The latest twist in the saga of how to raise £1.8m. – raiding air passengers rather than boatowners – is an indication that government in the round really does not understand the concept of ‘joined up’ far less practise what it preached back in the 2004 reforms that were supposed to make the States run more smoothly.

The two deputies, one a Policy Council member, who have come up with the proposal (or, if that does not find favour, targeting ferry passengers instead) appear to have dreamed up their cunning plan for very wrong reasons.

The first is that boatowners are also voters and the general election is not far away, so best not upset a vocal and organised section of the electorate.

Secondly, air passengers won’t notice the hike as much as receiving a threatening letter from the Harbour Office demanding an 18.5% increase in mooring fees.

Thirdly, passengers are a soft option. There’s lots of them, we can reef them and get away with it, the deputies are thinking.

What is lacking in this rapidly growing PR debacle is any indication of anyone seeking to take control, stand back and actually ask what needs to be done.

Public Services came up with its nonsense proposals for partly the right reasons: the Assembly told it to. That was in the aftermath of the island deciding not to borrow to fund further investment but it is now clear that looking at the harbours and airport as a cash cow is misguided.

Yet rather than dealing with that, as the deputy Treasury minister has suggested should have happened, a situation unsettling to airline operators, newsagents, boatowners and the construction industry is allowed to drag on while deputies pluck random ‘solutions’ from the air.

At the heart of this, however, is government’s refusal to control its own costs.

The disputed amount is less than 0.6% of the States budget and such a reduction in spend in any other organisation would be trivial to implement.

For Guernsey’s government, however, the immediate reaction is – yet again – to turn to the taxpayer, the consumer or to business to fund its own inefficiency.