It’s a government of contradictions

I HAVE read with dismay in the past couple of weeks about the desire for some deputies to try and create a legacy by spending hundreds of millions on various vanity projects. I think I speak for many ordinary Guernseymen when I say that I feel a complete sense of hopelessness when I hear the utter nonsensical ideas that you continue to suggest and the thought of even more of our hard-earned money being wasted investigating these projects.

One day Deputy Ferbrache says that the government has failed the electorate, spending too much time debating unachievable projects, the next day he is saying we should ‘reach for the stars’ and helps hand £1m. to an unelected agency that will have a huge say in the redevelopment of our east coast. Who will make up this agency? It should be a completely independent agency made up of people totally disconnected from those who stand to profit, however, the cynic in me says it will be made up of the same old cronies and vested interests.

We have a government of contradictions at the moment – one day we have no money for pensions or for fixing our crumbling infrastructure, the next day we are building a tunnel to achieve a few people’s car-free utopia. One day we are skint and we need to raise the income tax or introduce GST, the next day we are building a Monaco-style seafront and investigating the extension to the runway... again. Briefly on the topic of Aurigny and the runway extension, should we extend the runway and encourage other airlines to fly to Guernsey, will we be subsidising them to compete against Aurigny, which the taxpayer owns? Seems to me this will only increase Aurigny’s losses, a lose-lose situation.

It seems to me that the current House is totally disconnected from the ordinary Guernseyman whose only focus now is the cost of living, rising house prices, spiralling rents, and impending tax rises or GST. It would appear that this House is big on voting things through with very little detail a very little scrutiny.

Turning to the desire of some people to pedestrianise the seafront, I do not agree that our taxpayers’ money should be used in an attempt to stop our reliance on the car. The problem is much deeper, perhaps you could address the ever increasing rental costs that have led to so many empty shops in Guernsey. I hear that we ‘need to do our bit’ – let’s have a bit of realism here, until China (30% of global emissions and the US and India (both 15% of global emissions) ‘do their bit’ then nothing will change. The blunt fact is that Guernsey’s efforts, even if we achieve net-zero, will make absolutely no tangible difference in the global effort.

That does not mean do nothing, but let’s have a much more sensible debate about what is affordable and achievable. It is very easy to be green and socially conscious if you have the money to afford to be. I for one am fed up of being preached to by our champagne socialist elite about being green and saving the planet. Is it socially conscious to saddle our future generations with hundreds of millions in debt so as to ‘enhance’ our island? Our elected elite care more about what we look like to the outside world than they do about the ordinary islander. They care more for their egos. I heard it said ‘big egos have little ears’ – how true.

We are told that we have a car problem, it seems to me that the problem only occurs from 8-9am and 4-5pm Monday to Friday, in term time. Why not introduce a compulsory school bus service and a park and ride scheme from the outskirts of Town?

In conclusion, our elected elite want to create a rich man’s playground, however, the island wouldn’t be able to operate without the ordinary islander, so please don’t price us out of our own island.

JASON COOK