It must be very frustrating being at the head of an organisation like Jersey Finance. If you’re not slogging around the world spreading a positive message about the Island’s finance industry, you are having to face a barrage of comments from prejudiced tax lobbyists and obviously ill informed journalists.

THE election of a socialist president in France has hardly been greeted with joy in Britain or Jersey. François Hollande remains a bit of a mystery this side of the Channel, and what little we’ve heard from him so far doesn’t exactly sound appealing, particularly to bankers and the wealthy, both groups of people who [...]

MAYBE it’s because we are Islanders, and therefore a little vulnerable, that we tend to panic easily.

LAST Friday’s headline in this newspaper said it succinctly: ‘Outdated States wasting millions, says new HR head’.

NO MAN is an island, and no island is entire of itself. Jersey certainly can’t afford to assume that it can ignore what’s going on around it and believe it is somehow immune from global trends and challenges.

Jersey may be a tiny island, but its reputation is much bigger than its size. People the world over know of Jersey because of cows, cardigans and cash. Most, however, are blissfully unaware of its existence.

IS anybody else fed up with waiting for Jersey’s new economic growth plan from the Economic Development department? I thought they were about to excite us all by publishing the plan, which has been discussed, analysed and consulted upon at length. But no, they are keeping us waiting.

THE advantage of being a cynic is that you are rarely surprised by bad news. You rather tend to expect it.

BIT by bit, the Treasury Minister and his colleagues on the Council of Ministers are loosening the purse strings.

IF research in Guernsey is anything to go by, there are a very large number of opportunities available for Jersey to grow its economy.

YOU have to feel sorry for our political leaders. They do the democratic thing by drawing up policies and inviting the electorate to comment, and what do they get?

REGULAR readers will know that this column has often criticised States policies on public spending and tax.