2

Islander

Marvellous isn’t it?
It’s always the other one who is to blame-
He’s not man enough to stand up to critics, ansd has been so ever since he came to power (power being just a word).

Well it has happened in Africa, perhaps little old Guernsey will start the ball rolling in Europe.

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4

Gary Blanchford

Normally I would not have even bothered to respond to this, but the above article has put all of the article in except my response, so i will finish the article here:

The facts that have been reported to the Committee have absolutely nothing to do with landsbanki Guernsey.
They stand totally alone on their own merits.

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6

soph

Who’s grabbing straws ~~ or votes?

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8

johnT

Garry

Absolute rubbish, you have been out to get Lyndon Trott ever since the Landsbanki demise.

You and your mates know you have a better chance to recoup your losses if you can topple him.

At the end of the day its just about greed, nothing else.

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10

M Flynn

JohnT

What utter tosh. You classify trying to recover lost savings (NOT risky investments) as GREED????? Hello!!

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12

Tom Waits

Again the GP only makes reference to South America but Trott also accompanied Berry all over Asia last year promoting Concept. I am happy to share the invitations if anyone doubts this.

Again I ask who was paying Trott’s salary at the time? If it was the Guernsey tax payer then surely there is an obvious question whether the tax payer should be paying his salary whilst he travels the world promoting a company of which he is a Director.

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14

Janson Bewey

Blah! Blah! Mummy, Gary has been telling tales about me: make him stop. Pathetic!

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16

Monty

I HAVE NOT LOST VAST SAVINGS IN THE COLLAPSE OF ANY BANK OR OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTION, but I an still outraged at ‘john T’s’ comment “at the end of the day it is just about greed”. If ‘john T’ manages to put some of his wages away every month over a long period to save him having to ask the people of Guernsey to fund his retirement with State Benefits, can he be described as being GREEDY? The very opposite I think! Does ‘john T’ regard himself as GREEDY when he accepts his rightful paypacket at the end of the month? How disgraceful to accuse anyone who wants to have their savings returned to them (following the obvious failure of the Guernsey FSC to do their job properly) of being GREEDY. As a resident who is interested in maintaining the integrity of Guernsey, yes, of course, I am sure many of Mr Trott’s activities should be looked into. He does seem to spend a lot of time away from the island visiting far flung corners of the world, always with an entourage of at least one other. I am not a financial person, but I do think these Companies should be expected to promote themselves. Is it necessary for the Chief minister to behave like the head of a big important country, instead of a tinpot jurisdiction that doesn’t seem to be able even to regulate itself properly. Is Mr Trott receiving his salary for the ‘day job’ whilst away promoting one individual Company?

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18

aumet

Well, I heard nothing about the website in the chief ministers bluster – can somebody please clarify?
Also as Mr blanchford says; this has nothing to d with LG – are the residents of Guernsey happy that its Chief Minister is used as a pawn for a privately owned institution.
Yet another example of the Chief Minister’s poor political nous and putting self over the electorate – how much more will the voters stomach?
for a proud island to be representated by such an individual hardly does you justice. If Libya can overthrow a despot surely Guernsey can do the same!

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20

Janson Bewey

To anonymous John T

You could be our next chief Minister. You spout opinion without any in depth research or comprehension of the subject just like our present encumberance. Sorry Feudian slip; I meant incumbent.

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22

GM

Gary Blatchford
So your action has absolutely nothing to do with Landsbanski does it? Do you think we were all born yesterday? You have a motive. That’s crystal clear. Who are the contributors crying out for Deputy Trott’s head? Let’s see – yourself. Eric Graham. M Flynn. Janson Bewey. Is Mark Ashby on holiday or something? Seems to be only his contribution missing. Oh – and Warren Barrett’s. Vocal Landsbanki depositors one and all. Nothing wrong with that but don’t treat us as being so naive that we can’t see that this is your naive and blatant attempt to topple Deputy Trott.

If you really stupid enough to believe that getting rid of Deputy Trott will increase your chances of a SOG payout then you don’t seem to have worked out how the SOG operates – by House vote.

For those many other Landsbanki depositors who realise how the system works and who aren’t engaging in an attempt to topple Deputy Trott I feel sorry for you. The idiots who are spouting off supposedly on your behalf (despite the bull**it of Gary Blatchford which fools nobody) are doing you absolutely no favours at all.

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24

Tom Waits

GM

I know that.

My question is; were the Guernsey tax payers funding his trip (salary or expenses) whilst he was off promoting his other job.

Can you clarify please?
Tom

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26

Nat

I am presuming John T’s comments regarding greed are associated with the high rates that Landsbanki were offering in the months prior to them going under.

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28

Terry Langlois

Tom Waits – your question is not really rrelevant. LT gets paid an annual amount by the States for fulfilling his duties. It is not an hourly rate and so his salary does not stop accruing just because he is doing other work. His States salary assumes that he will be doing other work for part of the year, just as long as he commits as much time as is required to the performance of his States duties.

I very much doubt that the States would pay expenses for a non-States trip.

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30

GM

Janson Bewey
I am not a States member, never have been and probably never will be.

I stand by my comment to you earlier.

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32

GM

bcb
My point is that Gary Blatchford says that his action in reporting Deputy Trott had nothing to do with the Landsbanki situation. However it is abundantly clear from the comments posted on this same thread by his fellow Landsbanki depositors that it has absolutely everything to do with the Landsbanki situation.

There might be some naive or gullible people out there who believe Gary Blatchford when he says that there is no connection. I’m not one of them.

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34

Janson Bewey

GM
You really should be a States menmber with your ability to conflate arguments. Had the cM not chosen to try to highlight a tenuious link between Gary’s complaint and him being a GFSC/Landsbanki victim we would not be having this conversation. My comment, that you took exception to, relates to his continued playground behaviour. Remember threatening Barry Brehaut? Probably not your sort have selective memories. And you still do not have the courage to say who you are. Now back to the argument. The cM came up on our radar as a self-interested person who will say things which have no factual basis and will renege on promises publicly made when someone isn’t working him, in our dealings with him. Deposing the cM will not get the money back only civil action against a discredited GFSC will do that if it is worth the cost. Gary never told the group of his plans until after he had put in the complaint and has never sought support for it from us. He too has the courage of his convictions to publically confront what he believes to be an injustice. G anonymous M you would do well to take a leaf out of his book. If you think we do an injustice to your mate stand up and show yourself. To summarise; whilst Gary’s action has come about whilst researching the problem of a Guernsey Registered Bank failing under the nose of the GFSC and the States, his complaint is a justifiable question as to the abuse of power. If the products he is promoting with Concept were to go pear shaped, as he using his States position to back up his credentials, the Island may find itself being sued for more than the LBG savers require in compensation. Sleep on that one!

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36

Eric Graham

GM

I sincerely hope you have done your full research on Gary Blanchford before making your recent comment (please note the correct spelling of the surname!).

Gary is a thoroughly decent, die-hard Guernseyman, who, as an ex-policeman, has served his community well.

Local history and politics are both something he cares passionately about and Gary has always been to the forefront in expressing his views and debating these issues with politicians. You are doing the guy a total injustice if you honestly believe that in this instance he has a totally different agenda other than bringing this whole matter regarding such a public figure as the Chief Minister to the attention of the community and having the facts investigated.

To castigate Gary in the way you have done is no way to treat a Guernseyman whose only apparent failing was to deposit his money in a Guernsey-registered bank and then have the audacity to speak out about it in public, when the bank failed.

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38

Gary Blanchford

GM
I think your post from the last forum says it all, without any input from me:

4. All the criticism has been aimed at the CM. Concept seem to be getting very little criticism but they are far from blameless here. Far from it. They know exactly what they are doing. How can a non-executive director, if he’s doing his job properly as an independent person, carry out those duties when such a good mate is the Managing Director? Impossible – there is no way that the CM should have put himself in that position, nor should Concept have put him in that position. Was he on the board of Concept before he was elected Treasury Minister or Chief Minister? I don’t believe so. He only became useful to Concept after he gained a high profile. Sorry – that’s just wrong and questions must be asked of Concept by the GFSC, WITHOUT any influence by the CM on the GFSC of course.

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40

Angela Beer

Instead of castigasting Mr Blanchford, I think we, the Taxpayers of the Bailiwick, should be thanking him for drawing this matter to our attention. Had it not been for him I certainly would not have picked up on it, although I did think Mr Trott had been on quite a lot of trips lately when there were rather pressing matters to attend to at home. Of course there must be an inquiry into these activities as all the politicians are accountable to us. We pay their salaries – and expenses. Whether Mr Trott is ‘guilty’ or ‘innocent’ will surely be revealed. Of course the whole matter of expenses etc has hit the headlines in the UK. Scrutiny is always important in government. Personally I shall be very disappointed in the whole setup if he is found to be behaving badly.

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42

devils_advocate

The fact that the person who reported the matter, of Mr Trott speaking on behalf of a company he is a non-exec of and having his title as head of the Guernsey policy council (over generous Chief Minister) being used as what can only be construed as a confidence boost for Concept, is not an issue when the matter is a FACT.

As Mr Trott thought it was necessary to inform all States members of matters that have no significance to CM role, unless he recognises a conflict of interest so attempts to distract the attention away from himself.

Are the Guernsey tax payers sponsoring Mr Trott for the benefit of Concept? How often has Mr Trott travelled overseas and acted as an exec for Concept without any States role involved in the trip? What is it that Mr Trott is able to tell the audience that cannot be told by the CEO or executive directors of Concept?

I thought when Mr Trott took over as CM he said it was a full time role, which is why he gave up his previous part time employment virtually immediately after being appointed as CM. Why then only a few months later, he then took on another job?

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44

GM

Mrs Meat
The CM can be a “two hat” because he has openly declared his interests and is paid by both of them. Gary Blanchford isn’t paid by either of his “hat” and denies that his two hats are even connected although the loud echoes of his approach by his fellow Landsbanki depositors indicates the complete opposite.

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46

bcb

GM
Carry on with the good work but i think most are interested in what LT has or has not done.

This Grudge towards LT from GB as you see it, is becoming the main isssue here but thats exactly what LT and it seems yourself wants?.

If LT has done nothing wrong then thats great because we dont want someone like that (if he`s guilty) as our CM.

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48

T.W.

This is taken from the Guernsey Electricity website. It’s nice to see that States members accepted their reponsibilities back then…

At noon on Friday July 5th 1991 the Bank of England cancelled the authority for BCCI to accept deposits, effectively forcing it to close. It was claimed, by some sources, that at the time the bank had some 140,000 creditors, world wide, and had liabilities of up to £10 billion. At the date of closure the Electricity Board had £5.35 million on deposit with this bank, but £1 million of this had been accepted by BCCI at 2.17 p.m. on July 5th which was after it should have ceased trading. This deposit was returned in 1993 with interest to the date of return.

Liquidating the affairs of the bank was a protracted and involved affair, including civil and criminal lawsuits that went on for several years in many countries. In Britain, the House of Commons set up an official enquiry that led to criticism of the Bank of England’s role in the affair, but which fell short of recommending that the British Government should compensate depositors for their losses. Geoffrey Norman, president of the Electricity Board, informed the States at its meeting on July 31st 1991 that the members of the Board, as trustees for the funds of the undertaking, accepted some responsibility for the potential loss and offered their resignation en masse. This was accepted and the States proceeded to appoint new members, with Deputy William (Bill) Bell as the president.

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