From John Henwood.
IN the film Groundhog Day actor Bill Murray’s character finds himself condemned to live the same events over and over again.

Having read Deputy Carolyn Labey’s proposal to remove GST from food and domestic heating (JEP, 13 March) I know exactly how he felt.

This will be the fifth time the States has debated exemptions, the last one having occurred what seems like yesterday. Granted the rare privilege of two pages to set out her case, it was disappointing that Deputy Labey could not put forward a single new argument in support of her proposition.

So why go there again? The answer seems to lie in political opportunism. Candidates at last year’s round of elections tut-tutted about GST because that’s what candidates do about taxation at election time and Deputy Labey admits trying to capitalise on that effect. That does not seem a very statesmanlike – sorry, in this politically correct era that should be stateswomanlike – use of government process.

On the topic of PC, were Deputy Labey to succeed how long would it be, I wonder, before Dr Rosemary Geller, Jersey’s nanny, called for the reintroduction of tax on crisps, sweets, chocolate, biscuits, cake, cream, butter, burgers, chips – in short all those foods containing what she regards as unhealthy quantities of salt, sugar and fat.

Deputy Labey contends that her exclusions would not create additional administrative cost; on this she’s wrong. The Treasury estimate three additional civil service posts, so we’ll have that cost to start; previous experience suggests exclusions will create a far greater burden, just as they have in the UK, where the infamous wrangle as to whether a Jaffa Cake was in fact a biscuit ran and ran while the cost of legal advice mounted ever higher. That’s what happens when you start to pick and choose exclusions.

Let us not forget where all this started, with a need to raise additional revenue. That need is greater now than when the draft fiscal strategy first mooted GST as the ‘least worst’ option. No one wants new taxes, but GST has been introduced with the minimum of fuss because it was kept simple, and simple it should stay.

One final point: with GST universally applied, everyone in Jersey, income taxpayer or not, makes a contribution, however small, to the cost of the public services we all consume. That is an important step on the road to a truly inclusive society.

The States must break free from Groundhog Day and move on to new and more important business.
Les Carrières,
Route du Mont Mado,
St John.