This Is Jersey

From Clifford Wilson.
WELL, quelle surprise – ‘GST to be abolished by ministers on essential food items’.
A cynic might be forgiven for expanding a theory that this timely action (electorally speaking) has been taken by our elected representatives merely to ameliorate the most considerable unpopularity that they have garnered by having introduced GST on foodstuffs in the first place (ministers Kinnard and Shenton excluded).
Let us hope that our electorate will take very careful note of this most transparent ploy when completing their ballot papers at the forthcoming autumn elections and that they will accord their votes to those who always sincerely opposed the introduction of GST on food. It is indeed a disgrace and somewhat perverse, that this Island which appears to so overtly pride itself as being perceived to be very rich, should allow itself to be governed by a political body that has sought, despite very widespread protest from all sectors of the community, to levy against the average man in the street, a punitive tax on that most essential of essentials – food. Any submissions now made that our government is now actually listening to public needs and desires are, I think, vacuous in the extreme and nothing more, in my view, than a cynical ploy to get re-elected.
The outcome of the elections will I hope confirm that we are not that naïve.
It is, furthermore, time to seriously investigate abolishing GST on a targeted range of other goods and services. The introduction of GST will undoubtedly go down as one of the beacons of ministerial governance, but in a negative sense. Ministerial governance is in various vital ways failing abysmally the people of Jersey. The pursuit of this form of governance coupled to a complete absence of party politics serves to dilute and be detrimental to accepted democratic processes. This was in part forewarned by the late Sir Peter Crill, a man of impeccable integrity, proven good judgment and well-deserved respect from all sectors of our community.
It is high time that we, the electorate of this Island, indulge in a searching reality check and remind ourselves of how our previous non-ministerial political system of government then sought to meet our collective needs and aspirations. Drawing from the words of, I believe, an academic of immediate post revolutionary Russia, ‘a nation that does not know its past cannot know its future’. These words of nearly a century past are as applicable to Jersey now as to anywhere else, particularly in the light of present local and domestic issues, not least the ongoing child abuse scandal and associated debacles.
The Jersey political system together with its judicial system has probably never before come under such intense and critical investigative scrutiny by those who sit in power beyond our shores. I for one doubt that ministerial governance in its present form will on certain specific counts meet the highest democratic ideals that are expected. And I believe that the present form of ministerial governance should be abolished at the earliest opportunity.

Article posted on 28th August, 2008 - 2.59pm