I'm not complicating things. In Jersey, there's always a difference between island issues and local issues; sometimes there is an overlap, sometimes there is none.
Whether right or left wing in UK terms, Deputies always tend to what might be called "the left" with regard to Parish issues, i.e, they tend to defend their parish's position over against the more centralised planning of the States.
So if, to take an example, the Housing Minister decided to plonk lots of housing estates or luxury homes in St Brelade's (which most locals think already has more than its fair share of housing), that would certainly be a mark against them when it came to elections.
Now a Senator can cheerfully ask for massive rezoning in already built up areas or greenfield sites (as Freddie Cohen and Carolyn Labey have pointed out), and do so with impunity as far as facing local opposition as long as voters in other parishes support their actions. Equally, by opposing uneccesary development (unless you are a builder!), the local Deputy and Constable, while on opposite sides of the fence with regard to islandwide measures (GST for example), will often sit on the same side with regard to protecting their parish interests. Grouville and St Lawrence are two examples of this.
In the UK, local issues don't feature very highly in elections; parties and mandates do for MPs. But in Jersey, I would argue that local issues often dominate in deciding who is to be a Deputy or Constable.
As a local Deputy, Mike Vibert fought against a golf course and for a country park and won a lot of local support, which help boost him in the Senatorials. Now a golf course is in a way very much for the establishment at play, for a privileged few, the country park is for everyone to enjoy.
Do the Parish Deputies get stuck in with the Battle of Flowers? What has your Deputy done for your Parish? Have they opposed (like Jacqui Hilton) the encroachment of building on fields? How they helped with Parish events? Are they good on getting back to you if you have a problem? (If I emailed former Constable Max De La Haye, he was in touch within 24 hours) What are they doing about parking problems? Residents parking permits (like Simon Crowcroft)? Do Constables try to keep a tight control over spending (and keep rates down - extremely popular with voters!)? What is being done for the elderly in the Parish? Safety on roads? Support for local farm shops and farmers? Large houses on sites close to St Brelade's beach? Do they take the Parish point of view where it conflicts with the Island one?
These are the issues which concern Parishioners - and a Deputy or Constable who does a lot in this respect gets more votes on that basis rather than on Island issues, which, quite honestly, mostly tend to bore the proverbial man on the Clapham omnibus except where they are hit by them.
But as the population at large are nearly all not effected by the same cutbacks, only smaller subgroups, there is rarely as strong a protest vote on Island issues as there is on Parish issues. Daphne Minihane protests rightly on behalf of pensions (with many recently shown by the survey on the poverty line), but pensioners don't make up even 20% of the island wide vote, so they can often be ignored. Ditto the mentally or physically handicapped and their carers when support services or funding is reduced etc.
