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The view of Jersey’s deficit and spending cuts from Spain
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After all Spain certainly hasn’t escaped the economic woes. With unemployment at 20%, the property bubble well and truly deflated and huge debts, the Spanish government has had to introduce tough austerity measures.
Not that there is much physical evidence of the problems at the moment. The towns are a bit quieter and many hotels are closing for the winter, but life seems to go on as before and the expats continue to crowd the bars and restaurants (I’ve done some original research on this subject).
Jersey has nothing like the economic problems of Spain, yet already I’m beginning to detect evidence that the cutbacks are beginning to bite in the Island. It may just be my paranoia but certainly on the way out there seemed to be a noticeable increase in the number of queues for just about everything at Jersey Airport. There’s definitely no spare staff hanging around looking for something to do like fix the parking ticket machines.
This may not be much of a problem but it can only get worse as the deep cuts in public spending (including the trading areas) take effect.
The Treasury and Resources Department would deny there are deep cuts and calls £65m savings over three years ‘a moderate phased reduction in services’. You can believe that if you like.
Readers of this column will have heard this before, but it’s at the heart of what some critics believe is wrong with the Council of Ministers approach to the impending deficit. The ‘direction of travel’ may be right (a phrase that ‘change managers’ love), but the devil is in the detail. Certainly I don’t think the COM has given public services sufficient priority, probably because of the unrelenting pressure from business leaders to cut, cut and cut often for purely ideological reasons.
• Read the full column in today’s JEP
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