From Robert Kisch.
LORD William Wallace is quoted by Ben Quérée (JEP, 10 August) as regarding constitutional charters granted to Jersey 800 years ago by King Charles as irrelevant.

Radio Jersey quote a similar interview, which bases Lord Wallace’s concerns on the huge increase of funds passing through Jersey and the risk of ‘small jurisdiction corruption’.

He cites ‘several cases in the Caribbean where exactly that is happening. Guernsey and Jersey are both very small.’ The article ends with concern about loss of revenue to Britain by tax avoidance.

One hopes for a robust response from Jersey. We have already signed tax disclosure agreements which have cleared Jersey for the ‘white list’ of financial jurisdictions, as distinct from black and grey listed ‘tax havens’.

We have taken measures to comply with the European Union Tax Harmonisation programme (removal of the tax exempt company structure, which benefits only the UK tax take). Note, we were threatened by Dawn Primarolo, of the UK government, with sanctions if we did not comply.

We are not members of the EU and have no representation in the UK parliament. Therefore, where taxation affairs are concerned, we can rightly claim ‘No taxation without representation’.

We have our allegiance to the Crown and the UK takes responsibility for Jersey’s external affairs. It appears Lord Wallace questions whether Jersey benefits more from this than it should.

Lord Wallace should remember that the funds flowing through Jersey mostly go to the City of London for onward investment. This flow is now significant, but would surely disappear if the stability ensured by our charters is removed.

Ensuring this flow continues without interference is to our mutual benefit. This was recognised by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair during an interview in Jersey when he acknowledged that loss of the finance industry would ‘be like leaving a coal mining town without coal.’

As regards the detail of the ups and downs of our constitutional relationship, I would refer those interested to the excellent researches contained in Dr W J Heyting’s book, The Constitutional Relationship between Jersey and the UK.

This is in the States Library, together with an ‘executive summary’ in relation to the Common Market (later the European Union) published by ‘A Group of Jersey People’.
In the late sixties, there were Labour plans to make the Channel Islands part of Hampshire for all practical and taxation purposes, subsuming Jersey law.

Since then there have been various attacks on Jersey’s position by such groupings as John Christensen, Senator Stuart Syvret, MP Austen Mitchell, et al.

One hopes that Lord Wallace does not really intend to support yet another attack on Jersey’s position. That really might drive Jersey to independence.