WOULD you buy a car which was so badly designed that without a complete overhaul it had no chance of working? Would you join a company that had no coherent structure or controls, and where every employee was paid the same regardless of work ethic or level of responsibility?
Ministerial government is so deficient that it has no chance of working without a massive overhaul and, like a complex car engine, only a small proportion of the population really understands its deficiencies.
Similarly, the whole structure of the States Assembly is well past its sell-by date, and without a complete overhaul political interest amongst the population will remain woefully low.
I wish those standing for election well – they will discover, if elected, the public will say to them, ‘I pay your wages’, because many believe that £46,600 is a huge salary to run the Island. This figure was set by John Mills, among others, when he sat on the States Members Remuneration Review Panel.
I was reading the Ports of Jersey Annual Report 2015/16 and noted that Mr Mills was also chairman of the Ports of Jersey Remuneration Committee. The non-executive chairman, Charles Clark, was paid £42,000 for chairing around a dozen meetings. Mr Mills himself was paid £25,000 as a non-executive director.
It’s probably worth looking at the Chief Minister’s pay – £46,600 – and that of the chief executive of Ports of Jersey. In 2016 the Ports chief executive received remuneration of £271,000 – both the Chief Minister and he are effectively paid by us.
It would take almost six years for the Chief Minister to earn what the chief executive of Ports of Jersey earns in one year. It makes you wonder how Mr Mills justifies such a disparity, although to be fair he did recommend that the matter of pay differentials be addressed.
Politicians’ pay is currently a socialist equal-pay-for-all compromise which achieves the worst possible solution. The onus for the new Assembly will be to fix the above, but I fear it will still be broken in 2022 when their term of office ends.
Some readers will believe the honorary system works best, others will look at the performance of Ports of Jersey to show what can be achieved when you pay market rates. I don’t know what the best solution is for good government. I just know that it isn’t the current one.
