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Getting the facts should not be this hard: Will Walter in the Guernsey Press

By Bridgehead Research

Published 24 August 20261 min read

Will Walter's column for the Guernsey Press on why an island of 64,000 people should not have to reconstruct its own record from 11 overlapping annual reports.

Getting the facts should not be this hard: Will Walter in the Guernsey Press

Key findings

In a Guernsey Press column headlined "Getting the facts should not be this hard", William Walter argues Guernsey's system of independent deputies has no equivalent to the parties, whips and national press that hold politicians to their word in Britain and America.
Walter notes no organisation exists whose job is to hold a deputy to their manifesto, and that no local newspaper has the staff to check 38 manifestos against 246 recorded divisions.
Walter points out Guernsey operates only a voluntary Freedom of Information Code, while Jersey has had a statutory right since 2011.
Walter notes the only committee attendance figures that exist for this term exist because the Guernsey Press asked for them twice and printed them.

The Guernsey Press carried a comment piece by William Walter, Founder and Managing Director of Bridgehead Communications, on the afternoon of the launch, under the headline ‘Getting the facts should not be this hard’.

The argument is about machinery rather than individuals. In Britain and America, parties, whips and a national press hold a politician to what they said on the doorstep. Guernsey's system of independent deputies has real strengths, but it carries no equivalent: there is no organisation whose job it is to hold a deputy to their manifesto, and no brand to be thrown out of. The only backstop is a small local newspaper, and no small local newspaper anywhere has the staff to read 38 manifestos and match every promise in them against 246 recorded divisions.

The column then goes through what the published record actually shows on public finances, growth, the public sector, housing, health, schools and crime, and how much of it had to be rebuilt from scratch. Guernsey has a Freedom of Information Code rather than a law; Jersey has had a statutory right since 2011. The only committee attendance figures that exist for this term exist because the Guernsey Press asked for them, twice, and printed them.