'Never the twain' fails us all
THE original ‘Fairer Alternative’ was a genuine option for fixing the island’s financial ills, and, as those who can remember back to February will recall, was lost only on a tied vote.
But as has already been said about the proposals it intended to usurp, sequels are rarely as good as the originals, and regrettably this sequel has proved to look as desperate a bid to fix a problem as the P&R version, to the point that there was serious doubt about whether its sums really did add up.
Its prospects looked bleak and it failed to gather support yesterday, leaving the fiscal field open to other options, or, indeed, a repeat of the can-kicking exercise witnessed earlier this year.
It is likely to have failed for three reasons. The previous alternative was probably fairer, and certainly a credible alternative. This one has had holes picked from it from the moment its first hints were published.
The fatigue from the proposals has carried through into debate. While a majority of members (probably) aren’t backing GST and more borrowing, this time around they weren’t buying this package either.
And then there’s personality politics. A fairer alternative could once have knocked rough edges from the P&R proposal, inspired some public belief in a commitment to save money, and ‘do a job’. But the ‘never the twain’ approach from both sides of this debate would not let that happen – so we all lose.