Alliance Party Guernsey

Barry Weir is the party founder and chairman.

Alliance Party, Guernsey. The Island's first ever political party.

' From the beginning the aim of the Party has been to attract members and candidates from different walks of life, whose knowledge and experiences would shape and bring more relevance to our policies.'

Barry founded and chairs the Alliance Party Guernsey.

It is the first ever political party to have been formed on the Island.

After an interview on BBC Radio Guernsey, Barry was approached by people suggesting that he should run as a Deputy on the Island.

Barry decided to achieve meaningful change that he needed to form a party.

In an article written for the Guernsey Press, Barry explains more:

"It is claimed that the great Greek philosopher, Aristotle, once said: ‘The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know.’

"Ironically, the more you look into the veracity of this quote the more unsure you become of its origins and whether Aristotle said it at all; but the point stands, the more you search for answers and speak to people the more you come to understand that ‘full knowledge’ of a subject is impossible for an individual to attain.

"This was very much my experience when I first thought about putting myself forward to stand as a Deputy for the Island.

"Frustrated of seeing a culture of ‘tax and spend’ without good housekeeping, I thought I could use my business experience to help steer the Island in a better direction. I was confident that I could make a difference in the economic direction of Guernsey by bringing in some much-needed private sector thinking to our public sector spending.

"I had also become aware of the social care problems on the Island as I spoke with people about how many of the elderly in Guernsey didn’t get the support they needed, and how increasing numbers of families were relying on food banks. The need for food banks on an outwardly affluent island I found particularly shocking.

"As I thought more about putting myself forward for election as a Deputy, what began to dawn on me was that it was not about the areas where I was confident my knowledge and experience could help that mattered, it was more about the areas that I had no particular expertise in.

"How could I possibly vote on certain subjects that would affect Islanders’ lives without having a really good knowledge of the subject.

"Then it struck me. This may well have been why political parties developed. I suddenly realised that being a political party meant that people from different areas of expertise could be brought together to the benefit of everyone.

"The more I thought about it the more I realised that it would actually be ignorant and arrogant to have even thought that as an individual Deputy I could have the knowledge to properly represent the needs and desires of all of the people of Guernsey.

"This is particularly true with the new system of Island-wide voting that we will see in June for the first time, as canvassing the parish with of 3,000 constituents would no longer sufficiently serve the purpose.

"So, after consulting with a large number of people, I decided to launch the Alliance Party Guernsey - the Island’s first and, so far, only political party.

"From the beginning the aim of the Party has been to attract members and candidates from different walks of life, whose knowledge and experiences would shape and bring more relevance to our policies.

"We are always particularly keen to get the views and representations of those working on the frontline with specialist expertise, and consult with social interest groups and the public generally about their every day experiences.

"We have a cabinet, which meets to discuss policy where key individuals who have a particular expertise are invited to lead the debate so that we can all learn from them.

"Our route to a policy decision around the future of the secondary schools’ debate was a great example of this.

"Everyone in the cabinet read through the various consultation documents on the subject drawn up over the years by successive States Assemblies, to understand the pros and cons of each model before meeting up to discuss which direction we should take.

"Crucially, as well as reading these documents we talked with people we knew in the education sector to learn their views on how the different models might affect them, and more importantly the students.

"As individuals we soon found ourselves agreeing with the ‘three 11-18 school model’. On the day we were due to make our final decision, news broke that 98.9% of staff, some 88 people including teachers, professional and support staff at St Sampson’s High School, had written an open letter saying they were not in favour of the two-school model and would rather support the three-school model.

"Of course, this made our decision easier and, dare I say it, encouraged our belief that our own model of research based upon the expertise and knowledge of relevant individuals might be acceptable.

"What has also been particularly striking about our Party is that it has become clear that finally we are giving the electorate the chance to be confident about what policies they are voting for. Our key policies underpin our working policies as they develop into specific plans and if there is any change of direction, we will justify to the electorate why a contrary decision has been made.

"There will be transparency of who is banded together and not a running concern that murky deals are done in the shadows with no one really sure who is aligned with whom.

It is also key that as a party we can help drive through the policies that we promised to support. Without a party system I fear there will be more of the paralysis and shambles that we have seen around the education debate.

"The Alliance Party Guernsey is primarily a group of individuals who have joined together because they agree with the Party’s Key Policies and can each contribute their expertise to the Party’s knowledge bank for the greater good. We do not have a philosophical left or right view but rather concentrate on what we believe is right. Nor do we employ the Whip system as used by the parties in the UK and other jurisdictions.

"What we do use is our common sense together with our eyes and ears. We see things for ourselves that we don’t like and would like to see improved; and we listen to the people.

"I hope through this article to have given the readers more of an insight to the Alliance Party Guernsey. What we would like is for you to share your concerns, ideas and suggestions to make a better Guernsey for us all."

To find out more about the Alliance Party, Guernsey visit: www.apg.gg