What's happening in Jersey — read, discuss, and have your say
**Commonwealth observers find well-run polls undermined by last-minute legislation, a flawed voter register, and questions around a secretive political movement**
Jersey returned nine island-wide Senators this month for the first time since 2018: Helen Miles, Ian Gorst, Lyndon Farnham, Elaine Millar, Serena Kersten Guthrie, Tom Binet, Alan Maclean, Sir Mark Boleat and Mary Le Hégarat. With Farnham himself in the dock, that left eight Senators on the benches. Between them, in public, they asked nothing. Not one question. Not one challenge. Not one request for clarification put on the record for Islanders to hear.
The States Assembly today sat to elect Jersey's next Chief Minister, with the only candidate being Senator-Elect Lyndon Farnham addressing Members with a statement of intent before facing an hour of questions that tested, probed and occasionally punctured the vision he had set out. What emerged was a picture of a politician of considerable experience and political skill, navigating the gap between ambition and commitment with varying degrees of success.
Most people who voted in Jersey's 2026 election last week will wake up on Friday morning knowing very little about what happens next. They will have heard that a new States Assembly has been elected, that there will be a Chief Minister, Ministers and Scrutiny Panels. But the process by which all of that is decided, the speeches, the votes, the deals, the anxiety, is largely invisible to the public.
Lyndon Farnham will be confirmed as Jersey's Chief Minister for a second time on Friday 19 June — not by a vote, but by default.
To understand why Jersey's government has an accountability problem, you need to go back to January 2018, and a proposition lodged by then Chief Minister Senator Ian Gorst that most Islanders never heard of.
Several States members across the Channel Islands say abuse, threats and "toxic" online behaviour are putting people off standing for election — but the coverage stops short of asking why so many islanders are angry in the first place.
A long-running dispute between pensioners and government has been reignited — and a controversial budget decision may have handed campaigners their strongest argument yet
After meeting a government representative to discuss the Long-Term Care scheme, I went back to the legislation itself. What the law does — and does not — protect should concern every islander who owns a home.
Environment Minister Steve Luce ruled on two major planning appeals — clearing 29 flats in St Clement and dismissing residents' objections to 128 homes in St Peter — in the days either side of losing his States seat, raising questions about decision-making during Jersey's election period.
After the high-speed ferry Tarifa Jet hit something off Jersey on 29 March, sailings were cancelled and passengers left stranded. A written question to the Minister for Sustainable Economic Development has now drawn the first official account of how DFDS responded — but key questions about safety, penalties and the cause remain unanswered pending an investigation.
