Guernsey Press

Logical choices beyond deputies

I WAS sorry to hear that the States were withdrawing funding for StartUp Guernsey, AKA the Guernsey Enterprise Agency, and as it appears in the Press of 2 December, I am not alone. When the decision to withdraw funding comes from a States department who have wasted well over £1m. of taxpayers’ money subsidising the Heathrow air link against our home-owned airline flying to Gatwick, you have to wonder at the logic of their thinking.

Published

I think some of them have lost the plot, committing to the idea of a Victor Hugo interpretation centre.

Let us just consider some basic facts. Firstly, how do French visitors get to us? No air connections now that Aurigny have killed off the Dinard route. By sea, we have Manche Iles Express, who seem to cancel more times than they sail, and a second-rate direct service from Condor. So, Guernsey is not an easy place to get to from France.

Secondly, it will incur all-year-round expenses; rent, TRP, insurances are just some of the fixed costs. But hang on, people will only normally visit it when Hauteville House is open, so what’s that, April until September perhaps? So clearly a non-starter when the prime motivator for visiting French people to come is closed for over half of the year.

It seems to me that so many States departments come up with ideas which anyone with a commercial background would disregard at the first hurdle, yet because many civil servants and deputies don’t have any real world experience in commerce, they dream up daft ideas paid for at taxpayers’ expense. Then there are calls from P&R to be aware of increased taxes. Well in my opinion the answer is simple, just stop squandering our money on daft ideas, and I think the education fiasco is one of the expensive follies at the top of the list – £1m. to buy a church, for starters.

Anyone standing in 2020 who says they will reverse the decisions made by those currently on Education will almost certainly get my vote. Incidentally, Deputy Fallaize’s statement that teachers can have their free say on education is nonsense.

I have customers who are friends and families of teachers who have had it

made quite clear to them that they should not comment publicly on education matters.

TREVOR HOCKEY

Trev’s Motorcycles.