By Douglas Kruger
ELECTION year and Jersey wants change. Item number one on the priority list: everything is too expensive.
But voting in this island presents challenges. Absent traditionally constituted parties, it’s hard to know who stands for what. And sure, the radicals occasionally out themselves. But even so, it’s tricky to distinguish.
How do voters empower the right people when all we have to go on are personal manifestos? By their nature, manifestos are typically heavy on “kindly sounding intentions” but low on specific policy.
To make things trickier, “kindly sounding intentions” can be the worst cues to go by. Take a fairly innocuous one: “I will make food safer”.
This entails new regulations. New regulations introduce new costs for business. Each affected business passes these costs along to you, the consumer. But we’re not done.
New regulations must also be enforced. This means new government employees, paid for by you, new inspections – also on your dime – and more hurdles and fines and delays in the entire process, borne initially by the retailers but ultimately passed along…to you.
Voilà, your groceries are now more expensive. And you voted for it because it sounded kind. Now stand by while they think up some more.
This is the real-world outcome of a seemingly kind statement. The red tape grows, the freedom shrinks, the cost of living skyrockets, all so that a new politician can justify a job and fulfil the promise of a kindly sounding manifesto.
Here’s another: “I want more protections for workers”.
In practice, it harms the very people it purports to help. Here’s how:
Every new obligation makes it harder for businesses to hire. Each employee becomes “more expensive” and “less worth it”. Before it was easy for a business to take on a hopeful young jobseeker and train them up. Now it isn’t, so they don’t.
Remember internships? Those have been effectively rendered impossible by the kindness-people.
Lower these barriers to entry and more businesses will hire more people. For anyone currently earning nothing that’s already an improvement. And it entails a foot in the door. The beginning of an upward trajectory. Now they have the opportunity to prove themselves and advance or use that valuable experience to apply for something greater.
Faced with such data, many politicians simply don’t care. They will dismiss the feedback as irrelevant: “Companies must just cough up”. They personally pay no price for their kindly sounding catastrophes.
Then there’s the reduction in civil freedoms. A number of aspirant politicians will campaign on “protecting things”. This also means more regulation, more cost. Plus it entails a reduction in what you are permitted to do as a private citizen. Cut down a tree in your own backyard? Fix your own driveway? Do a simple repair to your house? Not before meeting government-enforced “kindness” conditions, guaranteed to make the process three times more expensive. And you may not opt out. That’s kindness for you.
And so, here are the sort of statements I’d look for in a candidate:
- “I will dedicate myself to slashing regulation, reducing bureaucracy and getting rid of unnecessary layers of government management. I am here to lower costs, not add to them. The day I add to your burdens, you can call me out on it and I will resign.”
- “I will seek ways to lower taxes, not raise them. I am aware that reducing tax will not only result in more money back in the hands of Jersey citizens but spur business and thus, ultimately raise the total amounts in our coffers.”
- “I will strive to get government’s nose out of private matters. Whether or not you trim a tree or fix a wall in your own backyard is none of my business, and policing it is an appalling abuse of your money. Your civic freedoms matter to me and your private property does not belong to us.”
- “I will actively oppose ridiculous licences. If it isn’t a crime, you already have permission to do it and do not require the government to say so. You may sell whatever you wish, whenever you wish, to whomever you wish, on any day you wish, working any hours you wish because you are free. Just don’t engage in crime and you will receive zero visits from us.”
- “Finally, I am not woke. If you vote for me you will not end up with a closet communist or a friend to terrorists. I will not make your energy bill needlessly expensive with failed eco-policies. It is not my job to destroy business, reduce freedom, vilify your male children for being male, vilify this island and culture for its history, aid any ideology that wants to oppress women or engage in social engineering of any form to advance my socialist vision of utopia.”
- “Oh and PS. Public parking will be free. Space is at a premium on this island, so it cannot be a cash-cow for government. People need to go places and do things, so now you can, without paying us because charging you to park, even at the beach, was a sinful racket all along and we’re very, very sorry.”
I’d vote for that guy. Or gal. In a heartbeat. Trouble is, we don’t know who they are because some are still afraid to speak that way and believe that hiding behind kindly platitudes and promises of “more safeties” is their best bet.
That’s what got us here. It’s how Jersey ended up with a massive and growing public sector, exploding costs and an untenable reduction in even the most basic of civil freedoms.
But there is good news.
The Overton Window has been shifting. The publicly acceptable realm of conversation has moved a long way and people in Jersey – especially business people – are much more open, much more strident, much stronger in their condemnations of needless cost and senseless overreach. The idea that these costs and regulations are not normal or acceptable has become common public discourse. So stand on that.
There’s hope. And it’s good news for the aspiring politicians who are brave enough to catch the mood. Tell us who you are. Take a stand. We’ll support you at the ballot.
Douglas Kruger is an author and speaker based in Jersey. His books are all available via Amazon and Audible.
