We need a change in how we are governed

My initial uncharitable response to that is, no s..t Sherlock.

Ever since the last election this government, and I use that term in the loosest possible way because it has failed to tackle any of the big issues, has been a total waste of time and a very large amount of money.

Our government committee model is now so inept and self-paralysing that I can’t honestly see a way forward unless the States, just for once, actually comes together and puts their petty back-biting and grandstanding to one side and actually makes a decision on the key issues.

n Taxation. This issue has become a joke and really the only two options are to make people pay a higher rate of income tax or GST. Both very unpopular but you can’t keep fudging the issue to save your job. We didn’t elect you to just sit on your hands for five years, we elected you to make a decision – if you are putting your job and the money you earn before what you believe is right for the island, you stood for yourself and not us.

n Housing. This is very serious and again, prone to fudging. Housing projects get talked about, numbers of houses to be built get proclaimed but what is actually delivered is nothing like what was promised. Where are cheap houses for locals? Why should local people pay more and more just to have a roof over their heads? Why are local working/middle class people becoming poorer and marginalised in their own island?

n The increasing cost and, let’s face it, buck passing of hiring ‘consultants’ to overview things taking just enough time so the relevant committee is out of office before it reports back. Aurigny is the latest one to get this treatment. You don’t need to pay someone thousands to tell you its business model won’t work because of the routes it flies and the aircraft that it uses will never make a profit. It’s cowardice as a government not to tackle issues and just leave them for another administration to try to sort out or just fudge again.

n A growing and very expensive civil service. No government can work without a good civil service behind them but it’s increasingly become clear that it’s become a ‘government behind the government’ pulling the strings, vetoing things and increasingly paying its top members very large amounts of money. The latest bid to hire six new ones at a total cost to the taxpayer of more than £400,000 is a classic case in point. That’s £66,666 a year at least for each of them and some will earn even more. If you can’t do the job you are doing don’t expect the public to pay somebody else to do it for you. I don’t think Environment & Infrastructure will get their way on this but to even bring it up shows to me that we are electing people out of their depth or who make silly promises and then employ other people with our money to carry them through or more likely to blame if they can’t.

n We need a change in how we are governed. The States must come together on day one with a plan that they will carry through in one parliament. Not all of the policies put forward will be popular but because individuals are elected instead of parties – they are all pulling in different directions which paralyses everything and makes practical governance impossible.

Finally, my take on Horace Camp in his column attacking Lord Digby Jones for his attack on the ‘Guernsey Way’. My argument is if it truly ever existed, it disappeared in the 90s, to a large extent replaced by people more driven first about getting in the States and then just staying in it as long as possible, by either appearing on the TV or papers each week to look like they are doing something or just being invisible, so people might not notice you haven’t done anything. The ‘Guernsey Way’ doesn’t exist anymore and with an ever-increasing population brought over to service it, locals are being driven away because of not being able to get on the housing ladder, or if you own property moving to the UK or France to buy bigger properties and still able to bank thousands. The island will become increasingly homogenised and disappear. Sad but inevitable because the ‘Guernsey Way’ should start with the government and we haven’t had one for a long time.

MARTIN BISHOP