Economic policies under fire

Both insist that strategies followed during the recession have exacerbated the lengthy economic downturn experienced by this Island.

In a measured but powerful open letter published in this newspaper yesterday, Mr Henwood focused on evidence which shows that Jersey’s economic activity has been shrinking for the past decade. He was deeply critical of the States for failing to grasp this adequately and for concentrating instead on policies concerned with unaffordable social initiatives, ‘inward-looking’ propositions such as those associated with political reform, and ‘fiddling in the margins’ legislation dealing with bus routes, appointments to quangos and similar trivia.

However, at the heart of his attack is the idea that rather than hiking taxation, our political representatives should have been reviving our enterprise culture – this instead of ‘watching, helpless, as business after business closes’.

Mr Shenton, meanwhile, has set out his critique of States action in a seven-page document, summarised elsewhere in today’s paper. In parallel with Mr Henwood, he writes of a ‘sin’ – excessive taxation – that has strangled the economy.

He also pours scorn on the supposed significance of departmental savings made in 2012 and projected for this year, saying that they are merely evidence that Islanders have been over-taxed at a time when stimulation of the economy was the vital issue.

So much for the criticisms, but how valid are they? The Council of Ministers are very likely to try to brush them aside, but a great many ordinary Islanders will agree with the basic notion that as they have come under all the pressures associated with the recession, they have seen the state taking more and more money out of their pockets through measures such as GST, 20 means 20 taxation and increased charges for public services.

Islanders are also likely to look askance at the history of the three-pronged attack on adversity that was promised as the global economic crisis began to bite. As Mr Henwood and Mr Shenton point out, we have seen plenty of taxation – including a dramatic shift towards personal income tax – limited, and sometimes bogus, progress on the savings front, and complete failure when it comes to delivering real-terms economic growth.