RSSFROM the outside, to all intents and purposes, the acts of a) reviewing the effects of 10% cuts to the public sector because you want to make them, and b) reviewing the effects of 10% cuts because you don’t want to make them, appear to be exactly the same.
THERE are people who knew Christopher Lakeman much better than I did, and who knew him far longer, who are more appropriately placed to offer tribute to him.
THESE are the three great fibs of Jersey politics:
• I can make government more efficient.
•We must keep Jersey special.
•The States must work more closely with Guernsey.
LAST week’s States sitting was like some awful, twisted version of The X Factor – 53 politicians all striving to make the biggest possible hash of the fairly straightforward tasks in front of them.
Imagine, if you will, the leader of the free world rising early in the White House, listening attentively to his morning security briefing, defusing a burgeoning crisis in Mexico during a fraught phone call over coffee, and heading to his first morning appointment.
YOU’LL have been glued to your radio all week, no doubt, following the progress of the States. I can’t say I blame you. Whether ministers should get free BlackBerrys, the size of the quorum, the make-up of a panel reviewing the future of Fort Regent – these are big questions that affect every single one [...]
AND so, in a year in which the retirement age could rise, taxes could go up and services could be cut, what weighty matters occupy the parliament in their first sitting?
IT was a strange coalition that handed ministers an embarrassing defeat over duty hikes in the Budget last week: some came from the left, some came from the right, and some came along because they don’t like the Treasury Minister.
IT’S a funny thing, your first States sitting. The first one that I remember doing was a Budget meeting, probably in 2000 or 2001, and being confused about how States spending rose relentlessly without anything significant to show for it. I suppose I still am.
Cycle licences come up for debate in just over a month – so we get to do it all again
STRANGE as last week in the States was, a stranger thing happened after I got back to the office on Wednesday.