If there’s one thing I try to do in this column, it’s present an alternative view. It may not always be popular, appreciated or even feasible, but it is hopefully different to mainstream thinking. It’s certainly not just an opportunity to moan.

A decent debate about the many problems facing the Island is now more necessary than ever, but we’re not getting it. That applies particularly to the States where only two voices are ever heard – the Establishment and the Anti-Establishment. The Establishment (mainly the Council of Ministers) will tell us that everything is under control and our economy is strong.

The Anti-Establishment (those who would argue against anything the COM says) tell us that very little is right and dramatic changes in policy are needed, even if they haven’t actually got a solution themselves.

This simplification is grossly unfair to both groups, but nobody said that life is supposed to be fair.

Sometimes presenting an alternative view might put me into the same category as those islanders who seem to do little else but moan. Now, of course, we also have people moaning about people who moan. But I’ve got a little moan about the moaner who moaned about people who moan. I hope that’s clear.

I’m referring to the author of a recent letter to the Editor of this newspaper that urged readers not to knock moaning – it’s what makes Britain great, he wrote. I’ll ignore the fact that perhaps the British have more to moan about than most, and simply say that moaning is OK so long as it is justified and based on evidence. Unfortunately so much of the moaning we hear in Jersey is the result of nothing more than prejudice, lack of understanding and, in many cases, a complete unwillingness to consider other people’s views. I hope I will never be included in those categories.

In any other society this moaning – justified or not – would be directed at the government, but as we don’t have a normal government we can get rid of when we want to, we target ‘the States’ instead, whatever that means.

However, true to my contrarian view of things, I would have to say that ‘the States’ are doing a pretty good job in very difficult circumstances. Their heart is certainly in the right place even if sometimes we have to question the location of their brains.

My primary moan, however, is that the two opposing views we hear all the time have tended to become hardened. When the Establishment get attacked all of the time, they start to get defensive and begin circling the wagons. The conviction that what you are doing is the right thing tends to become stronger, even if the evidence gets weaker. It makes you less likely to look at the alternatives because that might just show up weakness in your arguments.

And that is the pickle I think the States have got themselves into.
In the face of often-unjustified criticism and almost continuous attack, the views of the Establishment have hardened and there’s little evidence of willingness to look for alternative solutions particularly to our current economic problems. Quite rightly, the Council of Ministers acted quickly to develop a strategy designed to help Jersey survive the recession. I personally think they didn’t get it quite right, but I can’t fault them for their speed or their determination in implementing what are reasonable policies even if I think they are somewhat flawed.

As regular readers will know only too well, my principle moan is that these policies have concentrated almost entirely on cutting States spending because that goes down well with the business lobbies that have the ear of the Council of Ministers.
The much-lauded fiscal stimulus package was also little more than a sticking plaster designed to save jobs in the short term. That’s no bad thing, of course, except many of those jobs were in companies that couldn’t cope with a recession whereas other companies that were efficient and strong enough to survive, received no help at all.

The States workforce has also been decimated because, frankly, it was undervalued. The so-called voluntary redundancy programme has resulted in the loss of an enormous amount of skills and experience. However as the business community rarely acknowledges the importance of an efficient and motivated public service, that doesn’t seem to matter to ‘the government’.

Indeed it was interesting to hear a senior minister this week praise the finance industry for retaining most of its staff during difficult times so that it would be ready for when the economy picks up. It’s a pity the States didn’t have the same attitude.

However I suppose we have to congratulate the States on the success of the voluntary redundancy programme in reducing the number of people on their payroll. They could hardly wait to get out of the door because of being demotivated and devalued. But a modern economy looking to the future apparently doesn’t need all these public servants cluttering the place up, so that’s no great loss.

Then, of course, we have the tremendous determination to solve our economic problems by trying to grow the economy. Readers may detect a certain amount of scorn in that statement but I have to accept that you can’t grow an economy if all you’re concentrating on is cutting the public sector. It’s true that some money has gone into helping the finance sector to diversify, but not nearly enough to make much of a difference. More money has also gone into training but that should have been the case recession or no recession.

Perhaps proof of the determination of the States to solve our economic problems is the new economic growth plan which has yet to be agreed. No doubt it will produce results in about five to ten years.

The States have had their hands tied, of course, because they don’t have the money to invest in the economy or provide a public service commensurate with the Island’s wealth. Raising taxes even modestly is greeted like the end of the world by some and the States are scared witless by borrowing.

It’s painfully obvious that unreasonable tax increases have to be avoided like the plague, but a modest amount of debt that we can afford to service is not Armageddon. One minister said that we must not ‘pile on’ public debt, but that’s very difficult when you have no existing debt to pile anything on to. However he is right to say that the absence of any public debt is something to be proud of. Unfortunately this has become dogma that limits our ability to react in unusual and difficult situations.

But then I hope no one thinks I’m moaning.

Peter Body is the editor of Business Brief magazine