Court bid highlights ‘self-serving’ States
I REFER to your lead story of 11 April, headlined ‘States goes to court to block pensions tribunal’. I struggle to see its relevance to the fact that most residents of Guernsey employ politicians and civil servants to act in their interests.
I doubt that the majority of the electorate or taxpayers, super rich or super poor, indigenous or not, has instructed their civilian serving employees to use the money which they provide to sue themselves over a dispute over how they handle disputes between themselves. I haven’t, and I don’t know anyone who has. And I am too lazy to direct my energies to thinking of a more bureaucratic or ludicrous scenario. It would take up more time than I have left to live in this realm.
Maybe we don’t have a democracy here, that would explain it. Whatever our system of government is, it appears to be a self-serving one.
And on the subject of democracy, of which freedom of expression is surely part, I found it ironic that your issue of 24 March was headlined ‘Deputies to have chance to denounce Russia’ and stated that ‘An urgent debate will be held next week which will give States members an opportunity to show their support for the people of Ukraine’. Who are these mysterious ‘givers of opportunity’ to Peter Ferbrache, Gavin St Pier and co I wonder? I’d have thought that in a society where there is freedom of speech, any person, elected or not, should be able to decide who to denounce and when.
What gets debated when in my government and who decides such – and why – is a much under-investigated and unaccounted for area, especially given the influence it has over our lives.
MATT WATERMAN