ONE of the consequences of the UK’s spending review, which aims to cut £81bn-worth of public spending over four years, is to highlight how much better off Guernsey is in comparison.

In his assessment of the situation yesterday, the chief minister highlighted the sheer burden of debt Britain labours under, having to find interest repayments of £120m. a day. To put this into context, that annual £44bn cost is about the same as the UK was spending on defence before that, too, was cut.

In effect, that is taxpayers’ money being thrown away and indicates why this island is rightly so averse to borrowing and why its £32m. budget deficit is entirely manageable.

That will be wiped out in four years’ time without further tax increases on the basis that the island’s public sector controls its costs.

That, too, was a further contrast between Britain and Guernsey. There, the spending reductions are savage while here restraint is the order of the day.

However, from what has emerged to date, there is little indication of that restraint and even less that the island’s own Fundamental Spending Review is paying dividends.

Where action has been taken it is to reduce services and transfer expenditure to islanders, as in putting up bus fares. There is no evidence – apart from at Health and Social Services – that departments have become leaner or shed staff.

Perversely, one of the unwelcome effects of Guernsey being in a better position than probably any other jurisdiction, including Jersey, is that there is less pressure to review and change departmental cultures.

If the island clears its deficit without doing anything meaningful, then an enormous opportunity will have been missed. Just as the current public sector pension scheme represents a growing financial burden for the future, so too does the current size and cost of the island’s bureaucracy.

Doing nothing might be the tempting, complacent option but it is short-sighted and dangerous. Events have shown that we can have no expectation of living standards rising year after year as in the past.

Yet that is exactly how Guernsey’s government appears to be acting.