A Word from Our CEO, Murray Norton, May 2026

Business as Usual

“Next week’s Parish Hall meeting on Apathy has been cancelled… due to a lack of interest.”

It is an old joke, but as we edge towards Jersey’s upcoming election, it lands a little too close to home. Voter turnout has, for some time, been the stubborn statistic in an otherwise engaged and vocal island. Perhaps this time will be different. Perhaps this time the dial nudges upwards. One can hope.

There is, of course, a rhythm to election season. The posters go up, the manifestos roll out, the debates gather pace, and then… a pause. A perceived hiatus as the machinery of government slows, waiting for the electorate to decide what comes next. It is hard not to be reminded of Nothing Ever Happens by Del Amitri, with its wonderfully cynical refrain, “and nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all… the needle returns to the start of the song, and we all sing along like before.”

And yet, step outside the political bubble and a different picture emerges.

Because while the States may pause, business does not.

The shops will open. The hotels will welcome their guests. The cranes will continue to turn as buildings rise. Across the public sector, ALOs will be deep into the middle of their annual budgets and delivery plans. The finance industry will move capital, advise clients, and transact globally as if it were just another day, because in truth, it is.

Business operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It always has, regardless of who sits in the Assembly, and it always will. That may sound obvious, but it is remarkably easy to lose sight of in the middle of election fever, when the spotlight shifts almost entirely to politics.

“Mind the gap” might be the phrase to hold onto.

A June election quickly gives way to a July recess, stretching into September before a new or returning assembly finds its feet. Then comes the Government Plan, the Budget, and before you know it, we are staring down 2027. The cycle is familiar, almost reassuring in its predictability.

Which raises a fair question, is voter apathy, at least in part, a by-product of this continuity?

When businesses, employers, and employees experience the day to day economy as largely constant, irrespective of political change, it can be harder to see where their vote truly shifts the dial. The engine keeps running. The lights stay on. The transactions continue.

But that would be to miss the bigger picture.

Because while business is brilliantly consistent in its delivery, the environment in which it operates is anything but fixed. Policy decisions shape costs, regulation, skills, infrastructure, and ultimately competitiveness. They influence whether businesses can grow, invest, and employ, or whether they simply endure.

Elections matter, not because they stop the world, but because they quietly, steadily, and sometimes significantly reshape it.

So perhaps the challenge this time is a simple one.

To bridge that gap between the constant hum of business as usual and the slower, more deliberate cadence of politics. To recognise that while nothing may appear to happen in the moment, quite a lot is being set in motion for what comes next.

And maybe, just maybe, that Parish Hall meeting might be worth attending after all.