Firstly, let’s begin with the end: in the 2025 Guernsey Island-wide election expect to see the name David Reed on the ballot paper: a Chartered Accountant, husband and father who calls the Vale home.
I will be standing in the spirit of the Guernsey Way to offer up a new way forward that you are not likely to see from any other candidate. It will not be personality politics, as an accountant you can rest assured on that front, it will simply be a policy of government efficiency.
As a Guernsey established resident, an adopted Sarnian and parent it is a curious and concerning pastime to observe the slow motion car crash that is the States of Guernsey, I worry for the future of those who will inherit this island. I’ve seen much of this before, growing up in South Africa: the slow and steady detachment from reality of those charged with governance, the tinkering on the fringes, the illusion of productivity and progress whilst steadfastly avoiding the elephant in the room. These are the hallmarks of decline.
My resolve to stand has been further crystallised by recent debates and the inability to constructively move conversations forward. The strength of Guernsey as a jurisdiction is our ability to be small and nimble, to change our trajectory when the need arises. However, there are now too many conflicting interests to get anything moving, there is simply insufficient desire to think outside of their own incentives to highlight issues in a way that should unite us all in common cause! We face a great many challenges in the Bailiwick but we seem only prepared to deal with the symptoms and unable to identify or even acknowledge the nature of the disease.
However we should not give in to the fear and doubt of the echo-chamber, there is hope in Guernsey, and that hope is in each of us. It is not the decline of Guernsey that we feel so acutely, it is the decline of western institutions in whose waters we fish. Many of our issues on the island have their origin from beyond our shores and they are fundamentally monetary in nature, the specifics of which I won’t go into here. Suffice it to say that as someone who has lived most of their life with a foot in two worlds (both the developed and the emerging world), and studied the nature of economic and financial crises through history, the signs couldn’t be clearer. Just look at the price of Gold and Bitcoin – these are strong indicators that the waters are shifting, and not in our favour! We are just a tiny vessel in a vast ocean and the uncomfortable currents we find ourselves in require us to now behave differently. We cannot deal with the troublesome octopus of tomorrow with the tools of yesterday.
More government and more committees are not the antidote, they are at the very heart of our illness. If the outcome of elections around the world have left you surprised and dismayed, well these are very simply the manifestation of the discontent of the average person with systems that are out of touch. We will need to evolve and adapt with the times as so many of the institutions we have leant on are being disrupted. This is now happening to governments themselves.
In due course I will be releasing my manifesto and my policy, it will not be something you’ve seen before, it will be honest – not a trait one associates with a political process.
Some will find it refreshing, some might find it unusual, but it will be the truth that few acknowledge and it will be a path that I believe there will be support for.
Regardless of whether you take an active interest in politics or are so disengaged with the process that you aren’t even registered to vote, you will want to hear what I have to say and get involved! It’s time now for something completely different!
This may all sound terribly cryptic for now but patience will be rewarded, as is usually the case in life. I first drafted my manifesto over a year ago now and it is nearly time for it to finally see the light of the public domain.
While we wait, follow me on Twitter/X @VoteforChangeGG or on Facebook at “ Vote David Reed – Guernsey 2025”.
Above all else, as we enter the season of silver-tongued salespeople, remember the name of David Reed.
Let’s vote for real change.
Best Regards,
David Reed
Vale, GY3
