Higher taxes to fund public spending utterly and irresponsibly reckless

Certainly I don’t agree with this, though it is absolutely true to say that Tony Blair’s New Labour government of the centre ground was the most financially successful Labour government that the UK has ever seen. But even New Labour left the UK economy bankrupt when they left office in 2010.

Unfortunately the Tory governments since then have also moved towards the centre ground – perhaps most notably under Theresa May and Boris Johnson – which has done nothing to improve matters.

In my view Liz Truss is not so much seeking popularity as suggested by Deputy Roffey, as trying to fix the mess that successive UK governments have created. She was elected as party leader and prime minister because a majority of members felt that she has the best chance of doing this, but it is a truly gargantuan task, and whether she will succeed remains to be seen. It looks as though the situation is irretrievable without a good deal of pain.

Deputy Roffey’s article is silent on one very important aspect of our particular situation in this island. This is the narrow financial base of our economy when combined with current States overspending and the demographic changes still to come. It seems to me that there is much wishful thinking, head in the sand, and complacency in Guernsey over our economic situation, since there have been storm clouds brewing on our horizon for some time.

Richard Digard has been documenting this developing problem for months, if not several years, and on 9 September he was joined by Horace Camp with his article ‘Things can only get worse’.

Guernsey politicians on the left are still looking for more and higher taxes to fund public spending, which would be utterly and irresponsibly reckless in the current climate, while those few politicians who understand the nature of our economy know that we have got to drastically cut public spending, but seem unable to take the necessary steps to do anything about it.

We do need to be giving ourselves room to manoeuvre for when things get tough, and spending up to the hilt now is not the way to do this. Indeed we are currently spending well beyond the hilt and Horace Camp is absolutely right about the perils of over-squeezing the revenue producers in the middle.

Not squeezing the middle is of course about more than not increasing the level of taxation. It also means providing an adequate housing supply and not obstructing the development of needed commercial premises. Some would add it means not overburdening businesses with more legislative and administrative burdens.

But essentially we have got to get a major grip on our public spending as a matter of urgency. We now hear from P & R that this can only be done by reducing service delivery – and I believe them. This could – and should – mean reducing the scope of the activities that the public sector is actually required to perform, but ultimately will also have to mean a serious reduction in the size and scope of our welfare state. This will undoubtedly be painful, but it is vitally important that we don’t incur the severe disincentives and economic damage that increasing the tax burden would bring, so there is no alternative to keeping welfare and similar expenditure within our means. This will have to be done however much we may dislike having to do it.

The future wellbeing of all our people depends on getting this right.

BOB PERKINS

Les Corneilles

Rue de la Ronde Cheminee

Castel