JERSEY has a very bright future but faces some social problems that will require ‘political backbone’ to solve, the States were told by the Island’s outgoing Lieut-Governor this morning.

Offering a glowingly optimistic picture of a community well placed to build on its special characteristics now that the damagingly hostile politics of recent years were in the past, Air Chief Marshal Sir John Cheshire told Members: ‘If I was in your position and had to play the cards that will determine the course that Jersey takes to the future, I would be delighted with the hand I had been dealt.’ Sir John was speaking shortly before he and Lady Cheshire were due to leave for retirement in Somerset, after a farewell public walkabout in the Royal Square, at the end of his five-year term.

Describing the time he and Lady Cheshire had spent in the Island as ‘a fabulous five years’, Sir John thanked Father of the House Senator Stuart Syvret for his kind words earlier and said they believed it was they who should be displaying the gratitude and not the other way round.

Sir John said Jersey was in a league of its own as the most friendly place in the world in which they had had the privilege to live.

‘Nowhere else has come close to demonstrating the warmth of welcome, the depth of support and friendship, and the genuine help and kindness that we have found so evident here,’ he said.