The week ahead
In nine days islanders are being asked to choose six of us to represent the Island till 2012. At one husting, the candidates were also asked what jobs they wanted, if elected, and the answers were*:
Deputy Alan Breckon - 'not bothered'
Deputy Sarah Ferguson - Public Accounts chairman
Dr Mark Forskitt - Environment Scrutiny
Mike Higgins - Economic Development Minister
Cliff Le Clercq - Environment Minister
Nick Le Cornu - 'not a minister'
Deputy Alan Maclean - Economic Development Minister
Jeremy Macon - Education Minister
Advocate Ian Le Marquand - Home Affairs Minister
Senator Philip Ozouf - Treasury Minister
Nick Palmer - Environment Scrutiny
Mick Pashley - 'not a minister'
Chris Perkins - Environment Minister
Trevor Pitman - Privileges and Procedures chairman
Senator Paul Routier - Health Minister
Deputy Geoff Southern - Social Security Minister
Montfort Tadier - Privileges and Procedures chairman
Deputy Peter Troy - Social Security Minister
Senator Mike Vibert - Education Minister
Adrian Walsh - Environment Minister
Daniel Wimberley - Environment Minister
*source JEP
Certainly some of the successful candidates that are selected are likely to be Ministers.
Yesterday was a “meet the candidates” at the RJA&HS Show Ground. Not that many people turned up but the candidates did have a chance to chat amongst ourselves! Of the few that did turn up, I enjoyed some good conversations with some interesting people.
I popped down to the Standard Chartered Marathon, what a fantastic community event this has become. It was a shame about the weather – but it certainly did not dampened the enthusiasm of the participants. It was Jersey at its best.
The week's hustings meetings are :
Monday 6th - St Lawrence Parish Hall
Tuesday 7th - St Saviour Parish Hall (record for Talkback next Sunday)
Wednesday 8th - St John Parish Hall
Thursday 9th – Trinity Parish Hall
Friday 10th – St Ouen Parish Hall
It is going to be an interesting week.
Over the next few days I will try and amplify the questions asked at the hustings. In addition, whilst I will avoid naming individual candidates, but I do want to draw attention and challenge some of the statements/promises made by some candidates.
For the past three weeks I have heard a number of the candidates promise all sorts of wonderful sounding policies – such as “abolish GST”. Some statements which are simply untrue. For example "Tourism numbers have only been boosted by business visitors” - that is incorrect. (Visitor numbers are up by 10% over the last two years. This has been boosted by the arrival of new airlines as well as our existing carriers).
I will dedicate tomorrow’s post to answering some of these issues with some helpful facts – in a constructive way - in an attempt to raise the quality of the debate.
As we start the week, we hear of the latest financial turmoil in Iceland and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor appears to have promised to guarantee all German retail deposits.
We have an interesting week ahead in Jersey. We will be announcing our own plans today and on the back of the considerable strength of the regulatory systems, islanders should get the reassurance they need.
Statistics watch: The six monthly labour market reviews will be published on Wednesday. The challenge will be to explain that these figures are historical and the world has changed. It will be interesting to see how these figures look like in 12 months time, as we see the second effect of the credit crunch begin to affect the non-financial services economy. It is clear that the world’s financial markets are in more and more turmoil.
The island has been steered through a period of strong economic growth, leaving us better placed than most to weather the storms ahead, but the next period is going to be tougher. I still think we are incredibly well placed to benefit from difficult times.
Anyway back to the week in hand: a blog-a-day on a strategic issue - tomorrow housing - and a challenge on the promises made by others.
Philip
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