I REALLY don’t know whether to cheer limply, weep, or both. So far this States has acted as if money was no object. Tax allowances, student loans, paid parking, rationalising schools – none of the decisions have reflected financial reality.

At last the States are being asked to save some money by freezing plans for a range of new services. Only the most pressing are to go ahead, but what perverse prioritisation.

Out go vitally needed projects like the domestic abuse strategy, bowel cancer screening and better support for disabled islanders. In comes a new office in Brussels (£200,000 p/a), a totally inappropriate legal tribunal into the airport closure during the firefighters’ dispute (£250,000), and hosting the anodyne British/Irish Council (£175,000).

Let’s start with the BIC. It was created for a noble purpose but immediately turned into a pointless talking shop. Nothing of moment is decided, ministers just get together for a set-piece chinwag.

I remember being pressured into going to a BIC meeting in the Isle of Man. The issue was tele-medicine. There was no debate over the pre-arranged communique on this wholly uncontentious subject. I upset John Prescott and our hosts by suggesting a lot of cash would have been saved if we’d all stayed at home and practised a bit of ‘tele-politics’.

Guernsey has previously hosted a top-level meeting of the BIC. There was a morning session in Castle Cornet where our leaders discussed ‘tourism’. Like the one planned for next year, it cost us a fortune. Why? Well, it’s not the fizzy water or the free pens, it’s the ludicrous but unavoidable cost of security.

With the WAO pressing for ‘evidence-based decision making,’ States members should be demanding firm examples of benefits that the BIC has produced for the people of Guernsey. Not just ratifying policies previously agreed by civil servants, but genuinely new initiatives, which otherwise wouldn’t have happened.

The same critical analysis should be applied to our chief minister’s globe-trotting activities, but that’s for another column.

Even if BIC meetings are deemed essential, they could take place in the bigger jurisdictions for whom the security costs are a mere bagatelle. If Jersey and the Isle of Man want to continue playing host out of misplaced pride, then let them.

Would Guernsey opting out be an embarrassment? I certainly wouldn’t be ashamed if the States said, ‘Sorry, we would prefer to save the lives of islanders with bowel cancer than host the BIC’. In fact, I would be proud.

As for the £250,000 for a legal tribunal into last spring’s airport closure, and how the impasse was (temporarily) broken, words fail me. Of course we need to get to the bottom of those events and crucially, try to avoid their repetition.

That process should have been timely, cost effective and politically focused. All the main issues to be addressed are political in the broadest sense and certainly not legal. By voting for an expensive and unwieldy legal tribunal, probably involving high court judges, the States failed on all fronts.

The Guernsey Press believes the whole move was a witch-hunt. I doubt that’s true for most supporters, but with some leaders of the requete reportedly saying gleefully in the members’ room afterwards: ‘We’ve got him now’, the allegation is hard to refute. The irony is that those who could be embarrassed by a bright light being shone on the firefighters’ dispute are now pressing hard behind the scenes for there to be no investigation at all – and they may succeed.

The States will surely throw out this mad expenditure on a tribunal, which alone could fund year one of the domestic abuse strategy. Then the siren calls will come: ‘Let’s drop the whole matter, it’s raking over old coals’. That would be a disaster. Grey areas need resolving, roles clarifying, powers quantifying. Failure to do so leaves the island open to similar problems in future. It’s not about blame – although if that emerges, so be it – it’s about getting processes right. If the tribunal is scrapped, then Scrutiny must press on with its own inquiry.

As for the office in Brussels – well, there’s a case for it but it can’t be a top priority, particularly when it’s not for Jersey. The States should put it on hold and improve support for disabled islanders instead. Then they should scrap the planned big increases in tax allowances at a time of deflation and crack on with some other vital social initiatives, while still reducing the forecast budget deficit. Pigs might fly.