THE reaction of Economic Development Minister Alan Maclean to allegations against Jersey Finance is predictable, but nevertheless somewhat economical with the truth.

In response to the suggestion of brave new Senator Francis Le Gresley that Jersey Finance had been trying to influence the States, Senator Maclean was adamant that it was ‘unlikely’ that the Treasury Minister would be swayed by any comments from the finance industry.I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Actually it isn’t often that the financial arm of the Business Party put their heads as far above the parapet as they did this week (although I maintain that they are certainly among the most active behind the scenes), but any sniff of cuts to their States grant is bound to bring them out fighting.

So on Tuesday the organisation which fronts the Island’s biggest industry sent out a press release in advance of Tuesday’s States sitting with some ‘key facts to better inform the debate’ – a nifty piece of PR-speak, if ever I saw one.
In essence, their message is the same as that voiced simultaneously by Guernsey’s finance sector: push up taxes and the finance industry will just up and flee.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the same threat over the past few years. In fact, I recall one influential chap who constructed a worst-case scenario by describing in graphic detail what the Island would look like without its financial services props. He envisaged that a lot of people would be out of work, there would be cuts to the Health and Social Services budgets and – heavens above – some of our best restaurants would have to shut up shop, buildings would be left unfinished and so forth.

In truth, it was a vision not too dissimilar from the one we are currently living through (including the loss of some good restaurants), although in the event this has happened not because finance has upped and gone, but because of a global recession brought about by, in large measure, the greed of the global finance industry and the over-willingness of global governments to comply with its demands. It brings to mind the familiar tale of the boy who kept crying wolf.

There was no wolf, and in the end people got fed up with running to check whether or not the threat was real or imagined. One day a wolf did indeed appear on the scene. No one came when the boy cried out.

To be honest, I now have a similar reaction whenever I hear these threats of departure coming from the financial services industry. Look through the annals of the JEP and you can find the same repeated statements dating from as far back as the 1960s. Do something we don’t approve of, they said time and time again, and we’ll up and go.

But the industry is still here. By and large, those very same pundits are still here, too.