Senator Sir Philip Bailhache, who is retiring from the States, said that Brexit and the ongoing population crisis were the two issues that were likely to be key for the next Assembly.
And he said that while Jersey was a ‘well-regulated’ financial district, persuading politicians across Europe that that was the case was an ‘uphill struggle’.
He said: ‘We will have a new relationship with the EU and it will be important to make sure we get that right. I think the UK will defend our interests.
‘A greater risk I think is being able to persuade the countries of the EU to allow us to continue to operate as an international finance centre in the way we have done in the past.
‘We are transparent, we are co-operative, we don’t represent a threat to the EU countries, but persuading their politicians that that is the case is not easy.’
He added that reputations were ‘hard to win and easy to lose’ and that Jersey had made its case to the UK about what the Island needed from the Brexit negotiations.
‘What happens in some other less well-regulated offshore countries probably doesn’t help the Channel Islands,’ he said. ‘We need to persuade others that we are different. When one is trying to reverse deeply ingrained prejudices both in the populous and in politicians, it is an uphill struggle.’ And he added that the government needed to strike a balance between the needs of the Island’s workforce and business when it came to dealing with Jersey’s population.
He said: ‘I think one of the perennial problems for the next Assembly ought to be the balancing of population.
‘I think the impression has been given that the government is not concerned about the rise in the population – I don’t believe that is true but equally I think more needs to be done to try to square the circle of the needs of the economy and maintaining the character and the environmental attractions of the Island.
‘It would be a very different place if our population rose to 150,000 or higher. As a native Jerseyman, I very much hope that is not the destination.’
