States not discussing island's most important issues

One example of this is the lack of any effort towards coping with the rising sea levels and the future sea levels and flooding we're bound to experience on all low-lying land.

I'm surprised that the deputies haven't grasped this opportunity to waste millions on consultants.

I congratulate the deputies on a few things: we now have a resolution to our previously never-ending problem with the daily papers. I just hope it works. They have agreed to island-wide voting and to a reduction in the amount of deputies, at last.

They have cost us £8m. in legal fees, misguidedly trying to reclaim monies from a firm which put foam on the airport runway. They have taken the tax off vehicles, then put it on fuel and now plan to put it back on cars as well.

If deputies are serious about saving our broken holiday trade, they will subsidise plane journeys, replace the Liberation with a decent ship and cancel those poorly thought-out, unprofessional adverts on TV.

It is too late to save some hotels and guest houses, but those that are left need all the help we can give them.

What is the point of any advertising when we cannot guarantee travel to the islands and travel home again and people cannot afford the plane fares? There will always be weather too extreme for travel but the mail boats used to cope, mostly.

I travelled regularly in my younger days, once or twice in a force nine. We didn't lose cars and the only passengers hurt were those who had heart attacks due to poor general health. I can remember the ambulances meeting the boat on a number of occasions. We had so many visitors then because we were reliable and the fares weren't high, especially for day trips.

With the elections in mind, what infuriates and depresses Guernsey people the most? Meetings of deputies etc., where the real nitty gritty of the island is ignored and inconsequential matters – the Bridge, the harbour waterline restaurants, little islands for rich people etc. etc. – are discussed and dropped. Good decent deputies being hemmed in and their ideas quashed. (Something like the way locals are treated.)

Matters have improved recently but it's taken so long.

Across from where I live there is quite a large field, previously used for feeding cattle. After putting up, for years, with building works, noise and dirt we now have to tolerate the States using a green site to build more old people's homes.

If a commoner wanted to use a green site for building homes they would be sent away in shame, but the deputies seem above the law. Why?

I live in the Vale, a low-lying area. When there's a very high tide I panic and worry. I shouldn't have to be concerned, something long-term should be happening.

The deputies have produced a group who say they should be getting several thousand pounds more per year than they were. I just hope they don't produce another group who think they should get yet another salary rise. The resultant uproar of resentment and hatred would make the national papers, much as Jonathan Le Tocq's statement that we are racially prejudiced is doing. I suggest that Mr Le Tocq is taken off of our government. He, unfortunately, has exposed just how unprofessional our deputies in the States are and humiliated all of Guernsey's people.

This is the sort of 'faux pas' which will reverberate down the years, destroying Mr Le Tocq's political career and making him many enemies. I'm disgusted.

What should be happening is that deputy/minister meetings should be discussing how best to protect Guernsey and its islands from the rising water. We have a warning from our scientists which is giving us the chance to prepare and we're wasting that chance.

Like many in Guernsey, I despair when I think of the money we're wasting through hare-brained ideas, which should be being invested in keeping our coastal defences fit for purpose.

When discussions in the States Chambers turn to these hare-brained schemes, they still earn money, they still appear to be working, but are avoiding doing anything useful.

The elections are, however, coming up and this is when old and new scores are settled. When deputies who block good suggestions don't work for the people and are just hangers-on will be ousted. At last.

It took 50 years for a previous States to finally get the Hanois lighthouse built, despite hundreds of boats and ships regularly being wrecked on our dangerous rocky coast and thousands of people drowned. However, despite the States' opinions that it didn't matter because they weren't Guernsey people, and, of course, there were rich pickings on the beaches, the lighthouse was built and has saved many thousands of lives.

Does this story remind you of many of Guernsey's landlords? Unable to see that 'supercharging' rents only puts people out of business, or makes them homeless. This should be a topic for States members to discuss, but many are landlords so the subject doesn't get an airing. Personally I think that landlords should not be included as deputies, but landlords don't agree.

MARILYN TAYLOR,

4, Baugy House,

Vale.