What you think of the States

Saturday 27th September 2008, 9:59AM BST.

A SPECIALLY commissioned JEP survey has shown that Islanders believe that the States are doing a fairly good but not outstanding job.

The pre-election opinion poll inquiring into attitudes towards the performance of politicians in both executive and scrutiny roles suggests that they are not held in such low public esteem as is sometimes suggested.

However, the poll falls a long way short of an overwhelming endorsement of either ministers’ performance or the effectiveness of other States Members.

Undertaken on behalf of the Jersey Evening Post by professional pollsters Island Analysis and based on sound statistical principles, the poll indicates that the electorate is, at best, lukewarm about politicians’ attributes and their work for the community.

Responses record only average levels of satisfaction in the bulk of categories. A substantial proportion of those surveyed, who were aged from 16 upwards, appear to be averagely satisfied by the performance of their elected representatives, but very few gave answers which demonstrated huge enthusiasm for what has been achieved by the present administration.

A total of 16 questions, each specified by the JEP, were posed to a sample of Islanders which was weighted according to the age profile of the electorate.

The questions covered issues ranging from the effectiveness of the States to value for money in public sector spending and from the accountability of Members to the fairness of States pay.

The middle-of-the-road uniformity of responses was challenged in only a few areas. Scrutiny, for example, scored highly in terms of perceived effectiveness as an element of government. High levels of pride in the Island’s international position and identity were also expressed.

Meanwhile, over 60 per cent of those polled were opposed to political parties for Jersey and three out of every five said that they intended to vote in the Senatorial and Deputies elections.

1
Puzzled

September 30, 2008 at 4:42 pm

If you REALLY want to know what people think as opposed to stopping people that are busy running back and forth through the town on their lunchbreaks to ask them 20 (sorry … 16) questions, why not post such a poll online ?

That way people can review the questions and come back to you when they have sufficient time to devote to answering them fully …

… nobody I know was asked to partake in this poll, as I feel sure the results would have upset the apparently placid group of people that answered had they been …

… just read people’s comments on any of the GST threads on this site, and I think you’ll see that the general populace Jersey is FAR from happy at the way things are currently being operated …

… and tonight’s headline ? Oh, shocking … bread and milk are now going up – never saw THAT one coming … honestly the reasons for remaining in Jersey accrue by the DAY.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that sometimes difficult decisions have to be made. There are, after all, a HUGE amount of considerations that affect each and every one of us on a day-to-day basis, but REALLY … when all is said and done, they could have done a better job than this.

Politicians are elected to represent the people and their interests. When you start to ignore what the people are telling you (read … my … lips … WE DO NOT WANT GST. I personally would rather pay … say … 22% income tax than have to pay the INSULT that is GST, as it WILL go up – you KNOW it will, until it sloooooowly reaches … ooh look ! VAT !!), then you WILL ultimately reap the whirlwind for it, and no amount of “ah, but … yes, but” or “oh LOOK OVER HERE !!” tricks will detract from what has been a very disappointing set of decisions in recent times, by people that PURPORT to hold the island’s best interests at heart, and are (unfortunately) in charge of the day-to-day lives of others.

All I can say is candidates ? Those of you that DO get elected ?? Learn from the mistakes of your predecessors, and FIX them !!

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2
Nellie Macon

October 1, 2008 at 2:05 pm

Puzzled – If you really want these problems addressed then make sure you don’t vote for the people who brought in these policies in the first place. Who are currently pushing for harbour dues to go up by 2.5%(the Economics Department – and who are the Senator and Deputy in charge of that?). Most of our food is shipped in so prices are bound to go up by another 2.5% to make up for this rise in harbour dues. Our harbour dues are higher than the Port of London. This is how our present government treats its own people even when they know costs are spiralling out of control. Raising the Low Income Allowance does not help the middle taxpayers who foot the bill for almost everything. Make your vote count and get some new faces into the States before its too late.

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3
Kaspar

October 2, 2008 at 10:19 pm

My sister told me a nice saying today…

Pollsters don’t go up hills.

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