A States’ spokesperson has defended the use of the words ‘forward’ and ‘future’ in social media posts about Guernsey’s election – denying any bias towards either the political party or campaign group with the same words in their names.
Future Guernsey launched last year as a policy-led political movement. It held events in March this year to launch its manifesto which focuses on six key policy areas it wants the next States to focus on.
The political party, Forward Guernsey launched in April, announcing that its members would adopt in its entirety the manifesto published by Future Guernsey.
The two organisations are independent of each other despite some ties including Forward Guernsey member Deputy Gavin St Pier previously acting as Future Guernsey’s political advisor.
Now, the use of the words ‘forward’ and ‘future’ in social media posts promoting the upcoming election have been queried by a member of the public who asked the States about it.
In response, the States spokesperson told Express that there was no intention to favour any political entity in the posts, it was merely intended to encourage people to have their say at the polls in two week’s time.
Those particular adverts have been dropped to avoid any further concern though.
“We received an enquiry from an individual about the use of the phrases ‘Who’ll lead Guernsey forward?’ and ‘Show up for Guernsey’s future. Vote’ in social media adverts seeking to encourage the electorate to vote in the upcoming General Election,” said the States’ spokesperson.
“While we don’t believe that these phrases promoted any group, we have many other adverts running on social media encouraging engagement with the election so we stopped using these two to avoid any potential confusion.”