This won’t hurt – just a little pryke….
Unfortunately – it always hurts, in-spite of all the promises - and these are currently pouring out of our Ministers’ mouths like super cream milk from a prize Jersey ’s udder as the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) feeds the other end of the beast…
Old farming references are never far away in Jersey politics and many of today’s Scrutiny participants (on the “taxpayers’ behalf “as they kept reminding us) had led the cows in for milking in a previous life. So it sort of comes as second nature to milk the public I suppose but the reality of life in this little Island seems to belong to another age so far as most of our elected politicians are concerned.
After all, in the lifetime of many there used to be over 1,100 dairy herds in Jersey whereas there are now just 26…and in the same period the human population has risen from 50,000 to 100,000 and human births are now a buoyant 1,000 per annum (in spite of a maternity theatre that is already not fit for purpose)…
Eleven elected reps in total were sitting at the top table for the two hearings today and only one was a Constable (an Assistant Minister in two Departments). Two of the eight Deputies came from single-seat Parishes and one Deputy sat in on both hearings and one is a Minister with another an Assistant Minister. One of the two Senators is a Minister – the other chaired one Scrutiny panel.
This information is given here as part of my Electoral Commission democracy in action audit service…
Since cows no longer have names – I have not named our elected reps here but hope that their anonymity is useful. After all, it is rather akin to being a member of the anonymous and voiceless public who attend or don’t attend on these occasions. Not in reality – just “akin” of course.
They don’t refer to us by name – at best we are “taxpayers” or the “aging population” or “immigrants” or some other troublesome group. Whatever we are – we seem to be a great burden which our elected reps could do much better without.
Pity we cannot be culled like dairy herds…
Today, one Deputy with a “farming background” (FB) started to question the Deputy with the Ministerial status (another FB) about adaptations of homes so as to be suitable for “care in the community.” The questions seemed to be getting somewhere but missed the point that most residents of Jersey live in rented accommodation – much of appalling inadequacy and totally unsuitable for caring for anybody even if their landlords agreed to any adaptations…
That there are 10,000 working adults in Jersey (many with offspring) who do not even have housing quals just does not seem to get into our reps heads. How on earth shall “they” be adequately cared for if the new style hospital system (cost about £400 Millions in ten years time at today’s rates but fuller details can be made available to Scrutiny at a “private” meeting according to the Minister) requires “them” to heal “at home” from surgery or serious illness…and shall they be required to pay for “home nursing” on a “user pays” basis…
That question was alluded to but not really answered (and nobody even asked about the 20,000 with quals who don’t live in Jersey – how might these affect the “projected figures” if a substantial number return to Jersey as problematical “pensioners”…) but the Deputy (FB) did wonder why £5 to £8 Millions will be spent every year on up-grading and maintaining existing facilities until the super new hospital is complete…especially if past population growth of 1,000 per annum continues in future years…
The Minister (FB) responded to the housing/population line of questions with the comment that future demand “is based upon current usage” and that some residents wanted to downsize from their 6 bedrooms granite farmhouses or something equally absurd…just how far removed from reality is it possible to get in a 9 x 5 Island…
Besides which, the actual cost of providing the proposed new “care in the community” system – even if all the extra trained staff could be harvested from the UK or “grown locally”- was still not at the “final business plan” stage. There are a great many works in progress it seems and so many boundaries yet to be determined…which KPMG will no doubt be pleased to do for a fee…
If the FBs are running the Health service… it is reassuring to know that the Treasury is also run by an FB turned cattle feed speculator. That particular venture was supposedly not a great financial success but should not be taken as a barrier to planning the Island’s economy for the next decade…and the scheme to raise bonds on Jersey’s public property portfolio has already (and unfairly) attracted a view of Jersey’s impending financial doom on one UK specialist blog-site…
Although the presence of the Scrutiny chair in the same room visibly and audibly induces a very high degree of mutual irritation between them both, the Minister’s word-count remains the highest recorded since records began…but as for content and credibility…
Well, of course, the one big question is as always – where the “Phlip” is all the money coming from - and the Minister certainly has dreamed up another cunning plan…Or as my granny used to say, money is like manure, it's only useful if spread around a bit...
Apparently people in the Middle East, Asia and somewhere else are just gagging to give us their money and although 20/20 (whatever that is) ends next year, fulfilment is seeking new directions, tourism is down, GST yields and growth are diminishing and CSR did not achieve the savings anticipated (besides which our rugger team has not yet won a match) and we have no idea how to fund the new health plan and hospital, road repairs or liquid waste treatment plant – but we do have a plan to deal with tax-avoidance and the failed “deemed distribution” policy that the EU ruled as not acceptable.
Details cannot be revealed before the budget (in spite of the need to tell States Members in time for the debate on the MTFP) of course but in broad terms it kills 2 birds with one stone…as a sort of anti-tax avoidance measure that encourages investors to pay more tax as a device to reduce their tax contribution…it still needs some fine tuning but we have every confidence of success…
And finally, following the closure of our London Jersey Finance Office we are to open a new one in the name of the States of Jersey …
This will allow the Minister (FB) to engage more often with the likes of Vince Cable, the Swedish Ambassador (who he met last week) the UK
Full details are not yet finalised but there might also be an opportunity to introduce a herd of milking Jerseys onto Hyde Park emblazoned with advertising material sponsored on a user pays basis…all subject to Data Protection Laws and Client confidentiality and all of
our International Human Rights obligations…
Any further questions before I conclude he said…at which point the Minister was reminded that it was for the Chair to close the meeting, not him…
Just a little pryke indeed…
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