If we want Guernsey to have an independent future, then we need to kick out globalism
ELECTORATES are increasingly disenchanted and moan about the current lot in power being as bad as the previous lot, but by and large it’s their own fault. They consistently, in my opinion fail to realise that the changes to their society since their last elections have largely been dictated by the policies adopted decades ago, which is why we constantly hear politicians saying that they voted for the least worst option and that they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Locally, for example, the debate over GST and/or corporation tax and/or increasing income tax has principally arisen from the 2006 decision to adopt zero-10. But even the 2006 decision arose from policies adopted by previous States to turn Guernsey into an international (business) centre, which exponentially exposed us to international pressures and protocols.
Look where the decision to sell off States Telecoms has got us. Recently, the States decided to set the competition laws aside to enable Sure to acquire Airtel, putting Sure in an even more powerful position than they were before. I suggest that many States members approved this deal simply because they could see the potential downside of Sure ‘slinging their hook’. We’re now told, by Sure, that unless we accept Guernsey Fibre and all the road closures that go with it, we will lose our landlines and internet connections. (Don’t get me started on smart technology, Spyware, AI, the Metaverse and its associations with mind control. No surprise to me that the New Orleans attacker was wearing Meta glasses.)
So who are Sure, exactly? They are owned by Batelco, the Bahraini national telecoms company, whose chairman is a Bahraini Prince. My point is not so much that I have a particular axe to grind against Sure, especially the local representatives, but that if he were to put his mind to it, a Bahraini Royal could control a Guernsey utility, or sell it to someone else who could do the same. When did we vote for that? And by the way, the States owns Guernsey Post, which means that Sure is its competitor in the communications sector.
There should have been, over the years, enough people here to understand the fundamentals of good governance, a cornerstone of which is ‘know who you are dealing with’. So what’s happened, electorate? My guess is that your contribution has been to turn up and vote every four years (or more if the CCA is at the helm) rather than constantly research and lobby. In my view it is a citizen’s duty to do the latter. Not just say ‘I’ve done my bit’ and walk off. And even then some of the decision making by electorate members as to who to vote for seems to be based on very superficial and sketchy knowledge of candidates and risk assessment of what is being (un)said in their campaigns.
If we want Guernsey to have an independent future, then we need to kick out globalism. The short term consequences will be horrendous, and hardly anyone here will live to see anything but the downside. So it’s a stark choice. Short-sighted greed to benefit ourselves and at best the next two generations, or back the long-term interests of mankind.
In case anyone has forgotten, we’re supposed to be a Christian nation – and even other religions are conscience based – and most of the electorate knows that there’s a book called the Bible which reports that some chap called Jesus reportedly suffered for the future of mankind.
My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents suffered the consequences of war. We do not have a divine right to be exempt from suffering, but what sort of monsters are we if, in attempting to feather our own nests and those of our offspring perhaps, we expose or even impose suffering/enslavement on all future generations? Worth remembering that the US national debt is currently something like $37tn meaning that any baby born tomorrow has a debt of $62k, and it is constantly having to agree to further borrowing in exchange for the privately owned – who by? – Federal Reserve not calling its debts in. In the UK the national debt is something like £47k per person, so the more we are absorbed by the UK, the more we acquire that sort of debt.
Until we are prepared to understand who owns central banks in particular but other global corporations too and can hold those individuals to account, any control we have over local society will be increasingly insignificant. Or we could elect politicians who are driven to kick out globalism. But it will be painful if we do that.
MATT WATERMAN
Flat 2
3 Burnt Lane
St Peter Port