Groundless tosh from a disenchanted man

From Rod Bryans,

director, Hepburns Insurance.

IT’S difficult to comment on John Christensen’s Our Island article (Jersey Evening Post, 18 July) because it doesn’t tell us anything new.

All we get here is a dull diatribe from a disenchanted emigrant.

He forecasts the changing of the ‘old order’, as he puts it, but there is little evidence of a ‘new order’ appearing.

Senators have some time to go, and I would assume that the majority of Deputies will remain if voted back in.

He predicts that global eco-nomies are in for a rocky time. Not much of a prediction when you consider that the media has been reporting this for months.

Could the Island be affected? Of course it will. Just look to the UK.

But in Jersey we are somewhat buffered, and the politicians have been quite prudent in creating GST and a ‘rainy day fund’.

Do we have a fragile economy? Of course we do, but who doesn’t?

When global events affect us, they affect everyone. Jersey has in the past and will in the future be very adept at responding to change.

Then we have the lurid comparisons with the slave trade and parasites. Give us a break. This is inflammatory rhetoric solely meant to incite discord.

Well, it doesn’t — because it’s groundless tosh.

Just to give it added flavour, we have American presidential hope-ful Barack Obama thrown in for good measure.

If he were to become president, there is now the threat of excommunication from the USA. Is it probable? Absolutely. But is it possible?

One of the problems that the USA and the UK have is that there is an immense amount of political wealth salted away in tax havens, and picking apart the financial fabric is a step too far for them to contemplate. Can open, worms everywhere.

This isn’t about ill-gotten gains but opportunistic saving.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be common practice, but it is.

Then there is the ploughing over old ground.

This Island is a playground for the rich and it is they who dictate policy, not the politicians. This is for the conspiracy theorists and alien spotters.

Everyone is aware that we have a large number of wealthy immigrants, and it could reasonably be argued that this creates a greater division between the rich and the poor.

But they do pay taxes; and they do, by virtue of living here, put something back into the community. Many of them run entrepreneurial businesses which employ local labour and are not solely focused on finance.

Are all our eggs in one basket? Without doubt.

But even if you are concerned about this, to see both trust and banking business disappearing from the Island overnight is a bit far-fetched.

President Eisenhower said: ‘I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or left and throw rocks at those in the centre.’ My real concern is that it is easy to gripe, but where is the true content of alternatives?

What can Mr Christensen offer as any form of alternative?

Finally, we reach the notion of the collective voting for change. Whenever anyone votes, there is a form of change, but the truth is that the majority of people, cynical though they may be, consider the alternatives to be rather unattractive.

I hope that more people vote in the next election. I am also confident that when they do, they will have the wit and intelligence, as they have in the past, to make the right choice.

6-7 Mulcaster Street,

St Helier.