Past records: the Case of St Mary

Juliette Gallichan, Deputy for St Mary

"I am opposed to the 5% sales tax as I think it is disproportionately unfair to the lower paid. I am concerned that F&E say they will mitigate its effect on the poorer families by increased income support. This is not socially sound policy. Furthermore it will increase inflation, especially in the short term. It is expensive to administer and will require a new collection mechanism. Once in place it will be an easy matter to obtain more revenue by simply increasing the percentage, and this will not encourage Government to keep the emphasis on cost-cutting." (Senatorial Bi-Election 2004 interview to BBC)

Of course, she was one of those voting FOR the introduction of GST!!!

It is obvious that people do change their minds, but try as I might, I can't find any detailed apology from her and justification for why she did so. Perhaps she could comment on this site appropriately. "I admit that I was wrong when I said that. I have changed my mind since.", or words to that effect (and not the mealy mouthed kind of justifications that might have come from "Yes, Minister") - even if it was related to the introduction of GST - would be a good thing to hear from a sitting politician, especially with reasons given, a history of how she changed her mind. Better late than never.

Actions, they say, speak louder than words. But watch out, because your words may one day come back and haunt you!

On words, here is a useful word for today: "hypocrite". This comes from the 13th century Middle English ypocrite, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrita, from Greek hypokrites actor, hypocrite, from hypokrinesthai . It refers to "a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings."