Put your House in order

Tuesday 3rd November 2009, 3:00PM GMT.

From Terry Noel.
I READ with interest of Deputy Trevor Pitman’s drive to rid the States House of Blackberry devices and other such implements (JEP, 30 October) encouraging me to respond to something I should have done last week.

As a staff representative for our department’s association, I attended last Wednesday’s States debate on the proposal to restore the public sector’s rights to free collective bargaining for all associations.

The discussion included a derogatory comment from one particular Constable that staff representatives should be using their time more efficiently, rather than attending State debates. This insensitive remark displayed an attitude of total ignorance of how much free time staff reps give for the benefit of their colleagues.

Instead of spending quality time with my wife and family, which to me as a shift-worker is very precious, I instead spent the day watching and listening intently to every speech that was made by various politicians covering the fors and againsts to Deputy Shona Pitman’s proposal. Not so for many of our politicians, however, who seemed happy to drift in and out of the debate, missing out on potentially important detail.

Then of course we have the Blackberry issue; I spotted at least six Members of the House tapping away on their devices during the course of the day showing complete lack of interest in individuals speaking.

After the break for lunch, it got more entertaining as one Member, having either got bored or finished with the crossword in his national paper, turned to read the JEP, joined by another four or five Members.

The finale to this was watching the Chief Minister, after giving his speech for the day to the House, display contempt for Deputy Southern by walking out as he stood up to say his bit.

Is this the way we, as taxpayers, expect our voted politicians to behave? It is no wonder extensive mistakes have been made resulting in overspend and lost euro-deals etc.

The people who run our Island are very quick to imply that the public sector workforce is overpaid and not deserving of their posts; they are very quick to enforce ‘efficiency savings’ (that’s cuts, by the way) on our chief officers, resulting in drastically under-funded departments that would crumble without the goodwill of the workforce; they are very quick to make promises of no job cuts if the public sector accepts the pay freeze only for departments to be forced to use terms like ‘managed vacancies’ and ‘natural wastage’ through retirement – they are still job cuts, no matter how it is termed.

I really think it’s time for them to get their own House in order and make some of their own efficiency savings, because it is not the departments that are wasting valuable taxpayers’ money that also foots the bills for these wonderful electronic devices.

1
Mr Whymper.

November 3, 2009 at 3:23 pm

This is an outrage. However it does not really come as a surprise. If the Members are too busy reading the paper, fiddling with e-mails or recovering from lunch, it can easily be seen how incorrect buttons are pressed for example.

It also highlights the divisions within the ranks of our leaders. And there we have root cause of the majority of Jersey’s problems. They need to work as a unit, not individuals. As they say there is no ‘I’ in team!!!

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2
Sara

November 3, 2009 at 5:25 pm

You may have listened in on one particular debate, however over the last 9 months or so I have tuned in on the radio to listen to most States sittings and I can assure you that it’s a real eye opener to the time wasted on silly little statements. I have to say I too get bored of the relentless waffle of many States members – and it’s always the same ones that make me grab the washing up gloves so that I can do something more interesting! So no I dont’t think it’s at all surprising that some people feel that their time is better spent on their blackberries.

Dont’t forget that blackberries are an extremely usfull funtion in any business. When in meetings I used to reply to e-mails as and when. It enabled me to permform many more functions than I would have been able to if I had not had it with me during those meetings.

I feel there is a tad bit of jealousy there – I suspect that this proposition would not be coming up if certain states members themselves had a blackberry and it wasn’t just the COM!

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3
Leah Holmes

November 5, 2009 at 6:51 pm

Sara #2, if those emails are relevant to the meeting then fine, but otherwise be at the meeting (fully) or don’t! If your requirement there is so little that you don’t even have to pay attention then actually you are not required at all and should make that clear to whoever commanded you to be there. I hardly think this is down to jealousy.

These people are PAID by us to be in these meetings and to listen thoroughly and know what they are voting on. They cannot know what information they are missing out on if they don’t pay attention to start with. The fact that some of it is waffle is a different issue altogether (although it’s one that undoubtedly needs dealt with).

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