vote think outside of the parish and what benefits them directly.
 
Of course things need changing and savings need to be made, but that’s for other people. We want our own lives to continue without change please and we want our representatives to do that for us. We may recognise the importance of what is needed  for the Island but we want the burden to fall elsewhere.
 
Yes it’s illogical but it is human.
 
We are an island of just under 25 square miles but we still insist on subdividing our voting districts because that’s what we’ve always done. We’re still using a system built for a bygone century when you probably knew everyone in your parish by sight if not by name and you seldom travelled outside of it.
 
If we want to be governed as an Island then we need to elect as an Island. It will happen one day but in the meantime we must continue with what we’ve got.
 
We can only hope that those we elect will have the guts to represent and work for the good of the Island as a whole rather than for that fragmented portion of the electorate which happen to live within the boundaries of their voting district.
 
We can also but hope for individuals with the courage and flexibility to recognise, in the light of new and/or better information, that they were previously wrong and need to change their minds.
 
It’s easy to grandstand and play to your parochial electorate, ever hopeful of reelection as a man of the people but it’s much harder to be the politician which your Island actually needs.
 
Now, which would you really like to represent you?
 
It’s easy to shout “Judas”.
 
It’s also wrong.