Taking on the 'fait accompli'
A SEEMINGLY seismic weekend as the Tax Review heats up – but one that offers us little more clarity than before.
We now know we have at least three options on the table, plus a ‘Just Say No’ overture, and those aligning themselves to the rival campaigns now leaves the debate seemingly neck-and-neck, with just a handful of States members now apparently holding the power to make or break. Even the president of P&R isn’t sure if they ‘have the numbers’.
One alternative sounds credible, particularly when P&R escapee Heidi Soulsby plays the spending card.
‘The people of Guernsey don’t believe that government has done enough to reduce its spending and I agree,’ she says, and it’s an argument that will resonate. However both Deputy Soulsby and her partners on this approach, including former chief minister Gavin St Pier, do accept that a GST is ultimately inevitable. Just not now.
That's a line we also heard at this weekend’s busy drop-in at Beau Sejour and from the Chamber of Commerce, reflecting P&R’s approach to the Tax Review debate – a ‘fait accompli’ that GST is the inevitable solution, which has been wrapped up in a package to make it presentable and palatable to a sceptical public.
This week, more than ever, is the opportunity for islanders to make their views known on a debate which, in many ways, will shape the island’s future for decades.