Pay rise? Deputies get too much money already

Once again may I point out that the deputies are actually taking our money and giving to themselves. They have the audacity to ask us in surveys if we think they are overpaid and take not an ounce of notice what the answer is.

We are their employers and they don't listen to us.

The largest case of the tail wagging the dog I think you will ever see.

Look, we are not fools and the statement about dropping the claims by deputies for stationery which amounts to £3,000 a year and just giving them the £3,000 to save the hassle, is rubbish, because if any of them need £3,000 to cover stationery then they are wasting our money more than we even thought.

No, it is a pay rise and let's not beat about the bush with nonsense – otherwise the deputies themselves would not be quoting they are looking at a pay rise in January. They would just carry on regardless and no one would be any the wiser.

I am sorry to say that most, and by that I mean at least 95% of the deputies who came into the States four years ago, have reneged on the people who voted them in.

They have jumped on the bandwagon and become a load of vultures with not a lot of (if any) interest in correcting the mess the island is in.

To be completely honest we are probably worse off now then we were when they came in with all their promises.

Again we have to endure the farce of a voting system that ties our hands so that we cannot necessarily vote for the person we think would do the job (or have a good go at it) because of being restricted to voting only inside boundaries set out by the government. We will still see people in the house that would not get in with an island-wide voting system.

No government in the world is totally open and transparent, and ours falls a long way down the ladder when it come to transparency. Why not be honest and open from the start?

Why not make the rule now that any person wishing to stand for election to the States has to declare their business interests. We would then know who is speaking to push and gain for their own ends. It would be interesting if the Press printed the manifestos of each deputy currently in the States (say a couple a week) and we could see how much these individuals have stuck to their word. No – you guys do not deserve any rises in pay, you take more than enough now.

And to cut the number of deputies and split the extra wages split between the rest does not cut any ice with anyone who has an ounce of common sense. I am afraid the pattern has been set. As long as there are people who have never lived hand-to-mouth voted into politics the poor will suffer.

I know what some of you are saying. I can hear you now. Why doesn't he (me) stand then? I will tell you why – I would be expelled within three months. I refuse to lie and that would not go down well at all. I would not be prepared to do it for nothing – but I would not ask for (or expect anyone to get) half the money these people are getting. So there`s another reason for not being in favour.

No, I would be in the same boat/position as Peter Burtenshaw in the St Peter Port Douzaine – and the many others who keep trying to make changes and get frustrated at being outvoted by the old school.

ROD HAMON,

5, Rosemount, Mont Arrive,

St Peter Port, GY1 2AF.