Don't have it? Don't spend it

Black holes can be filled and insufficient money for capital expenditure can be sorted by not spending too much. It's really quite simple – if you haven't got the money, do not spend it. Surely the recent recession should have educated them at least that much.

Deputies want to revisit the airport extension. Having only just spent the odd £80m. on the runway, it's not long enough say deputies Kuttelwascher and Stewart. Sorry about that but we can't afford it, we don't need it and it wouldn't make a scrap of difference having it. If big jets go into Jersey and we are a 'feeder' island, what's so wrong with that premise? We don't get to be deafened, we don't pollute our precious and scarce land, but we can take a 10-minute flight to Jersey or take a ferry there and let them deal with the downside of big airports.

If we want a huge tourist boom, we need to open a casino, liberalise our drug laws and perhaps make Cobo Bay a nudist beach. That would make a difference – it would bring lots of people here and then we might need a bigger airport.

The hospital needs yet more millions spent on it? Our deputies have saved a couple of quid by getting rid of one member of 'ward staff'. That's not a saving worth making. We have too few good nurses. We keep being told that good nurses don't want to come to Guernsey. It seems the only people we can get to come here are managers and highly paid 'professionals' – maybe that's because there are too many managers managing too few. No professional wants to be told how to do their job by a pen pusher who has never actually got their hands dirty or a time-and-motion geek. They have closed down a hydrotherapy pool to 'save' £22k, but that's not a real saving, it's just the loss of an amenity which many would use if given a chance.

They want to introduce GST and talk about 'adjusting the balance' with tax allowances. The poorest in Guernsey don't pay tax. Just a little fact that maybe hasn't dawned on the intelligentsia who thought that one up.

You put up the cost of living by 5% and you put up the Social Security budget by 5%. What a genius thought. DSS is actually thinking and doing good work and needs a round of applause. Not the deputies, but the rank and file staff who are manning the counters and who have to deal with difficult situations.

They are fostering a work ethic by asking people to work for their benefits – perhaps in time this will foster pride and self-worth. Perhaps one day, handled correctly as it is now, the people being gently asked to contribute to their own maintenance will be able to buy their own houses and teach their children how to rely on themselves rather than on the state. It would take time, and the security of the state being there to pick up the pieces when necessary must not be denied. It is, however, sad that children bear children in order to get a States house.

R. HENDERSON,

Ma Carriere,

Le Petit Bouet,

St Peter Port,

GY1 2AN.