It’s important to measure quality as well as the size

We’ve heard it time and time again. These people who don’t really like government just because it is government want to put the clock back. Apparently they would like to return to those halcyon days when individuals were free to do what they wanted within the bounds of very limited laws, and where government was only really needed to fight wars when things got a bit out of hand.

Life was simple then and not many cared about equality of opportunity, protection of the vulnerable or trying to create a better world for everyone. Self-interest came first, and the strong were able to prove how self-reliant they were, while others fell by the wayside. Oh happy days.

Unfortunately life has become very much more complicated since then and, like it or not, government now affects many more aspects of the way we live. Depending on your political views, this means government either takes away your freedoms or it helps you to achieve more than you could on your own.

Perhaps this conflict is more apparent in a small island like Jersey. Islanders naturally don’t want to be restricted by government rules and red tape, but you only have to look at the problem of immigration to appreciate that it would be a disaster if government didn’t intervene.

But there is a vociferous and perhaps growing minority who promote the idea that Jersey has a realistic choice between small government and big government. That makes life difficult for someone like me who instinctively doesn’t like the idea of big government, but who also doesn’t want a government that’s so small that the Island can’t compete internationally or make the best of the talents, skills and abilities of its citizens.

So I don’t care whether you call it big or small government, it’s just got to be the right size for the Island.

That, of course, is the £700m question. Politicians and commentators who fight for what they call small government may talk a lot of nonsense at times but at least they help to highlight an important issue that has to be tackled. It’s important to know what size Jersey’s government should be.

This is vital at any time although we’re really only asking the question now because many people believe that the amount Islanders spend on the States is getting out of hand. The figures are pretty frightening, even for someone like me who doubts that our government machine could be much smaller. But then I realise that the relentless increase in public spending matches (although it does also sometimes exceed) the relentless increase in the cost of living. Not a lot gets cheaper, while demand continues to grow.

However pressure from those calling for a cut down government have even apparently convinced some members of the States to take up the battle cry themselves. It’s just not fashionable or popular to appear to support public spending when everyone around you is screaming for it to be cut.

Politicians certainly get more points with the electorate if they are seen to be wielding an axe. This was very apparent during the early stages of the recession when there was near total commitment to cutting costs. Now this has morphed into a more subtle aim of modernizing the administration.

But some people will never be satisfied. They continue to wonder and express bewilderment that an island with a population they say is about the size of Yeovil can cost £700m to run.

Apart from the fact that Yeovil town has a population only about half the size of Jersey, this is a totally spurious comparison to try to make.

To begin with no one knows the true cost of running Yeovil. The town council spends about £1m a year, but South Somerset District Council spends another £18m and the UK Government spends billions. Jersey only has one layer of government, if you ignore the small amount spent by the parishes, and the States are also responsible for many more functions than Yeovil council, such as running an airport, negotiating international tax agreements and making and applying our own laws.

So perhaps a more meaningful comparison would be how much the men, women and children of Yeovil pays for the UK Government. That works out at about an average of £10,100 per head of population. If Jersey was to spend the same amount its budget would come to £929m, not the £700m being complained about.

So the comparison with Yeovil is pointless, but it does underline the necessity for some kind of yardstick to guide the States when deciding just how much government is the right amount.

There have been some half-hearted attempts in the past to make comparisons with other similar jurisdictions, so that we could flag up if we were paying more than we should for various public services, for example.

However the debate about the size of government does prove that much more attention should be paid to how we compare ourselves with our peers, which does not include Yeovil.

It’s a very difficult exercise, and it will likely result in arguments about whether, for example, Jersey should support the financial services industry more because we might not currently match that of Bermuda or the Isle of Man. But this is the kind of argument which should take place in any case.

At the very least a benchmark would help indicate where we might be going wrong (or right) compared to our competitors. It would also have another very beneficial effect, as it would force us to decide what kind of public services we should be supplying our citizens as well as how much we should spend. It’s important not only to measure the size but the quality.

Certainly this would be better than the pretty meaningless arguments about big government and small government.

Peter Body