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States Members – stop sheltering from reality!
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From Marina Mauger, Island negotiating secretary, NASUWT.
EARLIER this year I wrote to this newspaper (JEP, 2 June) about the position of teachers in Jersey and the reason why several hundred normally unobtrusive hard-working people marched through the streets of St Helier.
I wrote: ‘A pay dispute did not make several hundred Jersey teachers march through St Helier protesting against public service cuts. Teachers are striking through fear and desperation – the fear and desperation they feel at the proposed 10% cuts outlined in the Comprehensive Spending Review and the devastating effects we know such cuts could have on the future of education in this Island.’
Our worst fears have been realised. It has happened. The States Members who were voted in by us and who are paid from the public purse have voted in favour of our children losing their free milk.
They have voted for our children to lose access to one of this Island’s most valuable resources, Durrell, and now more swingeing cuts are being proposed for education and other key areas on which the public of Jersey rely.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that some States Members are happy to ignore the information we give them. They ignore our pleas not to cut school milk.
When we tell them that a significant proportion of children arrive at school not having had any breakfast and point out the value and importance of their free milk, they still vote to cut it, while they are advertising for a new tea lady for themselves.
They impose a pay freeze on the public sector and then refuse to debate their own salary increases – and don’t forget, they took their £1,000 last year when the rest of the public sector got nothing.
When they chose to implement the zero-ten taxation policy they knew that there would be a huge shortfall in tax revenue that would affect the economy. Did they stop spending in light of this? No, it is apparent that they did not.
Our States Members are having state-of-the-art iPads to trial while our children face huge cuts to the education budget under the guise of the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Make no mistake, this review and the cuts that are being proposed are very comprehensive indeed, but just not quite comprehensive enough to apply fairly across the board, it would seem.
How fortunate for them that the finance industry made mistakes and caused a global recession. They have been able to hide their own ineptitude and mismanagement of public funds behind this and have given themselves another £400,000 as a thank you on the day that they voted for our children to lose their milk.
This Island makes a significant contribution to overseas aid because Islanders have celebrated their good fortune and shown empathy for the plight of the less fortunate. How long will it be before we need to ask for such aid for ourselves? Not very long, if the States continue in this manner.
Alternative proposals to these hugely damaging cuts have been presented to our States Members but they have refused to consider them. The chief officers of all States departments have been ordered by the Council of Ministers to identify ‘savings’.
While they are doing this, they are being prevented from fulfilling the roles that the people of this Island are paying them as States employees to undertake. £6m is set aside for redundancies in the public sector.
What services could that £6m have provided to this Island? During an economic downturn, the very thing that should not be done is to make cuts to public spending. It needs to be increased to boost the economy and public confidence in that economy.
Our government will tell you that they are doing just that under the guise of the fiscal spending stimulus. Where is the evidence that this strategy is being managed effectively, or that the strategy is even working?
The proposed cuts are becoming bigger by the day and now the people of this Island are wondering what will go next.
We have a Rainy Day Fund. What is it for if not to prevent reductions in services? The Rainy Day Fund belongs to the public; it was the hard work of the people that realised the funds to create it. Enough is enough. Use some of the reserve to fill this black hole that they have dug us all into and leave our education and other public services alone.
States Members need to put down the umbrellas they are using to shelter them from reality and realise that out here, for the majority of people, it’s not just raining, it’s absolutely pouring.
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