States is set on a course for bankruptcy
THE career politicians in the States of Deliberation have voted to do the same to Guernsey as Boris Johnson did to the UK and Donald Trump is doing to the USA.
By putting their own careers and ambitions before the best interests of the island, they have set the government on a course that can only end with the administration being declared bankrupt and having to go cap in hand to the UK for an emergency bailout and that will be at the cost of Guernsey’s independence.
W S Churchill quoted the truism that all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
What will happen here is that with no restraint on spending, the civil servants will continue to receive generous salaries, bonuses and pensions. When there are insufficient funds in the public purse to pay for this largesse, their political masters will be advised to increase the rate of GST to cover the shortfall.
At some point in the near future this arrangement will become unsustainable and there is likely to be a sudden and dramatic decline in the island economy, with workers and businesses moving out, the population falling and the property market in freefall.
My sympathy will be for those young people who have struggled and overcome all the obstacles to climb
onto the housing ladder, only to find that suddenly there are no buyers and their home is almost worthless, while jobs are disappearing, incomes stagnating and prices and taxes keep rising.
BARRIE PAIGE
GY 8BP