From Bob Gaiger, former Comptroller of Income Tax.
SOME interesting facts were released in the JEP of Saturday 16 January (a good day to bury bad news?).

Sufficient swine flu vaccine has been bought to give the entire population two injections each. I reckon that is 180,000 treatments. Then it was found that, infants apart, each individual needed only one injection. Given a take-up figure of 42%, I estimate we have at least 140,000 jabs left over.

It will be impossible to recoup the money spent because there is already an over-supply in the developed world. The take-up of less than one half does not surprise me. I have several friends and acquaintances who would never accept vaccination. I imagine we all know people like that. Factor in the understandable concern that the swine flu vaccine has been fast-tracked past the usual tests, and 100% looks even more ludicrous as a target.

Questions that come to mind are:
• As a comparator, what percentage of those recommended the annual (seasonal) flu jab accept it?
• What were the political masters of the Medical Officer of Health thinking when they authorised the purchase of sufficient vaccine to treat 100% of the population?
• What was the cost of the vaccine?
• When was it decided that only one jab was needed?

We are being squeezed by higher taxation and pay freezes. As a result, all but the wealthy are cutting back on their expenditure. How is it that the MoH can get away with an overspend on this scale? Where is the mechanism that restricts public expenditure in the same way that private expenditure is being squeezed?

It may not sound like it but I remain, by and large, a fan of our government’s fiscal policy. The Island will benefit by the downward pressure on inflation. But it will mean real suffering as businesses retrench or close down and people lose their livelihoods.

From my point of view, all the agony is being piled on people of middle and modest incomes while the States continues its profligate ways. There must be no new taxes until the taxpayer is convinced that States spending is under proper control.