Guernsey Press

‘Fortress Guernsey’ is the limit of the CCA’s ambitions

ALTHOUGH we learnt very little of any substance from the CCA’s press briefings last week, we did learn the following:

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The chief minister, Peter Ferbrache, refused to give an answer when asked the quite reasonable question by a journalist about the road map to opening up the island, and to quarantine-free travel. He said the question was ‘pointless’. It may be ‘pointless’ to Mr Ferbrache; it is certainly not ‘pointless’ for people with family, friends and business interests off island who have been unable to have any physical connection with them for over a year.

It was announced that the financial assistance currently offered to the hospitality sector will be extended through to 2022. One clear inference to be drawn from this announcement, at this point in time, is that even after all vulnerable groups in the island population have been vaccinated, ‘Fortress Guernsey’ – with long term continuation of severe travel restrictions and quarantines – is the limit of the CCA’s ambitions.

There was perhaps a Freudian slip by Mr Whitfield (head of the Guernsey Civil Service) at the press briefing, when he referred to ‘our regime’. (The dictionary definition of ‘regime’: ‘a government, especially an authoritarian one’)

Dr Brink said that the objective is zero Covid cases and that mutations that could evade the vaccine are now the paramount consideration. But there will always be mutations of a virus. Ergo, the logical corollary from this statement is that we will be locked in to ‘Fortress Guernsey’ indefinitely and the island will resemble an open prison.

If the CCA tries to keep the island locked up and residents locked in – and they still do this when the UK and Jersey open their borders to quarantine free travel with any mitigation such as testing that is deemed necessary – then what they are doing will be challenged in court in the most effective way possible. It will be funded by a large number of people who have said they will support these steps should that become necessary. We will take these steps because if the CCA continues on this lamentable course, cutting the island off from the world even after all vulnerable groups have been vaccinated, it will represent an existential threat to Guernsey as a functioning democracy, to our society, and to the economic sustainability of this island, and it will put rocket fuel under what are already very serious mental health issues.

And finally, remember this: it is the private sector, including all those small companies and the self-employed, the wealth creators, who are taking the full financial punishment at the moment and who are offered derisory financial support. In contrast to that, all those who work for the state e.g. politicians and civil servants have always been on full salaries, perks and pensions .….. we are all in the same storm but we’re not all in the same boat.

An island-wide and open debate that respects freedom of expression has never been more urgent than it is now.

TIM CHESNEY