Common good, subsidarity and solidarity



Though not Catholic I am drawn to Catholic Social Teaching as a model for good governance in politics.  There needs to be a moral element to politics if the ultimate aim is to improve people’s lives and though left and right wing ideologies may differ on how this is to be achieved  the principles of Catholic Social Teaching seem to transcend these ideologies.  I guess with the preferential option for the poor the pendulum is more to the left but then no one could accuse Jesus of hanging out with the rich people!

I know little of this teaching but I am reading a very interesting book called ‘The New Politics’ which is based on a series of lectures given by leading figures in this field. 

These authors suggest:

“that the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching offer clear pointers in a different direction from contemporary society’s continuing emphasis on individual rights at the expense of a sense of social responsibilities”

From the little I have read there are three principles to Catholic Social Teaching.

Common good:  there exist some shared or public values which transcend the rights of individuals

Subsidarity:  that decisions should be taken at the lowest level possible which is compatible with good government

Solidarity: we are all responsible for one another

My feeling is that within the council the concepts of common good and solidarity come naturally as we do have a strong sense that we have a responsibility for the good of the island and its people

Subsidarity is an interesting one because we do not have much control over this.  It rather depends on what you mean by decisions.  Yes Legislative Council pass laws for the island, committees are involved in policy decisions but I have to say as grant in aid and a Territory our ability to influence the island’s future does seem rather limited.

What I am not sure about is whether these limitations are because we are not financially self-sufficient or because we are a territory.  I suspect both. 

Financial self-sufficiency is the goal of airport and increased economic development and our role in that is to promote and facilitate development while ensuring that this development is for the common good. 

The role of Legislative Council within the context of a British Overseas Territory is I think more interesting and challenging.  We are parliament, local council and everything in between.  We are sort of a democracy in that there are free and fair elections but some executive power is held by an unelected Governor.  The Legislative Council has very little independent support; there are no political parties and the Civil Service answers to a number of different masters of which Legislative Council is only one.  There is a constitution but like any legal document it is open to interpretation and Legislative Council does not have access to independent legal advice.  British Overseas Territories are not directly represented in the UK Parliament.  If, as I believe we do, we need to reform the operation of the legislature then I am not sure that there is a template to be taken off the shelf, dusted down and then implemented.

St Helena Government has had a multitude of reviews, changes, restructuring and reorganisations in the last few years.  There appeared to be a number of incarnations of the Public Service Modernisation Programme.  I am not suggesting that the Legislature goes down this torturous route but I do think that an organisation such as the Westminster Foundation for Democracy could be invited to have a look at our democratic framework and see where we can improve particularly in promoting Subsidarity.

Something to explore in the New Year.

Communicating

For reasons I still do not quite understand Mum sent me off to learn to touch type when I was, I think, still in primary school.  During high school I continued to take a typing class and it is one of the most useful skills that I have mastered.

I remember a small portable blue Remington in a plastic case.  My first year at Uni I bought a solid green typewriter on  which I bashed out my essays.  Then it was a series of electric typewriters before buying my first computer an i Mac.  Since then I have lost count of the number of computers I have had and I recently bought an iPad.

I am sure that most people my age would have a similar story to tell.  However the transition from manual typewriters to electric typewriters to computers is a steady progression in making it easier to write stuff down (remember the hassle of having to us correction paper in manual typewriters, electric typewriters had a correction ribbon and now just press 'back space') and store information.  The iPad however, I guess tablet computers generally, seems like a change in direction.

Please forgive me, we do not as yet have mobile phones out here, our internet remains fairly slow and expensive, and I am sure that my home is in a minority in having WiFi. Still the explosion in ways we communicate is astonishing and exciting.  One our St Helenian students in the UK who is studying media just sent through a questionnaire on our use of media during the election campaign.  I am sure we all appear like dinosaurs in not embracing social media but we must.

Blogging is in many respects quite traditional which is probably why I quite enjoy it.  I also enjoy reading other people's blogs. Facebook I have a problem with simply because I not particularly gregarious in the 'real' world so the concept of having friends in the 'virtual' world strikes me as quite bizarre.  There also seems to be a lot of superficial emotionalism with Facebook. I am sure loads of people are weeping in cyberspace over the death of  Mandela, with trite little verses and banal comments.  I would rather not be exposed to them.

Twitter I have not really explored but it does seem to be more suited to making short political statements. Not sure I do enough things in the real world though to maintain a twitter presence.

What is evident is that short bursts of communication are the norm and this probably reinforces our tendency to have shortened attention spans.  While attention spans are probably getting shorter I would also suggest another reason for this and it is due to having to respond to so much information coming at us from all angles

An observation, watching Tobias (who will be nine in two weeks time) master a new Playstation game. Shooting aliens, going to the special area to acquire more weapons, keeping an eye on his energy level and having to plan where he had to move to next.  And he could talk to me and explain what he was doing while doing all this.  I could shoot the aliens but that was all I could cope with. Without the shield and the extra guns I did not last long.

It does rather highlight our changing relationship with information and the need to absorb  so much at the same time.  No wonder we need to keep things short.

Having said all of this in our elected members meeting yesterday there were as a long discussion on communication.  There have been some problems and it has caused a bit of friction.

Why?

Simple really, we forgot to talk to each other about what was going on.

Like everything in life, don't ignore the basics.

Prince Andrew School Awards

Last Thursday I was fortunate to be invited to the PAS awards ceremony.  We all need days like these, positive days, days when we celebrate and acknowledge the achievement of others. It was fantastic and despite the educational resource limitations I was surprised at the range of subjects that the students were studying

I get the feeling that education, like most areas, is becoming more decentralised and with this more opportunities arise.  Students were receiving awards in GCSE, A and AS levels but there were also vocational qualifications and other diplomas and certificates from different education providers through distance learning.

We had a glimpse of St Helena's future seeing the students receiving their awards and I for one am convinced that the future of our island will be in good hands.  What we, as council, must do is to make politics more relevant, more authentic, more questioning so that some of those talented young people will become more engaged.

At the next election we need to be challenged by the twenty somethings, not only holding us to account but also we need some of them standing for election

Like I said we all need days like Thursday, positive life affirming days.

My mate Dottie at the airport

Well it took the construction of a platform to get Dottie's wheelchair the same height as the front seat and managed to borrow the ramp at the post office to get up on to the platform but we managed to help Dottie into Huggy Bear's landrover and take her for a spin around the airport site

That's Huggy Bear walking toward the Landrover, the Dotsta (as Tobias calls her) and Tobias

Great day out

Thoughts on leadership

Just this week finished a Diploma in Strategic Leadership and Executive Management.  Don't let the rather 'management speak' put you off.  It was a fantastic course as the focus was on reflective practice and so it did force you to think about what you were doing and why.

Well I started the course while I was working as the Manager of the Environment Risk Management Section (I know management is mentioned twice in the title) and finished as a Legislative Councillor.  Effectively I started out as a manager and finished as a leader.  Mind you everyone seems to be a manager these days.

Whole PhD theses have been written on the difference between management and leadership. Of course it is possible to be both but what I found was that actually management is not my thing but leadership is.  Does not mean that I am by any means a good leader (whatever that may be) but it became rather obvious that management, executive or otherwise, requires a level of organisation that I struggle to maintain.

Leadership, well for me it is all about establishing, nurturing and celebrating relationships.  It does not mean that you always get on, or agree on everything but it does mean that you must work, and work hard, at genuine interaction with others.

In St Helena while the administration is still largely run on 'command and control' the council is a group of people who are first amongst equals.  OK Executive Council is higher decision making body but it does not have authority over LegCo.  I think that is a good thing. It is a bit messy, it means that there are not always clear lines of reporting or responsibility but it does mean that no one can pull rank and say it must be done because I said so.

There was talk earlier this year before the election of a Chief Councillor and I spoke out against it. At the time I did so because trust in the council was so low that I thought any attempt to impose another layer of authority would be a disaster.  Now on principle I think it is a bad idea.  Sure it is easier with one person in charge but the time has come to start moving away from this.  You can tell I have been studying as this is called 'dispersed leadership'.

It requires greater communication skills, it can take longer and it can be frustrating as everyone has their say.

The danger is that nothing happens, no one takes a decision, but if the relationships are strong and the dialogue genuine then it could be revolutionary.

The Constitution

I vaguely remember when the St Helena Constitution(actually THE CONSTITUTION OF ST. HELENA, ASCENSION AND TRISTAN DA CUNHA) was first published. I think I flicked through put it away on the shelf and did not give it a further thought.

Now if not every day then at least once a week I dip into it. Usually to clarify something or just to become more familiar with it.

I have come across a few odd things:

That you can deprive someone of their liberty:  in the case of a person who is, or is reasonably suspected to be, of unsound mind, addicted to drugs or alcohol, or a vagrant, in order to care for or treat him or her or for the protection of the community.

This goes way beyond any mental health legislation that I know of as in the UK you cannot detain someone for alcohol or drug addiction.  As for detaining 'vagrants' it conjures up images of a dictatorships where before a visit from the dictator all of the homeless people are rounded up to clean the streets before the cavalcade arrives.

Of course the other one is the ridiculous 'secrecy oath'. We still have to get this removed.

I have become quite interested in constitutions generally.  There is a Google sponsored project on constitutions: 

www.constituteproject.org

They are publishing constitutions from countries around the world.  I sent them our one.  The last time I looked it was not on the site but they did say that they would consider publishing constitutions from territories as well.

I find the whole idea of constitutions very interesting. Attempting to write down how a society will function and trying to give an indication of its culture is always going to be difficult.

I am currently reading an introduction to the British Constitution.  To be honest I did not think that the UK had one but it is an 'unwritten' constitution.  A collection of documents, conventions and practices rather than a single document.  It has served the UK well but I would rather that they had a written constitution though it would be a mammoth task. They do not tend to be that long but not easy to write.

Of course any constitution can just be a piece of paper if it is not used and seen to be used.  I would not to emulate the American model where the constitution of the United States is treated with an almost religious reverence.  Change should not occur lightly but changing and reviewing the constitution should be conducted from time to time.  If we don't we will never get to remove the dreaded oath.

Above all the constitution must protect the people from overbearing governments and champion their individual liberties. That is why it is important that we all have some knowledge of its contents.  

We never know when we are going to need it to protect us.

Formal sitting of Legislative Council

It was our first formal Legislative Council today.  Have to say that I really enjoyed it.  A bit like going to church not being sure of the rituals but I hope we did ok and did not disgrace the office.  

Les Baldwin has been elected to ExCo as the new Chairman of the Social and Community Development Committee, a good choice I believe as he has passion and a solid financial background which could be a formidable combination.

Two laws were amended today. One to make all lawyers on St Helena Commissioners for Oaths was straightforward, and a reminder of the sometimes detailed but dull work of legislation. The other ordinance to be amended was the Welfare of Children Ordinance in relation to adoption.  More complex and as I have no knowledge of adoption it is daunting to be asked to make changes.  I am very grateful that through a colleague I was introduced to a UK lawyer and a UK social worker who were very helpful in explaining the adoption process to me.  It underlines the need at times for independent legal advice as I doubt that it will always be possible to draw on the goodwill of others

Questions were asked about roads, houses, economic development and streetlights.  The central issues that affect people's lives.

Motions allowed for a bit more freedom of expression and we discussed principles of open government, the health service, media and housing.  I think we started to get into our stride and it was more of a debate, not shouting and waving order papers as in Westminster but some differing of opinions expressed openly.

And we are back tomorrow. Not quite finished with the motions and still the adjournment debate.  

My response to the debate on open and transparent government is below.

I call it 

OPEN TO OPENNESS

The Ethics Survey that was conducted earlier this year placed Members of Legislative Council as the least trusted professional group on St Helena.

Only 9% trusted councillors, 60% did not trust councillors and 32% did not have an opinion.

These are truly disturbing statistics and though we are a new council from the one that was in office during this survey we would be ill advised to just assume that we are faring any better.

I sincerely hope that if a new survey was conducted today that this figure would rise, it could hardly fall.  I do not know why the figure was so low but from the public meetings prior to elections there were some indications

One of these was a perception of a lack of openness and transparency and a lack of accountability from the council

The local government association is a UK organisation that works with councils to support, promote and improve local government.  One of its programmes the ‘Local Transparency Programme’ specifically sets out an agenda to open up government and public services.

 

I quote from one of their publications:

Open data is not only about supporting local transparency and accountability but is also a driver to engage and empower citizens and communities, foster improvement and efficiencies and drive social and economic growth.

It sounds rather like our sustainable development plan

And it all seems rather obvious, that we should inform the public of what is happening.  By not doing so all we do is foster distrust. Let us take the example of the asphalt machine.

At almost every meeting we held prior to the election the asphalt machine was brought up as an example of incompetence.  Everyone knew that the machine was purchased; they knew that it did not work and if they happened to drive up to Donkey Plain they could watch it slowly rust away. As this was all the public knew they resorted to having to make the rest of it up; how much it cost, what was going to happen to it next and who was responsible for the original mistake.  So as my Honourable friend Lawson Henry so eloquently phrased it: this open wound was allowed to fester.

What was surprising, to those of us who had been told that the administration liked to keep secrets, was that when we asked for the information to be published it was done so.  Now that the information is in the public domain the public do not have to resort to rumour.  Sadly it does not alter the fact that money spent on the plant cannot be recovered and that our roads division have to continue to ‘chip and tar’ to seal our roads

It took too long for the information to be placed in the public domain.  There was a delay due to some legal proceedings but once these were completed the information should have been made public

Not only does openness allow the public to access information it also, as the Local Government Association states, lead to efficiencies and it does support development.  A government that tries to hide information is one that breeds complacency as people will not be held to account.  If you know that even if you make a mistake you are not going to be questioned then you are more likely to make poor decisions.  In the UK they call it the Daily Mail test.  If you would not want to read about what you did in tomorrow’s Daily Mail then don’t do it.  I guess hear we could call it the Sentinel and Independent test.

This is the reason that I am proposing this motion.  To ensure that there is a process by which information is released in a timely manner. 

It is about improving practices and changing the mind set of government, both elected members and the administration. 

We are already achieving some of this

The public relations department of government routinely issue the following information:

·         Press Releases

·         Newsletters  e.g St Helena Ambassador

·         Directorate Training Reports 

·         Statistical News Bulletins

·         Government Gazettes – Ordinary and Extraordinary

·         Exco Reports

·         Order Papers for Legislative Council

·         Public Consultation Documents

·         SHG Performance Reports

·         Job advertisements

·         Governor’s blog

·         Directorate/Services Fees and charges

·         Land Development Control Meeting Minutes

·         Governor’s Speech

·         Ordinances

Exco now operates under a presumption of openness and has agreed a process by which the agenda is decided.  As all items are assumed to be open unless otherwise stated it is incumbent upon Exco to provide an explanation as to why items are closed.  However having an item on the closed agenda does not preclude it from being mentioned in the Exco report.

Committees likewise have a similar agenda structure

So we have made a start but I feel that it is important that we have a public commitment from the council to continue this process.

From my short time in council and previously working in the public service one of the main constraints is the capacity of the public service.  With reduced headcount and the pressures on budgets we must ensure that staff time and money spent on open data represents best value for money.  This is not to provide an excuse to restrict openness but it is an acknowledgement that we must be creative in our approach. 

As councillors it is up to us to lead the way and be proactive.  For those who are unaware there is a councillor’s page on the SHG website where you can find information on individual councillors.  I note that my Honourable Colleague Mr Lawson Henry has already posted a summary of the Economic Development Committee for October the 3^rd.  I must apologise that as the Chair of the Health Committee I have not posted a report but I will do so this week and I encourage other chairs do likewise.  As I am fond of quoting the late US Senator Paul Wellstone “Never separate the life you lead from the words you speak”

In terms of process the public relations department of SHG have agreed to be the point of contact for all queries about SHG that cannot be answered by openly available information. This makes sense as the alternative would be to have a designated person in each directorate but that would place an additional burden on staff and often a query requires information from more than one directorate.  I would also suggest that those elected members who have given a commitment to be ‘open to openness’ would be willing to assist in any way they can.

As stated in the motion it is not the intention that everything is published and certain areas particularly in relation to personal information will not be made publicly available.

Those who have been following this debate closely will have noticed that the motion does not include freedom of information. This is deliberate.  It is not that freedom of information has dropped off the agenda but that in discussions with many people it is generally agreed that we work towards this iteratively.  That is we start with the principle of openness, build policies and procedures around this and then see what is required for freedom of information. 

Far better I would suggest to test the waters and adjust accordingly rather than go straight for legislation. 

From my interactions with those who have expressed interest in this field the one concern is that being more open and transparent, whether or not this includes freedom of information legislation, is fit for purpose and does not impose to onerous a burden on government. 

Already in starting this debate I have been surprised by the lack of opposition despite what I was told before the election.  It may seem that I have modified my stance and in a way I have but what I have not modified is my commitment to  open and transparent government.