Over 100 attend Alliance Party inaugural conference

Held at St James on Wednesday evening, the compere for the evening introduced the panel consisting of party chairman Barry Weir, party spokesman Tony Cunningham and party secretary Jane Le Ber.

Mr Weir began by explaining the reasons behind the party, saying one person on their own cannot make the difference politically that needs to be made.

He made it clear he did not want to be the chief minister, but was passionate about Guernsey and this party.

Mr Cunningham then spoke about the party’s six key policies and where it stand on them currently.

‘These are draft policies and there is time for us to consider amendments and improve on them,’ he said.

After outlining the each one, he stopped to allow comments from the audience about

whether they agreed with the policy or not.

On several subjects there was a rather mixed bag of responses, all of which would be ‘considered’ by the party.

On tax, there is a draft pledge not to introduce a goods and services tax, value added tax, capital gains tax or inheritance tax in the next term.

Plus, working to minimise the necessary tax take and re-evaluate in five years’ time, and not increasing income tax rates within the next term for those earning less than £50,000.

On cannabis, the draft policy is to legalise and enable the use of medicinal cannabis and investigate the practicality of decriminalising the possession of small quantities of cannabis for personal use within the Bailiwick within the next States term – while maintaining the prohibition on all other controlled substances, within a framework that educates

and protects the people of Guernsey.

Originally, the party had booked a room that held up to 100 people but due to the demand for tickets they decided to secure a bigger room which accommodated up to 350 attendees.