HSSD proposal an expensive fix for a small problem
IT SOUNDS great, doesn't it. Our caring HSSD proposes to legislate to protect those 'no longer able to protect themselves'. ('New law proposed by HSSD would protect all adults who ''lack capacity''', 3 February) The fact that the States is burying Guernsey in debt while HSSD sits and dreams up more ways of increasing the tax burden on the taxpayers of this island appears irrelevant to many of our States' members.
We are told that HSSD wants a law to cover all adults in the community who 'lack capacity'. However, as usual, we are asked to accept another layer of bureaucracy without being given any indication of the extent of the actual problem. Why are we not given the statistics to support such an extra burden on the island's stretched finances? Is it because HSSD has no such information and this is just another good 'group think' idea which politicians have dreamt up, just before an election, because they have heard of an example or two of families who have experienced problems in this area. Or could it be that it is an idea instigated by bureaucrats looking for additional work, in order to justify a claim that their department cannot possibly reduce staffing levels to help achieve the desperately needed economies we need in the inflated salary costs of our government.
Yes, there is a need for revision of the law relating to powers of attorney and the ability to create lasting powers of attorney could be of great use in a number of instances. However, if this change is made surely it can then be left to our courts to supervise, just as it does current trust law. The claim that it will cost £200,000 a year to administer such a change must surely be little more than rampant empire building.
It is time that our politicians stopped spending in the fourth dimension and started applying a little cost/benefit analysis to their pet ideas.
When, 40 years ago, I asked our States Treasury what rates they paid on their borrowing, I was arrogantly informed that 'we do not borrow money.' How times change. Now, in order to cover the cost of their profligate spending, our States goes cap in hand to the financial market and pays millions of pounds to intermediaries and lawyers to obtain long term loans.
MICHAEL A. WARD,
Les Cahouans, Le Clos des Quatre Saisons, Torteval, GY8 0PW.
