Let's give a little respect
AMID various promises and pledges being bandied about as Lyndon Farnham made his pitch to become Jersey’s chief minister, two of them leapt off the page.
‘We have lost our way. Government has become too cumbersome. It tries to do too much and achieves too little.’
Hallelujah! Except he would say that, wouldn’t he? Good, populist, vote-grabbing nonsense.
But it is this kind of approach that the public wants to see. If the previous P&R had been able to show any progress in this area, they might have got more backing for extra funds through a GST. But nobody gets anywhere near ever addressing it.
Government continues to take on needs and wants, keeps on looking to employ more people, and keeps wading through treacle.
If Deputy Farnham can turn this one around, he fully deserves his new job.
His other eye-catching pledge was ‘first and foremost, courtesy, respect and professionalism will be guiding principles for the new government’.
Again, worrying shades of the Guernsey overthrow experience and troubling to ponder why politics should be conducted in a way that this kind of thing needs to be said up front.
As the workplace has become more respectful and professional, so politics increasingly shows signs of dipping deeper into the sewer. And there really is no need.