WITH the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Fred Goodwin, still in line to receive a pension of almost £700,000 a year, anger and frustration are likely to be among the emotions experienced by Royal Bank of Scotland International staff who are about to lose their jobs.

Those under the shadow of redundancy will also be fearful of what the future might hold. In the present economic climate the prospects of re-employment must be slimmer than is ordinarily the case. In addition, Jersey’s financial provision for the unemployed has nothing like the certainty built into the UK system.

Meanwhile, fears for the future will by no means be limited to those whose jobs are currently on the line. The situation at RBSI serves to reinforce the general feeling that the worst is far from over on the economic front. Even if this Island is better equipped than most communities to brave the storm, it is clear that we shall be anything but unscathed.

This has been emphasised by Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf, who has pointed to the 1,000 job losses that the Island experienced in the last major downturn. Realistically and prudently, he refuses to be drawn on how many jobs might be lost this time. However, even if he subscribes to the eminently sensible view that alarmist talk can only make matters worse, he acknowledges that government must ‘prepare people for some difficult months’.

But government must do more than merely urge Islanders to brace themselves for the consequences of the credit crunch and the global downturn. As the Council of Ministers has indicated, now, perhaps more than at any other time in the recent history of the Island, is a time for intervention – and rapid intervention at that.

We have already been told that the Stabilisation Fund, which amounts to some £140 million, is going to be used to help minimise recessionary effects. We have also been told that the wise heads of the Fiscal Policy Panel will be asked to recommend policies that are ‘timely, targeted and temporary’, but, so far, the specifics remain hazy.

There will, no doubt, be many potential projects competing for a share of the £140 million, but it is to be hoped that government and their advisers will bear the plight of those most directly influenced by recession – those who are newly jobless – firmly in mind as plans for remedial action develop.