A FURIOUS rallying call has been made for business to stand up and be counted as the flak continues to fly over zero-10. Housing minister Dave Jones has gone on the offensive as his frustration has spilt into outright anger over regular criticism of the policy.

He has emailed an open letter heads of business to rally them to the cause following continual attacks on zero-10 in the letters page of the Guernsey Press and on radio phone-ins.

‘Most of the calls I have heard and the letters I have read have been, in the main, abject rubbish, full of inaccuracies and I suspect deliberate misrepresentations of the truth designed to fuel the campaign to get this decision overturned. While all of them deliberately or otherwise forget collectively or simply have no grasp of the importance of keeping this island competitive,’ said Deputy Jones in the letter.

‘So they are not difficult to counter and, as I said, you had no problem doing so previously. I urge all of you to engage with the media between now and Christmas and again early in the new year and start to help us fight some of this deliberate misinformation. If you don’t, after the next election you truly will get the government you deserve.’

The Policy Council recently discussed the issue and the actions of Deputy Rhoderick Matthews in his attempts to get zero-10 delayed.

‘We are not going to allow people like Deputy ‘Rhoderick’ Matthews and others to call Treasury officials incompetent when they are clearly not, or the people in the business community incompetent because they backed the only sustainable way forward given the circumstances,’ said Deputy Jones.

‘Who do these people think they are? Do they think they have more collective knowledge then the 500 people that wrote in to Treasury, more knowledge than ‘Treasury and Resources former chief officer’ Dave Clark, or the chief executive of the States, or two chartered accountants on income tax, or others in the business world.

‘If we got it wrong, then Jersey States must be incompetent as well, as must be the Isle of Man and Switzerland. The whole thing is a nonsense and these people need to be shown up for the charlatans that they are.’

Business leaders met last week to discuss the anti-zero-10 lobbying.

Both the Chamber of Commerce and Confederation of Guernsey Industry restated strong support yesterday for the path chosen.