1

Mark

Ghorst for chief minister, I’d be on the first flight out, the mess he has made during his stint at social security, giving benefits to just about anyone these days yet making the fools who work have to do 2 more years of work and pay more social! I hope the voting public do not elect this fool

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3

COM-mentator

The circle of fools is almost complete.

All we need is Cohen the Barbarian to throw his hat into the ring, Gorst will split the Le Marquand vote and Ozouf will get in.

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5

Jerry Gosselin

“…giving benefits to just about anyone these days yet making the fools who work have to do 2 more years of work and pay more social!” – Mark (1).

Actually if you had the slightest idea what Ian Gorst has been doing for the last 3 years you would realise that he (together with his close political ally, Francis Le Gresley MBE) has been extremely active in cutting benefits to the most vulnerable- for example, an estimated 104 unemployed teenagers lost all their benefits just 3 weeks ago and Gorst and Le Gresley will be targetting survivors’ benefits next year, amongst other things. Christmas Bonus payments to pensioners have been slashed for 2011 and Jersey pensioners living outside the island have lost their bonuses for good.

Furthermore, the majority of registered unemployed still continue to get billed at the top rate for social security contributions and if they don’t pay (or can’t pay), their pension record suffers. Only a minority get their contributions credited and, even then, only for a very short amount of time, so it is not only people ‘who work’ that have to pay soc sec, as you foolishly claim.

Now contrast this with Gorst’s chairmanship of the Overseas Aid Commission: far from looking for any cutbacks there, Gorst has not opposed the existing States decision to keep increasing the overseas aid budget by an inflation-busting 5% per year. If he is happy for our own needy to feel the pain then why won’t he apply the same principles to the poor that we pay for abroad?

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7

A G

Gorst was quoted not so long ago as saying Jersey was not in a bad position and that people/businesses were not suffering. He was saying that the economy was in a good position. All the above contradicts what Mervyn King, Governor Bank of England says about future economic conditions and that we are likely to find it a lot harder in the foreseeable future.

Mr Gorst is out of touch with reality. Who would you believe?

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