Anger over the three-year plan
Thursday 11th June 2009, 3:15PM BST.
Strategic Plan passed - but divisions in the States are evident.
JERSEY’S policies for the next three years are now set – but many politicians remain unhappy with the wording and the targets in the Strategic Plan.
Following five days of debate on changes to the draft plan drawn up by the Council of Ministers, States Members voted in favour of the amended plan by 32 to 16.
However, the split among backbenchers and the Council of Ministers was evident in the closing speeches of the debate, when several Deputies criticised the plan as ‘fluffy’, ‘woolly’, ‘wishy-washy’ and ‘flawed’ – echoing the anger evident during the lively discussions on the Island’s population over the last two weeks.
Many warned that population and taxes, including GST, would both rise following the approval of Jersey’s Strategic Plan. Several Members failed with amendments to change the Island’s immigration policy. They were concerned that the plan outlined a target to keep the total population below 100,000 and argued that the figure was too high.
• See Thursday’s JEP for a full report on the Strategic Plan debate and results of the key votes.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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What a sad day for our community, the politics of avarice and materialism,fear and it’s companion secrecy,it is hard to conceive of a more arrogant and delude bunch,however the cracks are appearing and the march for electoral reform is quickening,we must have legitimate and accountable representation,or we can’t be a democracy,the thoughts of Ovid on the downfall of the Roman empire come to mind~”Plenty has made me poor”change is coming people..!
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I’m laughing in three years i will be up and gone and not have to listen to politicians screwing everbody in the name of progress!!!
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We see it all,
The states members make money, they make the decisions.
Come on Members, its time you see light on Local Businesses, why not make us all bust??
At least all of the states members will be making money right??
Jersey is a gonna and that is a fact!!
The tourists made Jersey before (a fact)
Jersey has lost Tourists now (a fact)
If Jersey were to get tourism back where are the beds for them??
It’s a joke
Once again
Pathetic
Rid of the states!
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Yes indeed the average person in Jersey is going to become much poorer to finance all these ideas of the states. Those in the middle will have less and less disposable income over the coming years and there will come a point when more will be unable to balance the books.
People have been asking me what is the point of bothering if you are in the middle as you end up paying the costs for both ends?
More now are of the opinion either become rich and get out of it, or if you don’t think you can get to the point, don’t bother and let the State pay for you!
If this was to happen I think this would then force change onto those in charge as there would be no other option would there?
As I have said before because we live in a “rampant, greedy, self serving, capitalistic, winner takes all, regardless of ethics, or morals, society” we are in for a very rough ride. It may well collapse society as we know it. Revolution tends to follow despair.
All three above probably express the views of more over here than the States realise. I don’t blame Mogit for wanting out. I see many elderly and they are struggling, as never before, to keep their heads above water. Why stay in Jersey looking forward to bleak winters, and more and more taxes, because certain groups mustn’t be upset?
This is becoming a rich man’s island and there will be no room for the average person who will be forced out, in my opinion, to seek a new life elsewhere, where it is possible to at least afford to live.
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adrian (4)i see it this way too, sadly .
the wonderfull place i grew up in,sold off and the quality of live eroded for ordinary joe.
the main reason some people are still here is friends and relatives.
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Dear,oh dear,oh dear what a depressed lot of comments!Now if you were living in some run down industrial city in some barren corner of the UK I would sympathise with all this doom and gloom but honestly cheer up. If I had a tenner for the number of times I have been told since the 1960s that Jersey is all washed up I’d be buying a penthouse suite at Westpark!All that is happening is that there is a need to diversify the economy away from too much dependance on one very successful sector. I believe that is essential to ensure ongoing employment opportunity for all sectors of the workforce not just those clever enough to climb to dizzy heights in Banking, financial services and the law!The only way to do that is build on strengths and here in Jersey we have the advantage of having a remarkable environment which offers positive opportunities for many different and constructive activities to be developed.If we have a responsibility it is to encourage the correct vision of the future to develop without wrecking that environment. We also need to develop the Island’s already wide ranging relations with other countries, not just in finance but in all areas with the accent on training, hi-tech and research type industry. We are lucky to have a first class airport, we are surrounded by an exceptional marine environment, we have agricultural strengths we can build on and we have first class tourist facilities and restaurants, and best of all we have a unique and central geographic location if we look beyond our historic close association with the UK as a target market. So cheer up please, and politicians try to allow for some new ideas in your plans, just don’t make them so focused they involve just one overambitious and expensive scheme that sinks the ship if it doesn’t work.
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