How many of us want Guernsey ‘to be big’?
I REFER to a couple of quotes from your lead story in 7 March which was essentially a report on a presentation of a plan to build tunnels between Guernsey, Jersey and France.
The first quote is that in the view of those making the presentation, the plan’s biggest hurdle is ‘not geology or engineering, but politics’. Their word is ‘politics’. My word is ‘democracy’. I believe that if our politicians behave in democratic fashion, then we are both right.
The other quote which caught my attention was attributed to former Chamber of Commerce president Martyn Dorey: ‘If you want to be big, you must think big.’ He’s probably right, but I’d be interested what percentage of the electorate wants Guernsey ‘to be big’.
If you are a small, independent island and you want to remain such then building tunnels to Jersey and onto France is the last thing you should be doing.
Being an island protects sovereignty. History from all over the world shows us this.
All of the arguments in favour of the tunnels seem to be economy/cash based (and even then who knows what dynamics will be driving the respective economies of Guernsey, Jersey and France by the time of completion, never mind the relationships between all three?) I argue that national sovereignty and independence are not there to be bought.
On the subject of the importance of national independence, I think more people need to be aware that someone somewhere has sold Ukraine down the river.
There are protests all over Europe over cheap, pesticide-riddled grain from Ukraine flooding the continent, putting farmers out of business and endangering public health. Ridiculous amounts of Ukrainian land have been bought by a myriad of foreign-owned entities (I have so far found 20), and much of that has been used for cultivating this grain.
One US Equity Capital firm called NCH Capital now owns the equivalent of 111 million football fields. But there are, as I say, many others.
But back to Martyn Dorey. If there is anyone here who wants to reside in a ‘big’ jurisdiction, then I ask them to move to England, France, Canada, Jupiter or wherever they think is big enough for them.
MATT WATERMAN
Flat 2
3 Burnt Lane
St Peter Port