C&E members defend holiday cost estimate
Friday 31st December 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
Commerce and Employment board members have defended a £200,000 estimate of the cost to the States of an extra public holiday for next April’s royal wedding.
And it now seems that more than half of that cost will be met by Health and Social Services.
A C&E report said that the £200,000 would cover staff costs but offered no breakdown of the figure.
It also failed to include an estimate of the cost of lost productivity.
However, Deputy Peter Gillson (pictured) said it would be difficult to put a figure on that.
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That’s about how much we pay just for one consultant to come over from the UK, Great Britain as a whole doesn’t have many Bank Holidays, so this one should be fairly straight forward to grant.
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Stop moaning about the cost. It is not a lot to spend on the happy memories it will create which should last a lifetime.
People first for a change!
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Gary – I think you are overestimating the importance of the royal wedding in the eyes of islanders. I think it was Phil who commented in a related article that the majority of people who are bothered are probably past working age anyway.
The majority of people I speak to aren’t bothered about the wedding at all, they either simply fancy a day off or oppose the holiday idea on economic grounds.
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Gary, as an aristocrat I have insider knowledge of royalty and I have to say that putting “people first” isn’t usually that high on their agenda!
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….as an experiment I have asked several French people who was the last monarch in France…none of them knew..you may say they have no knowledge of their own history, but it is interesting that once a country becomes a republic memories become hazy,if not obsolete, on something that UK royal family groupies think is of excessive importance.
Roll on the day when UK citizens look at you blankly when you ask them to name a member of the last royal family in England!
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Paul
My findings are similar to yours – not one of my colleagues is bothered about the Royal Wedding (ok there’s only 5 of us but it still tells a story) and I haven’t spoken to a single friend who has any interest in this either. Most are indifferent towards the Royal Family, some even find them a highly offensive, parasitic feature of British life that should have been done away with a very long time ago.
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Vic – although I have some republican sentiments I’m not a fully paid up member. I certainly agree with you though that “UK royal family groupies” exaggerate the significance of the monarchy.
Although we could discuss the pros and cons of a British monarchy what ultimately should concern us is Guernsey. Given our constitutional status I would be reluctant to nail my colours to the republican mast until I was certain what that meant for us.
Without the monarchy our constitutional status would have to change. Where would that leave us? I could well imagine Guernsey being faced with the choice to either (a) jump in bed with the UK or (b) declare full independence. Despite the obvious appeal of (b) both options have huge ramifications for the island and both have significant concerns.
Personally I think reformation not abolition is the answer. The monarchy and the pomp surrounding it needs to be significantly scaled down; not giving public holidays for royal weddings is a good start.
From Guernsey’s perspective I would definitely like to see a full review of the position of Lt Governor. Although I can’t claim expertise I simply cannot see the point of what appears to be nothing more than an expensive ceremonial position. If nothing else I think there is definitely a case to share one Governor across the Channel Islands.
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