Confidence

No sign on the JEP's website of the letter by Mr Mike Higgens regarding depositor protection. There's a surprise!

It was interesting to note that he mentions Philip Ozouf having promised to bring a proposition to the States in October, and then failing to do so. That is probably the earliest time on record that a Jersey politician has managed to break his promises once re-elected!

The letter set out in some detail how the net result of depositor protection to date is a promise from the Chief Minister that the States would act to provide that if the worst came to the worst. Of course, the States themselves might find most of their funds were lost as well, but the issue is not one of actually doing something - which is why Mike Higgens was so incensed - but of making the right noises to supply confidence, which is where spin is actually required.

A moments thought shows what a nonsense a depositors protection scheme for individuals would be. If a big bank, like RBSI, went under, it would be like dropping financial bomb on many Jersey businesses. How they would operate in such circumstances, and how people would cope with that situation locally, are not usually the stuff for disaster recovery plans, but perhaps they should be. For all our vaulted independence, we would become a poor beggar, a destitute relative knocking at the UK door.