Small island already too full

So if there is a population increase of 10,000 people, many of whom, according to Locate Guernsey, will be wealthy, where will the land come from to feed the extra 10,000 mouths? On one of their websites, the States describe the dairy industry as a 'primary industry' and has undertaken to fight imports almost to the death, so without an answer to this question the idea to increase the population is a non-starter.

We already have 1,500 people per square mile. How can that not be overpopulation? Yes, it is better that as many of the population as possible are gainfully employed, but even if everybody was working there is still a finite space.

Who would an increase in population benefit? Before anyone says 'the economy', I asked 'who?' not 'what?' You will not find 'the Institute of Directors' or 'Guernsey' or 'the economy' on the electoral register. None of those are people. Anyone who watched the BBC documentary 'The Super Rich and Us' earlier this year will be in no doubt that the trickle-down effect theory doesn't work; it actually works in reverse. In Jersey, it was announced in the space of a few weeks, that the finance sector had enjoyed a massive increase in profits, the population topped 100,000 and 18,000 people were below the poverty line.

The ringleaders of the campaign to increase the population by 10% seem to hail from the property industry. But as many on the outside have asked, once the architects, builders, conveyance lawyers and estate agents have made their money, what do they and, more pertinently, the new arrivals do then?

One of these companies, the Fuller Group, had a letter published by you on 10 November ('Island needs population growth'), which attacks Deputy Laurie Queripel's earlier letter reacting to the IoD debate and which included that very question. The group's letter picks up on that point but gives no clear answer that I can decipher.

The group also argues that Deputy Queripel, and those who agree with him, are short-sighted. The irony here is that the group agrees that one of the problems which needs addressing is that the States has been running a deficit for seven years. But why is that? It's because of zero-10.

Deputy Queripel was amongst those of us who, in 2006, said that if zero-10 was approved, then in order to attain the growth necessary to fill the resultant 'black hole' the business community would lobby to increase the population. And look what is happening now. So it's not Deputy Queripel who is short-sighted. While there may be some danger in entering a depopulation cycle, the worst that is likely to happen is that things will get worse before they get better. Once the population drops to a certain level it will stabilise. There will never be no people here at all. Increasing the population will create an uncontrollable monster. As far as I can work out, those lobbying for growth are failing to see beyond the immediate problem. If all we are interested in is the short term, then how about T&R creating a heap of money out of thin air and giving us a million quid each?

On the opposite page to the Fuller Group's letter was a letter from Martin Searle quite rightly describing the misuse of the 'guillotine' as an affront to democracy. But even that is insignificant compared to the sort of noises being expressed by the Fuller Group and the IoD whose then chairman, incidentally, nominated the current Treasury minister when he stood for election in 2012.

The Fuller Group states, 'we need to change our protectionist attitude to the idea that reducing the proportion of local population to less than 50% is somehow bad.' Highly inflammatory stuff – I could say that reducing it to less than 100% is bad. However, the significance of going under 50% is obvious. It would give a majority to those who, having been allowed in themselves, would find it very hard to argue against allowing others in too. There seem to be an awful lot of people, some in the States and some not, who are openly lobbying the States to prioritise the interests of people or entities not on the electoral register, and often not even in the island. Which was here first: the island of Guernsey or the Institute of Directors?

MATT WATERMAN,

Flat 2, 3, Burnt Lane,

St Peter Port, GY1 1HL.