There's thinking ahead and there's thinking ahead – but we can't do both

So based on that, it’s hard to justify the CMO’s role or salary, much less the sometimes suggested ‘case’ for the unelected CMO to have statutory powers – i.e. override the elected deputies.

Nevertheless, by stating the obvious as regularly as Dr Brink has – ‘the best way to prevent contagion is not to go near each other’ etc, the CMO has not been tempted to reinvent the wheel. And it was good to see from her latest report, although it was obvious to most of us, that focus should be on ‘prevention is better than cure – or care’. It was ridiculous I thought, in the last term, when the then chairman of HSC – the Heidi Souslby Committee? – said that they were going to prioritise prevention, cure and care. That’s the only three things HSC is charged with doing, surely? It was a bit like a football coach saying his team was going to prioritise scoring goals and preventing the opponents from scoring. How to say everything and nothing at the same time in one easy lesson.

Obvious as Dr Brink’s recommendation was, it was refreshing to see, for once, an establishment figure thinking generations ahead and looking after the interests of those yet to be born rather than giving in to the short-sighted wailers who can’t see beyond their own welfare and a generation or two either side of their own existence. Some self-proclaimed visionaries here seem to think that the long-term view extends to 20 years. What a load of utter rubbish. If freedom, conscience and justice based societies are to survive then it is our responsibility to be looking hundreds, not tens, of years ahead. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 has landed the entire population of the world in then you know what.

It’s no good Guernsey producing, in accord with Dr Brink’s stated philosophy, a healthy young workforce if that workforce is going to disappear off into other lands at the age of 22 or whatever, to be replaced by smokers, the obese, alcohol drinkers or the rich.

It was a stand out irony to me that in the same issue in which you reported

Dr Brink’s recommendations you

published a Locate Guernsey advert expressing a wish to attract high-net-worth people to take up residence here. In my opinion, most high-net-worth individuals are not young and therefore are likely to place more demands on the health services than those who are. And because they are rich, they are in a position to fast track themselves to

the front of the queue for the best expertise.

The next States – and their successors – will either ignore this latest piece of Nicola Brink advice or make sure that the children who are brought up here stay here. They cannot do both.

MATT WATERMAN

Flat 2

3 Burnt Lane

St Peter Port