From Kenneth Godfray.
BAD government has taken us from the lowest to the highest cost of living in a short space of time, which shows us beyond doubt that we are in crisis and need to change our government before it is too late.

Apathy at the polls stops us doing this. The failed 19,000-signature petition and the Treasury Minister’s statement that even with 100,000 signatures GST would still have gone through are proof that we need the same determination as our government has shown in making the less well off, pensioners and the poor here pay more so that the wealthy and finance can continue to pay less tax and make more money.

Only such determination by everyone at the polls can change this. It is our only means of salvation from a self-serving government. We should not vote for those known to have failed us, especially the Council of Ministers.
I have been searching for a word to collectively describe the Council of Ministers and have come up with ‘traitors’. The dictionary says a traitor is a person guilty of treason or treachery in betrayal of friends, country or cause. That, in my view, is precisely what they have done by their loyalty to the finance sector rather than to the Islanders who gave them their power and whom they pledged to serve.

It is obvious to most of us that we have become a dictatorship. Unless proposed or approved by the Council of Ministers, it does not happen. We are a democracy in name only. Our small size controls so many things, including our style of government. The most appropriate for us is that which served us well for many years, by committee, under which we prospered with low taxes and cost of living and were a world leader in tourism.

What has ministerial government achieved? It has given politicians dictatorial powers, which in my opinion is the only reason for it, at astronomical cost. Tourism, as we all know, was our benefactor, made us prosperous and was the cause of over-population.

Prosperity also attracted finance, which surprises me. Common sense dictates that over-population causes housing problems and will be a deterrent to an industry dependent on expansion for success. Astonishingly, they got all they wanted and more, replacing tourism as our premier industry.

We are now totally dependent on finance, against the wishes of the people and against growing competition. The full impact of that is to come in January 2009, when corporation tax is abolished, a great loss of tax from those well able to afford it, placing the burden of loss on the less well-off and pensioners, thanks to the Council of Ministers, who refuse to lower their ever-increasing wasteful expenditure.

This is an appalling act of injustice, as is GST, simply to make finance more competitive at our expense, not theirs.
To add to that, we have the Esplanade plan for a costly finance centre in an area known for flooding, causing ten years or more of risk and inconvenience in a climate of world recession.

Because of bad government policy, most of us are now finding it difficult to make ends meet, let alone saving for the future, but Jersey is still a wealthy Island, and finance, the wealthy and high earners are still doing nicely at the expense of the rest of us. We have to pay more, suffer cutbacks on everything and, worse, we are brainwashed into believing that finance leaving Jersey would be disastrous.

Unless and until great changes are made, more disaster will follow. We must show we care enough to stop it happening. We are members of ATTAC, who are members of Tax Justice Network, who deal in fact, not spin, although the Council of Ministers attempt to ridicule them, without success. Jersey and its people deserve better. The elections, the most important ever, are the only way to halt our downward spiral. Apathy at the polls is not good. It is imperative that all entitled to vote should do so.

We should have our own manifesto of what we want for Jersey and make sure those we elect honour it. It can be done. Let’s make sure of it.
Soleil d’Or,
Manor Court,
Undercliffe Road,
St Helier.