Meerveld resigns: Sticking a hat over a grenade?

When I sat outside St Sampson’s Douzaine Room on a brisk April evening in 2016, chatting to a well-dressed man who’d become known for having almost life-sized posters of himself on every junction in the north of the island, little did I know that I was brushing paths for the first time of many with Guernsey’s most controversial figure for at least the next two years.

At the time, Carl Meerveld told me he was best suited for a space on the Economic Development Committee (watch this space). Where he ended up has shaped the major flash points of this government’s first 19 months in office.

Deputy Carl Meerveld was Vice-President of the Education, Sport and Culture (ESC) Committee, serving under Deputy Paul le Pelley. Despite being the more junior statesman, Deputy Meerveld’s charisma and general manner meant he was often the man thrust in front of the cameras before his President, but perhaps not at his best wishes.

What’s followed? Civil service re-shuffles, a Motion of No Confidence and numerous skirmishes in the States between ‘the man in the hat’ and Policy and Resources.

So why has Deputy Meerveld gone? Well, if you’re reading this, you probably know the details but here’s the summary for readers who may not be political anoraks like me: £10,000 has been spent on an advertising campaign by a PR firm, which would campaign for Education, Sport &Culture’s preferred three school model of secondary education. The campaign had no States of Guernsey branding on it and allegedly used money from the £93,000 earmarked to investigate a two school model. Cue deputies left, right and centre calling the act ‘outrageous’ and then add in that Policy and Resources has parked their tanks on ESC’s lawn and there was only one way this was going for Deputy Meerveld.

How quickly it happened was a surprise. I wasn’t expecting to get a text saying he’d resigned at around 17:00 Saturday afternoon.

Last night I sent these questions to the four remaining members of ESC:

Already, the Committee’s President Deputy Paul Le Pelley has responded saying he will comment on the situation in the next couple of days.

From where I’m sitting, this looks a lot like Deputy Meerveld jumping, or perhaps more aptly throwing his most durable hat over the grenade before the blast hits any of his already under-fire committee.

Many people may be thinking, with all the resources of the States, why did Deputy Meerveld enlist the help of an outside PR agency? Especially when the States now has a good stock of communication professionals, working hard to get the @Govgg message out. The answer to that lies a few months back when ESC grappled with the Three Colleges.

ESC took on the Colleges, who have already, for months before, been working on a professional PR campaign. What followed was a barrage of incredibly slick videos and well-rehearsed press releases, which kept ESC on the back foot and reacting, rather than championing their own corner. Deputy Meerveld saw this, and like any good idea, cannibalised it to use to his own ends. Disappointingly for him, it backfired.

I’ll be speaking to Deputy Gavin St Pier later today, to see if this is going to go any further but at the moment this looks like (as my colleague Gary Burgess likes to say) a story which is only going to gather momentum. With ESC’s flagship policy up for debate in January and pressure being applied from the ‘two schoolers’ and P&R, this was the last thing ESC needed. Deputy Meerveld is a maverick, who divides opinions. He’s a doer, who in the way he goes about doing things, is bound to ruffle some feathers. But is this the end for him politically?

Watch this space, I see a space on the Economic Development Committee which Deputy Meerveld will certainly be attracted by and while this weekend’s political pounding may have left him bruised, I’m certain there’s plenty of life under that hat yet.

Read: Deputy Carl Meerveld resigns as Vice-President of Education, Sport & Culture Committee