A Week in Politics

‘Unlucky suckers! I’m in now! And you can’t get rid of me! Ha ha! Losers! How do you like my £44,000 a year FOR LYING TO YOU!’

I nipped out for a smoke during the GST debate, so I can’t actually promise you that any of the eight States Members who flipped on their campaign pledges to vote for GST exemptions didn’t use those exact words.

I doubt they did, but if you add the speeches together, flatten them out and squeeze them back again, well . . . that’s what they’d probably sound like.

Let’s be fair – it’s all right to vote against GST exemptions. They’ll cost money.

They’ll give it back in a random, indiscriminate way. They’ll make life a bit more difficult for some retailers.

I think it’s worth it anyway. Most States Members don’t. And that’s all right.

What’s not all right – what’s really not all right at all – is to stand for election on a promise of GST exemptions on food and/or fuel, and then just six months later to vote against them.

There are degrees in this – Senators Jim Perchard and Alan Maclean never made an absolute promise to exempt food. They hedged their commitments, saying they would do it if the cost wouldn’t be too high.

They at least have one leg to stand on. The others, I’m afraid, are just dancing. And for the record, they are Senator Paul Routier, St Clement Constable Len Norman and Deputies Bob Hill, Kevin Lewis and Ann Dupré.

For the sake of completeness, Senator Len Norman says his election position has been misinterpreted, and Senator Ben Shenton found himself somewhere else at the time of the vote.

Senator Routier even claimed he could not recall saying that he was pro-exemption, until he was gently reminded about this newspaper’s candidate policy survey. He has form for this sort of thing, having flipped on the original GST vote despite a promise not to back it in the 2002 campaign.

As far as justification goes, the notion that they’ve changed their minds in the face of changing circumstances won’t wash. By the time of last year’s Deputy elections, the credit crunch was already biting hard.

And what does that justification say about their attitude to promises and accountability?

And anyone who claims that they didn’t know the full facts when they were out campaigning has to deal with the obvious question – what the hell were you doing making promises to voters about something you didn’t really understand?

Some claim that their position has been misunderstood, that they weren’t really pro-exemption at all. That’s no good either.

If you’re an election candidate, it’s on you to make your position clear on the issues. Even when it’s uncomfortable for you.

If you think all this is unfair ask yourself this question – how come no one flipped the other way? Isn’t it odd that no one took the unpopular anti-exemption line during the campaign, but then flipped to supporting them?

Like all good dramas, this one had a hero as well as a band of villains.

Softly yet firmly spoken, unflappable, a Marlowesque gift for one-liners – the hero was Michael Birt.

Or, to give him his full title, Deputy Bailiff Michael Cameron St John Birt.

He strides into the States post-lunch hour – OK, lunch hour-and-a-half, these being States Members, after all – sees no ministers at their desks, looks around, no one wants to speak, and that’s it. No messing around.

Bosh. He calls Deputy Labey to conclude; game over.

No lengthy pause to wait for Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf to turn up, nor Economic Development Minister Alan Maclean – both of whose remits touch on the exemptions. No hesitation to see if Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur wants to speak. I like his style.

Senator Ozouf is the only one of the three who has had the good grace to apologise for not contributing to a significant debate.

But the fact that the leader of the Council of Ministers was in the Chamber and had the opportunity to speak but didn’t have anything to say on an issue that dominated the last elections and which has an effect on every man, woman and child in the Island is truly shocking.

On a happier note, the news that the G20 has given the Island’s finance industry the all-clear was the biggest story of last week, possibly of the year.

However unlikely it may have been that a British island would have been on the blacklist, the consequences could have been utterly disastrous for every single person living here – whether they work in finance or not.

It is to the credit of Senator Le Sueur, former Chief Minister Frank Walker and a host of people working extremely hard behind the scenes that we are where we are.