‘Island governed by secret kind of executive system’
Monday 22nd December 2008, 1:00PM GMT.
BACKBENCH States member John Gollop believes he and his colleagues are being kept in the dark about serious matters.
His comments come after the unprecedented decision by the Policy Council to buy two fuel-carrying vessels.
Deputy Gollop (pictured) said he would give his provisional support to the strategic action the council took, but he said a commercial attitude was needed to a States-run shipping fleet and careful thought needed to minimise wasteful losses in day-to-day operation’.
‘I have not yet been convinced that we paid the cheapest price for the fleet of two ships,’ said Deputy Gollop.
‘But I can appreciate the need for speedy action and decision-making.’
Chief Minister Lyndon Trott and the Policy Council made the decision to buy the ships to secure the island’s fuel supplies after the owners went into administration last month.
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Guernsey, stand by for another inept States run business that will remain firmly in the red and cost the Guernsey taxpayer money through poor business decisions.
Hasn’t the island learnt anything after buying Aurigny? The civil service can’t run businesses!
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I’m sorry, perhaps I have missed something, but wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to make it possible to hold emergency states meetings than give the Chief Minister “emergency powers”? I was never personally a fan of this post in the first place and now we see Deputy Trott calling for greater power and within days it emerging that he has taken it upon himself to make decisions on behalf of the government. Whether the correct decision or not, this case highlights an attitude that I feel goes against our otherwise respectful and representative system.
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The whole of Guernsey thinks it is a secret society, all trying to keep secrets from each other, its a small island mentality, you have residents that commit suicide abroad but somehow it never reaches the public domain .Who stiffles this information???? For the benefit of the Island!!! I suppose.
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Mike. The state is just as capable of hiring the right business-minded individuals to advise and manage as private businesses are. Have we not seen privatised services in the UK fail in much the same way as when they were nationalised? I think both systems are just as workable. Only in the case of nationalised services the state benefits from the successes *as well* as paying for the failures.
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