My Review of the Guernsey IoD Debate

2020 Where will we be?

Never before have I been in the presence of so many people I aspire to be, all in one room. When I was asked to attend the Guernsey IoD debate, I knew I would be amazed by the level of discussion by arguably some of the most powerful men and women in the Channel Islands. Once I was actually in the David Ferguson Hall, I found myself oddly “star struck”, mostly by people I had never heard of and didn’t recognise. It only takes a glance at the short biography given in the “2020: Where will we be?” booklet, and you realise that the men and women on the panel are people who are more than deservedly celebrated for their contributions to Guernsey and Jersey’s economies.

One of the most vocal panellists, John Davey finished his opening speech with the quote “Where we are in 2020 depends on what we do now.” Powerful, and in my opinion, extremely true words. Unlike Lyndon Trott towards the end of the evening, John Davey answered his questions directly, and I never got the feeling he was diverting from the main subject or trying to avoid giving a certain response. Mr. Davey viewed some radical opinions, such as the point where he said that while it may be useful to debate over whether he would spend £200,000 on an office in Brussels, he suddenly exclaimed that he would advise spending three times as much money in Asia, which was clearly something that no one had considered.

Another panellist who had a great effect on me was Tamara Menteshvili. As she sponsors a choir which one of my family members participate in, I had first hand knowledge of how she supports the community, and therefore understood why all that she said was for the benefit of the community as a whole, not just the business community. While discussing how to foster a steady business platform for the year 2020, Tammy commented on the education system of Guernsey, “I’m in awe of the education system, and the opportunities that young people are now given.” I would agree with this statement, and mention that the opportunities for young people now are far greater than they were twenty years ago, so my generation of businessmen and politicians are able to change the shape of the economy.

One of the most inevitable parts of any debate is the point where you are not chosen to voice your opinion to the rest of the floor. Luckily for me, while I did not have a chance to question the financial efficiency of the States of Guernsey, there was no need for me to do it. Peter Neville, former Director General of the GFSC, broke into a small speech about how “We have to have a government that works.” I think that myself and Mr. Neville would get on quite well, as he also shared my views on how we need to “control the demographic” while there was no need to put a cap on it.

While Senator Philip Ozouf’s biography is extremely impressive, with time spent working at multinational companies leading auditing projects in various industries, his input was limited; although what he did say, made sense. A phrase he said quite often was that the Guernsey economy needed to be “confident but not complacent” in its handling of tax haven accusations.

Now onto the man who made the evening: Alastair Stewart. Just listening to the introduction given by Mark Thompson, you got a sense that Alastair was literally the best man to moderate the discussions. After reporting on the Berlin Wall, the Lockerbie bombing, and the Shuttle disaster, he seems just about qualified to moderate Guernsey’s IoD debate. After chairing the two previous Jersey debates, he can now add to his curriculum vitae that he has moderated the ultimate discussion; where will Guernsey be in 10 years time? I was amazed at how incredibly he seemed to analyse panel responses in seconds before responding with a thought provoking response himself. I got the sense that he really knew what he was talking about, and while he had clearly planned out what was going to be discussed, he had no problems with personally responding to off-subject questions from the floor. His natural wit and intelligence was more than a match for the table of States members, and he asked the questions that all of us wanted to ask ourselves. However, what impressed me most about Alastair was the way in which he focussed on the student table, ensuring that we were not the people who were there for the papers, but he recognised, as I’m sure the majority of the room did, that we are the generation that will be influential in 2020, and a few years after that, we will be the ones leading these debates, and the ones who make the decisions that we were discussing. The issues that we discussed will affect our generation, and as Alastair said, “They can do things, they can change things”.

Before I attended the debate, I thought that after completing an accountancy qualification, and after I had started my life in Guernsey, I would attempt to become a member of the States of Guernsey. After attending the debate, I know that I can make a difference to the way Guernsey is run in the future, and it is up to my generation to shape the economy into something we are happy living within. We can do things, we can change things.