From Rob Cottignies.
I WRITE in response to a letter a few months ago indicating a reader’s disgust at the repeated use of the phrase ‘Jersey is a centre of excellence’. Let’s not kid ourselves – the only thing Jersey is excelling at currently is failure.

• Failure to implement any pioneering strategies for combating waste and pollution.
• Failure to rein in an out-of-control government on a spend-happy, wasteful journey of destruction.
• Failure to stand up and be counted, when that same government has taken more money from us on goods and services to cover the bottomless pit their spending creates.
• Failure to address the issue of an irreparably damaged tourist reputation.

And the list goes on. As a microcosm of cities everywhere, with a richer general community than almost anywhere else in the world, Jersey should be at the cutting edge of so many strategies. We could have easily had an entirely emissions-free bus service by now. We could have become almost entirely self-sufficient in terms of our energy requirements.

Who in the world has a better combination of tidal range, strong winds and hours of sunshine than us? We could have subsidised airport taxes so that the idea of coming here wouldn’t be asking people to remortgage their homes. That would have put us in the same tourist bracket as so many more attractive destinations.

We could have done many things, but we have become lazy and have come to rely on the financial sector to be our only bastion among a plethora of mediocrity.

Where will it end? Perhaps with a mass exodus as a result of GST reaching 20%?
Sable d’Or,
Grande Route de la Côte,
St Clement.