IT was, at times, hard to shake the sense during last week’s cost of living Question Time event that two conversations were happening at once – both important, but related, but both continually missing each other: what governments see and what Islanders feel.
The suggestion that Jersey is in the midst of a cost-of-living “crisis”, understandably, invited a degree of scepticism from some: being an autonomous rock has always carried a price, and not a modest one. The Chief Minister was, in that sense, entirely right in his observation that the Island had been in an affordability crisis “probably since the Second World War”.
It was a position that prompted talk of “long-term thinking” and “systemic change”, of our billion-pound public sector, freight contracts, investment funds, and AI… all the way down to the fine-print of the Island Plan.
But the other conversation happening in the room was grounded in the tangible, the more human, you might say: the queue at the food bank, parents who technically qualify for “free” nursery hours but struggle to benefit, families blindsided by elderly care‑home fees, those mulling what limited luxuries to cut to keep up with rising food and fuel costs.
Only viewing present pressures as the latest turn in a long cycle risks missing how acutely some are already feeling the pinch at present – and how quickly circumstances can shift for households that, until recently, were managing.
On Friday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned that, scarred by the inflation spike of 2022, firms are no longer waiting to see whether shocks are “transitory”; they are moving earlier and earlier to protect themselves.
That was evident in the candour of DFDS routes director Chris Parker, who spoke plainly in the Saturday Interview about the limits of absorbing fuel costs. When he speaks of “sharing the pain” with freight clients, we know where the weight of that share eventually settles.
The speed of that pass-through creates a particular precariousness for those dubbed the ‘squeezed middle’ in name; in practice, the Island’s engine.
It is why the government’s preference for “monitoring” – though prudent in Treasury terms – for many can feel detached, or like a failing in pastoral care.
What seems clear is that Islanders do not generally want a leadership that treats the state as the answer to every problem – but nor do they want one so fixed on the long-term that it misses where swift, targeted action could prevent the acute pain being felt right now from becoming chronic strain.
What electors will be hoping to see in a few months’ time is a plan that says: here is how we will help you through the next 12 months… and here is how we will make sure we are not having this same debate again in ten years’ time.
- More in today’s JEP on the current cost-of-living… and part two of our Temps Passé series takes us back to the ‘oil shock’ crisis of 1973, and the emergency measures that followed…
