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views, news and stories from the point of view of younger people in the JDA
Election 2008
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“One of the great myths that exists in regard to the island’s political system today (prior to the emergence in 2005 of the Jersey Democratic Alliance) is that there were no political parties. The lack of a concrete party system within the States today stems from the elections of 1948. In addition to the usual ‘Independents’ there were two parties in contention – the JPP (Jersey Progressive Party) and the JDM (Jersey Democratic Movement – no relation to the JDA). The result of the election was that one party, the JPP, swept the board with 13 members elected against 1 JDM member to the newly reformed States Assembly. Once elected they (JPP) swiftly disbanded the formulised party thus giving a veneer of credibility to the idea of no political parties. Since then members of this group have in effect been constantly re-elected. The result of this is that Jersey operates a system of government in which there is no formal opposition and has an electoral process that allows the electorate to change the members of government in dribs and drabs, but not to throw them out completely.”
The above paragraph is taken from an excellent if deliberately ‘colourful’ for literary purposes no doubt brief history of party politics (oh yes – contrary to Establishment Party spin it is the true Jersey way!) in the island up until the period shortly after the Second World War, written by Doug Ford and to be found on the Jersey Heritage website. Excellent as the piece is, however, it appears to have been written before some rather telling information came to light. Information that puts the result describes above and what has happened since to a somewhat more murky light.
As you will recall, Doug describes how of the two parties the real one (the Jersey Democratic Movement, made up of ordinary working people) and the fake one (the Jersey Progressive Party, made up of wealthy businessmen) it was the JPP who ‘swept the board’. There is an old saying that says there is often more to a situation than immediately meets the eye. The election described above really proves this to be true.
Old documents – new light
Old political documents, many dating right back to the last months of the Occupation, recently came up for auction here in Jersey. Amongst these old posters and leaflets were a number of letters showing correspondence between the Jersey Democratic Movement and the Editor of the Evening Post of the time. Fascinating in themselves what a number of the letters show was that this election of 1948 – possibly the most important election of modern times, coming as it did after the turmoil of the war – wasn’t exactly fought on the level playing field that it should have been.
According to the documents not only was the Jersey Democratic Movement of the island’s working people prevented from having coverage of its manifesto, while the Jersey Progressive Party of the wealthy businessmen were given this – even in allowing them to publish policies lifted directly from the JDM itself and passed off as their own – the newspaper even went as far as to prevent the Jersey Democratic Movement from publishing their full manifesto as a paid advertisement!
In today’s world with TV, radio and the ever-increasing presence of the internet it is still easy to see what an influence this type of totally undemocratic action would have on an election, as the public’s opinion would be manipulated as a result of being fed lopsided information. In the dark days immediately following the war when the newspaper was the key source of information the damage this must have done to the old JDM’s campaign is difficult to imagine. Could such media skulduggery of a similar nature possibly happen in the enlightened days of 2008? Surely not, but if you happen to write to the newspaper of today and your letter mysteriously never gets printed, or you are given some lame excuse why it can’t be – drop us a line.
A ‘party’ but without the benefits
But to continue the story, once the 1948 elections were out of the way and the JPP members were in power they quickly disbanded the party but crucially maintained their grouping: thus, just as Doug Ford points out so adroitly, gave a veneer of credibility to the myth of a system of no political parties. With Jersey politics continuing down the years to be largely dominated by those with wealth-fed power this has remained the situation to the present day. Of course, the sad thing for the ordinary working people of Jersey is that while they have in all reality had a ‘party’ in power for all these years – be it a de-facto one driven by greed and vested interest the electorate have been denied any of the benefits of a true and democratic party political system. Just consider the facts:
about change because they were effectively struggling ‘alone’
Just as disappointing, in truth, so very many missed opportunities that should, in the halcyon financial decades of the 70’s and 80’s have ensured we were prepared to face the more difficult times of the present in much better shape!
Over this past year or so of Ministerial government Jersey has witnessed a catalogue of political own goals, of fiscal incompetence, and appalling elitist arrogance that in 99% of modern democracies would – had a party system been in place - surely have brought that government to its knees - and most tellingly seen those responsible turfed out of office in a general election. Just think GST, the Waterfront saga with the recent Harcourt fiasco, the hugely flawed Income Support Scheme, Haut de la Garenne and ‘indefinite’ detainment with just a careless flick of a Minister’s pen – and we think most neutrals would have to concede the point.
A party system is better because quite simply put it is more democratic. It is more transparent. It is more accountable to those it is meant to serve – the island’s people. We rest our case.
*For a perspective from some younger people’s point of view why not check out the article on Youth Bytes…
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No mechanism by which to hold the government to collective account