A States for the people
Tuesday 9th December 2008, 3:00PM GMT.
SENATOR Terry Le Sueur has promised a new era of consensus government after being elected as the next Chief Minister.
But he is expected to go to the States on Thursday with ministerial nominations leaning heavily on members of the old Council of Ministers and their assistant ministers. Senator Le Sueur beat Senator Alan Breckon by 36 votes to 17 yesterday to succeed Frank Walker as Jersey’s second Chief Minister. And the Senator lost no time in promising a more inclusive States Assembly.
‘If we are going to get the best results we are all going to have to work together as a team,’ he said.
‘At the moment there are polarised views – some Members think that ministers are too secretive, that they don’t listen to Scrutiny, and some assistant ministers feel that they are out in the cold.
‘We have not got an inclusive House. I have got to make sure that the team gets out and engage themselves with the rest of the States Members. I am determined that we have a government which puts the interests of the people first. And I want a States that listens, engages and talks.’
The Senator (66) has been in the States since 1987 and is the architect behind the GST proposals. He has been in charge of States finances for six years, as Finance and Economics Committee president and Treasury Minister. He will go back to the States on Thursday with his nominations for the nine ministerial positions, with the Transport Minister’s slot the only one apparently left unfilled, and will only formally take office when Members elect the final minister.
• Picture: The next Chief Minister, Terry Le Sueur (left), leaves the States Building with the unsuccessful candidate for the post, Senator Alan Breckon (00605421)
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee
JEP Jubilee Editions
Saturday 2 June: Guide to Celebrations
Wednesday 6 June: Souvenir of Events
View The Queen in Jersey supplement
Travel
To, from and around the Island
Airport Arrivals/Departures
Harbours Arrivals/Departures
Bus Information/Timetables
This is Jersey
Jersey Evening Post
Useful links
he’s been a States Member since 1987… and the way I see it he hasn’t done anything to benefit Jersey’s ordinary citizens. He’s made the lazy able to get away with it and the rich people richer and totally screwed over everyone who work for a living if they earn more than £15k a year (which is basically everyone who works full time!).
Report abuse
‘A States for the People’…I doubt that with TLS in charge. His kind of people are high earners who don’t have any hardship and that the actions of the States have little or no adverse affect.
Report abuse
I really wonder how Senator le Sueur is going to square his proposed nominations for the Council of Ministers with his wish for a more inclusive House.
The majority of them belong to the grouping within the States that he comes from and the others are at least closely allied to it.
If he continues down these lines then we will have party politics inside a decade with an establishment christian democrat party facing a liberal geen alliance.
Report abuse
“I am determined that we have a government which puts the interests of the people first. And I want a States that listens, engages and talks.”
Well prove it sir! Most of us don’t want a States governed by the ‘old boys’ who aren’t interested in listening to, engaging with, talking to and taking on board the concerns of the ordinary person on the street. I realise that you’re wanting an experienced COM, but a team with a good mix of old along with the new will be far more beneficial to the island.
Report abuse
“I am determined that we have a government which puts the interests of the people first. And I want a States that listens, engages and talks”
Really ??? …. past performance suggests otherwise !
Report abuse
If TLS says he’ll have a more inclusive states, then be careful if that flying pig takes a dump on you…but then we should get used to being dumped on from above from now on.
Report abuse
Now I’m really concerned about moving here next year, roll on my partner finishing his studies so we can leave Jersey for my home where they have an actual democracy and politicians listen to their constituents!
It’s taken me just a few months of being here to see that you are being forced to pay the salaries of some of the most arrogant, self-obsessed and, quite frankly, delusional people that I have ever seen being allowed to run a nation. Do these people ever listen to their ‘employers’? Do they heck! They run roughshod over the electorate, failing to tell you who they will vote in as CM before ensuring that their own position is secured.
God forbid that I am going to be helping pay the salaries of these imbeciles from January onwards… it sickens me to my stomach!
Seems to me that Jersey seriously needs a civil uprising as it looks like the States will just continue to ignore the needs of Jersey people as long as they get their salary each month. But that will require the majority to leave aside their apathy (presumably formed by many years of not being listened to one iota) and actually make a very vocal stand.
Report abuse
The efforts of Senator Le Sueur and his colleagues to improve the situation of the island’s richer and more successful residents should be celebrated rather than denigrated.
Such policies have proved to be one of the island’s great political success stories over the last 20 years or so and are a reminder of why he is eminently suited to be Chief Minister.
Report abuse
Whatever ‘A States for the people’ means, government has to protect the economy – no politician would or could ever do anything else. This means continuation of government of the people by the rich for the rich. Nothing will change because nothing can change. The clowns who have run the Island for the last 20 years have painted us into a corner and we are totally reliant on one industry – finance. TLS is a finance man and will not/ can not see any other way forward. This is exactly the wrong man for the times; we need a new vision for Jersey to protect and sustain us over the next 20 years, not the same disastrous addiction that has lead us to this strategic catastrophe.
Report abuse
What exactly are you proud of Proud Jerseyman?
Report abuse
You are having a laugh Proud Jerseyman?
The way you go on even the bankers will be voting JDA next time
Report abuse
Well he hasn’t listened to anything before, except pandering to the idle rich 11k residents. How he has the audacity to spout such drivel to the public he has over and over again not listened too is beyond my comprehension. The Leopard will not change his spots, and the old boys club trudges on regardless. What will it take them to listen? Thatcher-esk riots fueled by ever more taxed and annoyed public at large? Or maybe a good revolution? He cries ‘Let them eat cake!’, we cry ‘Off with his head!’.
Report abuse
Proud Jerseyman,
You are right that Senator Le Sueur has improved the situation of the rich and successful, but where is the morality in creating a better society for them and ignoring, marginalising and punishing those less fortunate?
Where will Jersey be if there is nobody that wants to work here in those menial jobs with minimum wages and substandard hovels for housing?
Will we have ghettos for the lower classes, filled with our cleaners, shop workers and all the other support workers a community needs…But of course we have that already in our States houses.
Report abuse
Le Sueur’s statement is something which has an ironic, comedy element. How can he speak of a “states for the people” when he has no public mandate whatsoever to be “chief minister”. That apart from his closed ears during the GST fiasco.
If he were bothered about the wishes of the people, he would not have run for that position with the dogged determination that he did. His new occupation of the senior office is not something which followed a proper democratic process. He should resign and seek re-election on the platform of being chief minister. The alternative is that the office will now become even less publicly recognised than it was during the Walker years!
Report abuse
How embarrising having TLS representing Jersey. We need somebody with modern ideas and has lived in the real world i.e. actually worked for a living and is willing to listen to the needs of the people of Jersey and will take action. Not just talk about and make promises which are never kept.
I cannot believe we are just going to go on with the same old same old!!!!
The residents of Jersey should be able to vote who they want as CM as States Members seem unable to do this simple task and listen to the residents of Jersey.
Report abuse
I hope that you are being sarcastic ‘proud jerseyman’
Report abuse
why cant we vote for cheif minister? other countries do!not right its done inside. should be peoples choice!!!!! only thinking of wealth! health before wealth blah blah blah!!!
Report abuse
So we have a Chief Minister that we don’t want?
If all the people that complain about our government actually voted then we may see an end to the likes of the old guard that we currenlty have in the States. Its no use moaning about the government we have and then when the elections come up vote the same old faces that you have been moaning about back in again. Look at what happened with GST if those 19,000 odd signatories had actually voted how did Ozouf, Ferguson, Routier etc get back in in the recent elections, they were all in favour of GST.
I voted in the last Senators elections and as I was not in favour of GST I made sure that the 6 candidates I voted for had not themselves voted for GST, thats the way to do it, so come on electorate!
Report abuse
I applaud Big enry’s comments, and David Le Peurian, I too voted for people OTHER than those that wanted to bring in GST, and I am sure you and I are not the only ones.
I think the general level of apathy among the electorate towards the people that govern us when it comes time to vote is a bit of a vicious circle – we don’t believe anything will change, so many of us do not vote, and then nothing changes, and so on and so forth.
Personally I think (and I’m lifting this from somebody that posted it elsewhere) I agree with the comment that it’s quite amusing that Mr Le Sueur says “some Members think that ministers are too secretive”, when the process for the voting-in of the new Chief Minister is done by ? That’s right … SECRET BALLET.
Not a problem when it suits you, is it Mr Le Sueur.
Additionally, at 66 isn’t he a bit (forgive me) old to be elected to the position of Chief Minister ? I would have thought anybody of pensionable age in an office wouldn’t necessarily be entitled to continue working past that age ? Why should being a politician be any different ?
*sigh*
Report abuse
This is a States for the people. The lefties only got in through the back door deputy votes and they did not get an enormous amount of votes to suggest they could ever represent all the people.
Report abuse
Sara, none of the candidates, right, centre or left, got a lot of votes.
Even poll toppping Ian le Marquand got a vote roughly equal to a poor showing in a County Council by election.
So none of them have what I would call a good mandate, a convincing majority on say a 70% turn out is the stuff of fantasy for Jersey politicians!
Report abuse
“A states for the people”
Has he clarified WHAT people?
Report abuse
As long as they look after my managerial role in Finance I don’t care. And all these people that claim poverty seem to forget all the hand outs they get from my taxation.
Report abuse
Sara… What point is your post trying to make? I’m unsure if you’re trying to ‘brag’ about your job (which would seem a little silly in the current financial climate, especially as the blame for it lies firmly at the feet of the finance industry) or if you just have no idea how little some people get paid for doing really important and very intellectually demanding work. But given that you put a capital ‘F’ at the start of finance you’re probably one of those that thinks finance workers are above other people… (you’re definitely in a minority there, and it’s a minority made up of only finance workers)
Maybe you forget that some of these people that ‘claim poverty’ might have paid more in taxation over the years than even you, or that you might some day need these very ‘handouts’.
Personally? If I worked in finance I would currently feel too ashamed to tell anybody what I did for a living. But then I wouldn’t work in the finance industry because it’s a morally questionable industry and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
Report abuse
Leah while i agree with your points i’m not ashamed to say i work in finance… in jersey there are two major industries you can work in, retail or finance and finance pays better. Yes some people think themselves better than others if they work in finance but that’s not all who work in finance and i think its because we had to work our butts off in school getting the grades required to work in finance.
Secondly I don’t think finance is a “questionable industry” – we work with clients who pay their taxes and we just help them invest their money wisely.
And thirdly – to emphasise the point Sara is making – my partner and i have paid taxes and social security since the age of 16 – my partner got made redundant and do you know how much support the system gives us – £34 a week! however for a couple who have never worked they get £104 a week…
who’s in real poverty here… £34 a week isn’t even enough to cover the electricity costs!
Report abuse
SARA
I agree with you.
Do your best, earn as much as you can, let our democraticly elected government spend our tax money to help the less well off. It’s the way the world goes round.
Report abuse
Big enry – sorry, but he clearly does have a mandate of sorts in that, in the last senatorial and deputy elections, the public had a good idea of who would vote for TLS to be CM and many of those candidates were elected. Also, in the sentatorals before that, we knew who would vote for Walker as CM and TLS as treasury, and those candidates got in.
As for GST, wake up and smell the coffee! When there’s a big black hole in the coffers, something has to fill it. At least TLS has pushed his solution through openly (unlike the ‘stealth’ taxes people suffer in the UK) and stuck to his convictions rather than confirming to what’s popular.
Report abuse
Leah – “finance is a morally questionable industry”. Yet its behind every loan you’ve ever taken, every mortgage, every bank account you’ve ever held and every credit card. How do you live with yourself?
Report abuse
Leah Holmes on the finance industry,
“…a morally questionable industry…”
what areas of work are not ‘morally questionable’ ? Please respond.
Report abuse
Lucy, thank you. I have been made redundant in the past and didn’t claim benefits between jobs. I could claim benefits for my health also but I don’t.
Rexel, I live with myself quite happily thank you. I made it quite clear that the people I have issue with are those high up in the finance industry, i.e. those whose greed and stupidity has caused this problem. And it is just my own opinion but I would feel embarrassed, that’s just how I would feel and I’m not going to lie about it, I certainly wouldn’t be bragging about it like Sara was! If it offends you that I would not work in your industry that’s just tough.
A mortgage is the only ‘loan’ I have ever taken out and it will hopefully be so till the day I die. It’s not as if I get a choice with a mortgage so needs must. BUT, in my life I work for and support charities where possible and help out people I know… that’s how I live with myself. I also do everything I can to not support businesses that rip people off. During my time here in Jersey I have tried to support local business rather that outsiders.
Remember that any company that has made ridiculous profits has ultimately done it by overpricing their product at some stage. That money has ultimately come from the pockets of the average person on the street (including YOU). I will support companies where the bosses are happy to just make enough to live comfortably, rather than trying to have the biggest yacht and the most expensive cars at our expense.
Report abuse
To anybody who has a hatred towards finance in Jersey. Without it no other industry would survive or do as well as they do financially. Retail, entertainment, food… they are all support industries for those who work in finance. Every town and city around the world has a key industry, ours is Finance and I am for one proud of what we have achieved. If you do not like it then what are you still doing here, or is it because despite what you say about the finance industry it has made Jersey be a very attractive alternative to live in compared to the rest of the world.
Report abuse
The world and probably Jersey as well is going to have to learn to live with a smaller and less profitable finance industry for some time to come.
Looking through the list of banks represented in Jersey, and these are top 500 banks, reveals one shattered balance sheet after another.
In the UK list alone, only Standard Chartered and HSBC are likely to pay dividends in the next year and that may be on a reduced scale.
Lloyds TSB and RBS are massively in hock to the UK government, Barclays has punishing loans to repay to the Middle East states.
Many European banks are shadows of their former selves and the US banks have balance sheets running with red ink.
Next year will see a big shake out worldwide as banks cut one of their biggest costs; people and Jersey will not be immune to this wave of cuts.
Report abuse
Terry Le Sueur has no public mandate to hold the position of Chief Minister.
Report abuse
The suggestion somewhere above that Le Sueur has a proper mandate because the electorate knew which of the recent Deputy and Senatorial candidates would back him is something which is naive and childish. We all know that would be politicians and those seeking re-election are far from transparent or reliable. We also know that Le Sueur is not a democratically elected chief minister and therefore fails to occupy that office in any politically meaningful way.
As for GST, the fact is plain enough that Le Sueur implemented the same without regard to the public wish. Only today, he was on the news brushing aside the presence of a prospective shadow cabinet with his usual disdain and, I am afraid, poorly articulated arrogance.
Report abuse
ben, the finance industry is everywhere unfortunately so where would you suggest people go?
It’s interesting that you think other industries are a support for finance because actually they are customers of finance and they pay your wages! The finance industry seems to forget it is part of the SERVICE industry… you are a mere servant to your clients without whom you wouldn’t have a job. Frankly a lot of the finance industry seems to revel in a sense of completely false importance. Getting off your high horse would be a very good idea.
Also, how you can be proud of an industry that has achieved what it has of late (ALL bad) is a joke. Your industry has overcharged clients for years. Honest, hardworking, decent people have been systematically ripped off in order to pay completely unwarranted bonuses to immoral and clearly incompetent men and women who head up these companies! NO-ONE can justify that, nor can you say that it didn’t happen because the evidence is now out there.
You work for an industry that continued to pay ridiculous salaries AND multi-million pound bonuses to people who were NOT up to the job and had only got their position through various forms of nepotism. THAT is definitely something you SHOULD be ashamed of. And unless YOU are one of those fat cats then your own salary would probably have been more had they not earned so much themselves… think on that when you’re defending these lowest, most disgusting forms of human beings.
Report abuse