There are, by all accounts, two clear camps. And the one that disagrees with Senator Ian Gorst’s wish to bring his friend and ally back into the fold has sparked efforts to force a Vote of Confidence against him.
The motion – I understand – will be brought by a notoriously spiky politician who’s not afraid of ruffling feathers and doesn’t sit in the Council of Ministers, but it is being actively backed by at least one member of the top table.
As I read it, it’s designed to achieve one of two things – both of which point to a power struggle at the top of government. With a year to go until the next election, it’s either a way of causing serious discomfort for the Chief Minister when the Vote of Confidence is made public to diminish his power base and allow a pretender to the throne to take the top job, or it’s to force him to back down on any attempt to bring Senator Ozouf back into the fold.
This has the potential to get messier and messier. With more people realising the Chief Minister’s assertion that the latest JIF report exonerates Senator Ozouf is actually tosh, and that placing only Senators Farnham and Maclean in the firing line with a formal slap on the wrists is something of a distraction technique. There are a number of people who are far from happy with the Chief Minister’s actions.
The next couple of weeks could be critical in determining both Senator Gorst’s future and, perhaps, his legacy.
THERE’S been much talk this week about the pay and perks package enjoyed by Jersey Development Company boss Lee Henry. The latest annual report from the States quango shows it added up to a tidy £207,185 last year, up 14 per cent from the £181,656 of 2015.
A quick look at the pay of those at the top of other States-owned entities reveals a £174,000 package for the boss of Jersey Water last year, a 5 per cent annual increase, and £351,000 for the man in charge at JT in 2015 (the latest published accounts) versus £258,000 the previous year. That’s a 36 per cent jump.
I make no judgement on whether or not these people are worth what they earn. At the end of the day, they’re in important and high-pressure jobs, and if they’re contributing to success it deserves to be rewarded.
But it struck me that the States of Jersey may want to consider the influence it can bring to bear on excessive pay rises of the companies and utilities it owns when it’s asking those in the public sector to accept, in some cases, a pay freeze or a pay rise that doesn’t keep up with the cost of living.
As has been widely reported, the gulf between rich and poor in Jersey is growing. Even modest attempts to show a willingness to bridge that divide would, surely, be a welcome first step.
POLITICAL promises in Jersey are a funny old thing. Without proper party politics, and with a political system that isn’t set up to automatically allow a party with a majority to rule the roost in parliament, manifestos containing specific promises are usually not worth the paper they’re written on.
I tend to have more faith in the ones that give you a sense of an individual’s broad stance on issues. That’s much more realistic.
Earlier this week, Reform Jersey – the only registered political party with a small handful of members elected to the States – unveiled a couple of policies to mark the 12-month countdown to the day some of us will remember to cast our vote.
My first instinct was to wonder why they bothered, given that the likelihood of them actually being in a position to enact their plan is slim at best, then I took a different tack and settled on seeing the merits of us knowing where they stand.
I can see there being a body of support for their proposal to reduce tax rates for low and middle earners, put it up for the highest, and use the net gain to fund university fees for students.
Their difficulty and key challenge will be to convince people that a vote for them means that they have even a cat in hell’s chance of making their pledge come true. They’ll need a lot more seats in the States to be in a position to argue a mandate to get their representatives in key ministerial jobs.
Right now, that’s quite a leap of imagination, but at least it’s good to see one group of politicians letting us know where they stand. I hope others follow.
