From ‘half-way down the ladder’, the view is grim
THANK YOU Lester Queripel for at least trying to educate the rest of the clan about the feelings of a lot of people struggling in Guernsey who would like to see more done for people living here before giving freely to Overseas Aid. No one is saying do not help others. What the people struggling to live are saying is, ‘look at home first’.
If our politicians think the minimum wage is a liveable amount of money, they need to drop into the real world. It is fine to say someone gets paid £300 a week, but in total they take home nowhere near that amount. Tax, insurance, perhaps a union fee and a pension fee will be taken out of that amount. So in honesty, even though a person would struggle to live on £300 a week, they do not get anywhere near that amount.
Then (sorry to go on along these lines, but) a pensioner does not get anywhere near a liveable amount of money. Every time I listen to a deputy talking about minimum wages they always say they do not think anyone should be paid such a low rate for working and how difficult it must be to survive on such money. Yet, is it not they who set the rate? Words are cheap and blurting out about how this government has no money and has to make so many cutbacks, leaving people living here struggling to make ends meet, while sending hundreds of thousands of pounds overseas and while taking so much money for themselves, does not sit well with those who are struggling.
As for getting more women in politics for balance – that has not helped either. Who the heck cares if the government is full of men or women, as long as they use some common sense and do the job properly.
To date this government has taken us even further down the road to doom and gloom. Take a serious look before it has gone beyond the point of no return (if it hasn’t already) and open your eyes to the facts.
The island is dirty and untidy. The roads are filthy. There is far more traffic than is healthy. We are vastly over populated and a lot of the voters you’ve made promises to on the doorstep at election time are struggling to live.
I am sorry for the doom and gloom. I have tried to look for something positive to say, but I can only be honest in pointing out that, from half-way down the ladder and lower, there actually is nothing to be positive about.
ROD HAMON,
5, Rosemount, Mont Arrive,
St Peter Port, GY1 2AF.