JERSEY and Guernsey could save “a lot of money” promoting themselves under a Channel Islands banner at global trade events, according to a former UK Trade Minister.
Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham, who settled with his wife in Guernsey four years ago, said the islands could continue to market each other separately but work together to reach international markets more effectively.
“I think at a time when money is difficult, whilst we are rivals in terms of attracting investment, if we want to get around the world then it might save money to do it together and say: ‘Come to the Channel Islands’,” Lord Jones said.
He offered his own ministerial experience of trade shows and conferences throughout the world intended to “bang the drum for the UK”. Once interest had been generated, there were then quite different marketing messages generated from different corners of the UK, an example he thought could be adapted to the Channel Islands.
“I’m not for a minute saying I would end individual marketing for Jersey and Guernsey but we could get the recognition level up far more in international markets and… [tell] people just where the Channel Islands are which is no mean feat. If we could get them thinking ‘Channel Islands’ then – when we get them over – well, it’s then for us to go into bat against each other. There’s nothing wrong with that competition,” he added.
Lord Jones, who chairs the think-tank the Guernsey Policy and Economics Group, will be in Jersey on Tuesday [20 Feb] for a sold-out Leadership Jersey event at the Pomme d’Or Hotel.
He was circumspect about commenting on the political situation in Jersey, something which he said would be “rude and arrogant” coming from the neighbouring island, but said that Chief Ministers having recently been removed from office in both bailiwicks highlighted the impact of “a confluence of global issues” affecting small economies. He cited the economic impact of the pandemic, rising energy prices as a result of the Ukraine invasion and, more recently, the Hamas raid and the Israeli response, and the Houthi situation diverting shipping from the Red Sea.
Such things were not the fault of politicians locally but inevitably, it was they who bore the brunt of such events, he said.
He continued: “If you put that onto a framework of global competitiveness the like of which we’ve not seen – and enhanced by Brexit and the behaviour especially of France but also Brussels in the way it deals with Britain – you therefore end up with serious ‘dischuffment’ (very displeased or unsatisfied) – what a lovely word. Then, other politicians in the States reflect the feelings they get on the doorstep, and they also will have views and ideas on how it can be dealt with. If that doesn’t coincide with the leadership, then you have all the issues in both Bailiwicks that led to the removal of those in charge.”
Drawing further parallels between the two islands, the peer pointed to the challenges of housing and particularly of building “the right housing”.
“It’s got to be affordable housing for the nurse and the hospitality worker. It needs to meet the economic and service demand, and it’s an incredibly difficult thing to do but it is the pressing need in your island and mine. It has the knock-on effect of creating a degree of homelessness. That means you get a degree of frustration in the voting mass, and at the same time it means economic development is arrested because you don’t get labour coming in. If you don’t get labour coming in, you don’t get wealth, and if you don’t get wealth, you don’t generate jobs, and you don’t generate taxation.
“It’s a very, very important issue and I think it’s the number one challenge for Jersey and Guernsey,” he said.
Asked what it was that went against the islands working more closely together, Lord Jones did not hesitate for a moment.
“The Civil War,” he replied. “We called it for Cromwell; you called it for Charles I. Although that’s said with a huge dollop of tongue-in-cheek, I have to say there’s probably something in it. I didn’t expect so much rivalry in the community. I don’t think at political level there is as much but in the community, which politicians respond to of course, I’ve been surprised,” he said.
