May the Fourth, 2025
The manifesto for my campaign went live a few weeks ago and it’s received some coverage so far. I have had many positive responses so far and I am grateful that many have seen the constructive spirit of what this campaign is trying to do.
I have also had some understandably perplexed responses as well, most commonly; What’s the point? Why bother? It will never work! This guy is nuts, he’s having a laugh. All valid responses I’ve asked myself many, many, many times already during the course of writing it.
I am an unlikely candidate, with an unfathomable campaign, but I’ve made a moral choice that this idea needs a voice. Guernsey has been crying out for different ideas and different perspectives, there are too many people who are completely disengaged from politics or don’t feel that their vote is able to count for anything.
There are no guarantees in life though, no sure things, just a range of paths, a series of probabilities, some well travelled, some less so, some still undiscovered or long forgotten. You can only know what lies down a path, by being curious enough to venture down it, otherwise it is just a potential never realised.
I reflected on the tree of probability regarding this campaign at length, whether I should pursue this or not. It is unprecedented, yes, but then how are new precedents and breakthroughs ever made unless someone is prepared to do what no one has ever tried before. The balance of risk and reward for this is such that no politician in their right mind would go anywhere near this, however if there is a possibility of it being done, however small, someone needs to attempt it because it has the potential to be an outstanding advert for Guernsey. I believe that democratic miracles are possible, I believe because I am the product of one, so who better to try for Guernsey?
In the Book of Matthew in the Bible, it tells the Parable of the Talents. It teaches us we are put on Earth to work. We are commanded not to bury our talents and sit back, awaiting salvation. Rather, we are commanded to use what we have to make the world a better place.
I had buried my other talents many years ago in the pursuit of the exciting life of an accountant but this was an interesting opportunity to stretch my legs a bit. It was going to require a unique combination of skills to pull this off, or at least give it a chance, so I decided to take on the task. Having dusted off the cobwebs from the right side of my brain, I tried to give this idea a character and a persona so it could be represented, and Guernsey could have their say.
Even though some might disagree with this campaign, be critical, or skeptical we have to find new ways to engage in democratic conversation. The democratic mechanics of larger jurisdictions have not moved with the times and you can see the consequences of that elsewhere. Voters left with archaic choices, frustrated at being unable to express their preferences and national identity through their political machinery, are resigned to swinging wildly unhinged from left to right. Guernsey has an opportunity to set a very unique example. An advertisement to the rest of the world that as others falter, the Flame of democracy and liberty still burns in the West, and it’s in Guernsey! You know that place, it’s right next to Jersey!
“Nothing else in the world…not all the armies…is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” - Victor Hugo.
It took many attempts to get it to the final draft, to find its voice, but now it’s out in the world. The manifesto has a personality of its own, it is a fusion of my own literary influences to give form to the idea but now it must live its own life. The rest of the story is not up to me, it’s up to Guernsey. Are we ready to dust off the cobwebs and show our quality to the world?
Know that I do intend to follow through, I’ve come this far, so, if you do see my name on the ballot be pleased, because it means Guernsey has been trusted enough to trial this innovation. That was the best outcome I envisaged at the outset, just being an option. Several endings are still possible however, that is why I am writing this now, you know, just in case. If you don’t see my name on the ballot on 18 June, then you should weep for what might have been. My campaign will have been all for nothing.
This campaign has already been a personal success for me, because I have gotten the idea out there, that was my task. I am just Dave from Accounts, I am not a politician, but in giving voice to this odd idea I have gone on my own journey. It has allowed me to acquire new wisdom and insight, that is its own reward.
The manifesto has already been a very rewarding experience for me, but can it also be a success for Guernsey, for whom it was written?
At some point in its writing, it unexpectedly occurred to me that the philosophy and spirit of the manifesto was, eerily, actually echoing the voice of Victor Hugo in many respects, though in a modern context, and I thought that that was a fitting way for it to be in the end.
“What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past.”
- Victor Hugo
He was right in his prophetic way, history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Therefore it seems somewhat appropriate for Guernsey that, given the spirit of our times around the world, the voice of Victor Hugo would, to my surprise, find resonance again in a completely different way as I tried to give expression to my idea.
As if I needed any further reasoning or motivation to pursue my campaign, having finished my bonkers manifesto I was walking around Victor Hugo Gardens at Candie last week, shepherding the kids as one does, when I came across the following quote:
“My name belongs to anyone who wants to use it for progress and for truth”
Victor Hugo, Letter to Paul Blanc, Hauteville House, 3 July 1867
So there it was from the man himself, there have been references to this already along the way, clues to myself but I hadn’t quite connected the dots, but then the Penny finally dropped:
My campaign is a tribute to Victor Hugo.
This campaign is an expression of Liberty and it is a celebration of the Liberation of the Mind in pursuit of independent critical thought, and I think Victor Hugo would have approved.
Now, I am not a superstitious man, but I do observe history and its wisdom. What I do believe is that history and time are cyclical, not linear. If you don’t know what I mean by that, consider this; 80 years ago this month Guernsey had its Liberation, 80 years before then Hugo would have been writing his famous tribute to Guernsey: Toilers of the Sea.
Well in the sustained efforts I have made to bring form to this idea I have undergone a personal journey of sorts, as I mentioned earlier. I’ve let my intuition lead me, I’ve gone with the flow of neurodiversity and let it take me where it wanted to. I honestly hadn’t expected for this campaign to be anything and yet somehow I have still arrived here, but by what route I couldn’t say, something in the local Air or Water perhaps?
That personal journey has mirrored the character arc, for those familiar with the work of Victor Hugo, of the fisherman Gilliat, the protagonist of Toilers of the Sea. There are many parallels as I have grappled with this idea to give it life, similar to Gilliat’s struggle to recover the remains of the shipwrecked Durande. I have persevered to attempt to deliver something that most would consider undeliverable. This campaign therefore is a living tribute, not just to Hugo but to that story of Guernsey. Unlikely as it may seem, 160 years after Hugo penned his tribute to Guernsey, here I am mirroring and echoing that same story in tribute back to Toilers.
What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past.
However the story is incomplete, we now approach the most iconic sequence of the piece: the great struggle!
In this campaign will I overcome the octopus and finish the story, or will my unforgiving foe drain my life’s Force from my body through a sucking tube?
If this is the last you hear of me, we will know the story has deviated from the vision of Victor Hugo.
Gilliat will have prematurely met his doom, devoured by a custard blob.
Valar Morghulis,
This is the Way.
Dave from Accounts
Vale, GY3