Speak now or lose your rights as a local

I never thought that I would see the day when certain Guernsey politicians would sell us off to the outsider, give the outsider more domiciled rights than the Guernsey person, give the outsider more rights than families like mine whose ancestry goes back 1,000 years in Guernsey.

These politicians who have sworn to protect the Guernsey person's rights, they have let us down big time with the new population control laws that they are proposing. How can the people of Guernsey ever trust certain politicians again to represent us and do what is best for our island home? How can we ever feel safe and secure again?

Some of the amendments to these new laws have already been lost to these politicians who have tried to stop them from going through. These proposals, if passed, would mean the end to Guernsey as we know it and should be viewed with the strongest condemnation possible. The changes would mean that:

1. Anybody born in Guernsey would have to wait an extra four years, from 10 to 14 years, to become completely domiciled, i.e. local.

2. Non-locals from outside the island would have a shorter qualifying period, cut from 15 to eight years to become permanently residential in Guernsey.

3. Non-locals would be able to bring as many members of their family as they wish to the island, not just immediate family. How would a small island like Guernsey cope with the problems of population increase that this would create?

4. Non-locals would be able to buy local market property, competing against locals for property and, by doing so, push property prices up, making it much harder for locals to afford to buy property.

It will also become much more difficult for locally-born persons to return to the island after an, as yet, unspecified time away.

Some of these changes have already been debated in the States and have been voted in favour of, so certain deputies have already lost in their efforts to have these changes amended. So things are not looking good for Guernsey's future.

The Population Control Laws, which were originally put in place to protect the island from overpopulation and give the Guernsey person certain rights, could disappear forever. We, the people, have to act to stop this political suicide in its tracks. Our politicians have to delay this from being finally passed until after the next election so that the people of Guernsey can have their say.

It is due to go before the States mid-2014. Have your say now and be heard or lose your rights as a local. After all, isn't Guernsey already overpopulated? Act now. March against it.

L. J. GALLIENNE.