To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
We cannot let our guard down
Share this:
Unfortunately, there is still great economic uncertainty in Europe and beyond, and although Jersey has fared relatively well in spite of adverse global trends, we are by no means in the clear yet.
This is very much the view taken by Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur, who has said that recovery remains elusive and that the States must stay on track, making savings and cuts wherever it is prudent to do so.
This is also the broad theme of this year’s Business Plan, which has come up for debate this week. Savings worth £23 million and a two-year freeze on public workers’ pay are part of the plan, as is the loss of 15 full-time public sector jobs.
Proposed amendments to the plan already indicate that the enduring principle of austerity is not to every Member’s liking. For example, Deputy Geoff Southern wants to see the restoration of £7 million which has been removed from the pot earmarked for public sector workers’ pay settlements in the coming year.
In this case, Deputy Southern’s heart might be in the right place, but in common with other Members who would like to water down cuts in major ways, he is suggesting that the Island drops its guard prematurely. With so much uncertainty in the offing, now is not the time to abandon the parsimony of recent years.
It is, meanwhile, more than worthwhile to look at the positives which can be detected in the plan. The unions might be reluctant to agree, but the proposed loss of 15 jobs is not quite the night of the long knives that has been predicted. Equally, the proposal that £35 million should be spent on capital projects suggests that the executive is not bent on retrenchment to the exclusion of all investment.
Other elements of the plan – including the £500,000 to be injected into skills and training initiatives and the million that could well be set aside to recruit and retain nursing staff – are also likely to be widely welcomed.
That said, a shadow hangs over the whole Business Plan process. All those engaged in debate will know that we are in the dying days of the States as currently constituted and that after the October elections new hands, quite possibly guided by new ideas, will be on the wheel of the ship of state.
Related