From Clive Spears, president, Jersey Chamber of Commerce
I AM moved to respond not only by my own consternation but by that of many of my council members to the recent column by Peter Body concerning the issue of recession wherein disparaging remarks were made about professional bodies including the Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

Such remarks centred on our inability to produce positive views in this current unprecedented environment or the likelihood of pigs taking to the air.

It is of course recognised by the Chamber that Mr Body has had us fairly consistently in his sights for a period of years – arguing for more spending because the people and government want it as opposed to a view we have advanced for a number of years which centres on our fears concerning an ever-growing States spending budget becoming more and more difficult to control, which will eventually hit severe budgetary difficulties in the event of any downturn.

Readers might have noticed ‘even’ the Chamber of Commerce had moderated its view to a point, asking that the door be closed on further spending without being over insistent on actual cuts, because until we wean our government off the thirst to spend, any likelihood of cutting spending is quite alien to the psyche. In the meantime, Mr Body advances a very well-worn strategy of the glass being half full rather than empty, which is a well-rehearsed approach among commentators and politicians when trying to distract from the core of an issue.
It’s a fair strategy for individual problems or short-term issues, but it is misplaced in the face of the profound strategic spending issues Jersey faces as recession starts to bite around the world. Mr Body in a previous article chose to snipe at the Chamber on the hair-splitting point of what the technical definition of recession is.

I think anyone reading the national dailies can work out how profound issues really are and pot shots at the Chamber have been proven to be entirely inappropriate as the world scene has unfolded over the past few weeks.

I do not believe anyone can be other than deeply shocked at current events. Even in the face of such damning evidence, Mr Body continues to treat the Chamber’s views in a coconut shy fashion, apparently in the interests of encouraging debate.

Yet I fail to see beyond an emotional three-card trick where the value of that debate now stems from. We have warned of the possibilities of what is now coming to pass over many months and a little recognition of such would not go amiss.

But no, we stoop to the old half-glass defence. On the same day as Mr Body published his column, we advanced our concerns regarding the structural risks confronting Jersey and how delicately our finances were exposed to small downturns in income or upturns in spending resulting in quite severe deficits for the States.

The clear message here is that the first fundamental that every minister, businessman and member of the public has to understand is that the room for extra spending, unless we all want higher taxes, is nil. It is the duty of Chamber to ensure all are alert to what has been a profound and fast moving economic climate.

Yet I still see ministers even in the last week wanting to spend more, which has to be madness given the position we currently face. The figures advanced in the Budget, if we are very very fortunate, might just see us by but any small departure will lead to deficits and higher taxes.

As GST is virtually the only viable tax lever government can pull presently and deficits could hit tens if not a hundred million pounds, I ask readers to contemplate which GST rate would you choose between three per cent and 15 per cent or will you just live with the glass-half-full defence or actually do something about the problem.

It takes a little courage in one’s convictions to tell it as it is, or very possibly how it might be – but the glass-half-full defence takes little conviction at all.

So this porcine is keeping his trotters firmly on the ground and, ministers, please stop spending because there is, or very well might not be, anything left to spend, unless you wish to be the perpetrators of even higher taxes.
25 Pier Road,
St Helier