I don't mind people coming over to live in Jersey (Channel Islands), as long as:
1) they are not rich AND want to run a lot of the Island (i.e. speculate in property, business etc), which causes no end of harm with high house prices or high shop rents (Roosters at Quennevais was one in a long line of shops there unable to meet really excessing rents - something like £40,000 per year). As for Dandara, and what they have done to the Island, hmmm.....
2) they don't refer to England as "the mainland". My ancestors 3 generations ago came from "the mainland", and it is France, for anyone with a map. Mind you, when I was at university, some people there thought it was an island off Scotland, for goodness sake!
3) they don't say "we must have party politics", as if that would cure all the Island's political ills. Looking at the sleaze, peerages for sale, etc in the UK, and the way in which the parties can collude (cf Hilair Belloc's "The Party System"), I think that is not an especially better than Jersey, especially as a party can get in with about 30% of the voters who vote in the UK! Both could do with improving.
4) they are not racist, sexist, homophobic etc.
Note:
If any Americans read this, and think Jersey always means "New Jersey", go to http://www.gov.je/ and learn something!
Posts
3 comments:
I'd disagree with you about party politics. On an island this size it would work far more efficiently than the bloated and sleaze-laden example we see in Westminster.
Jersey's current political system is actually incredibly undemocratic, and Ministers are very rarely held to account for gross examples of misjudgement or overspending.
They also have a tendency to ignore the will of the islanders - this again reflects on our non-party system. A senator in one of the country Parishes can be elected to government with just a couple of hundred votes. He can then take his seat safe in the knowledge that he only needs to appease those same couple of hundred people at the next election - which won't be hard because he's probably on first name terms with most of them anyway, having known them on some form of personal level for decades.
With this regular couple of hundred votes safely in the bag from his local area, he can then completely ignore the wishes of the other 90,000 members of the island's populace, and sit back collecting his money knowing he has a job for life.
What's needed is a party political system where total accountability exists. This would mean that Senators and Ministers would have to make damn sure they follow the will of the majority of the populace, and work for the benefit of the population, on pain of losing their job next election.
That's the only way local politics is going to change for the better. Until that happens (which it won't whilst the current batch of turkeys are voting for christmas) the Governmental "old boys" club attitude will continue to control the island's helm - and not for the benefit of the average islander.
"A senator in one of the country Parishes can be elected to government with just a couple of hundred votes."
Where have you been living? It is the Deputies who have seats in Parishes; Senators are elected on an Island wide mandate!
Post a Comment