This Is Guernsey » Comment

It’s about more than the beer

GP Opinion — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:30:15 +0000

ISLANDERS who don’t ‘do’ beer could be forgiven for wondering what all the excitement was about the opening last night of La Piette, Guernsey’s newest brewery. (more…)

Politics of dictatorship are narrow

GP Opinion — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:40:13 +0000

A BROADSIDE from the Housing minister aimed at Jersey’s political system – little more than an elected dictatorship and a failure of a fledgling executive set-up, he termed it – was an interesting commentary on the Channel Islands experience of government. (more…)

Up for a challenge, minister?

GP Opinion — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:30:22 +0000

TWO of the more headline-grabbing events of the holiday weekend – apart from weather that could only be described as autumnal – were those that gave people an opportunity to gather and mingle. (more…)

Not parties, there’s a real issue

GP Opinion — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:00:18 +0000

OVER the last couple of days, a Jersey senator has been attempting to generate a debate on whether the Channel Islands should have political parties but, in reality, it is a pretty futile task. (more…)

Finance call deserves

GP Opinion — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:30:00 +0000

BAILIFF Geoffrey Rowland’s SOS – Save Our Shows – was a timely reminder that without public support cherished island institutions are at risk.
(more…)

‘Unfit’ claim is just half the story

Subs — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:30:38 +0000

AN ANNOUNCEMENT by the Policy Council that it has accepted a conclusion from an independent report that there is a case for reconsidering the way in which the States engages with its employees over pay and conditions had all the appearances of being issued in haste. (more…)

Real need is to reduce the payroll

GP Opinion — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:30:07 +0000

NEXT month’s industrial tribunal to resolve the pay dispute between the States and its manual staff will have a significance that goes beyond simple labour relations. (more…)

Pleased the reforms are being driven

GP Opinion — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:30:43 +0000

GUERNSEY’S Treasury minister has highlighted two areas of concern about the way the States looks after public finances. The first is the operation of a fund designed to maintain the ports and the second is the accepted practice of departments holding on to money they have not spent. (more…)

Permission to speak

GP Opinion — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:30:36 +0000

IN his interview in the Guernsey Press Inside Politics column today in page 14, Deputy David De Lisle reflects that he will probably do a better job as a deputy now that he has lost his job on the Policy Council and become a ‘back-bencher’. (more…)

Jersey needs to put the record right

GP Opinion — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:30:21 +0000

THE TIMES used its second most prominent news page yesterday to carry further police criticism of the difficulties being experienced in getting suspects in the Haut de la Garenne child abuse inquiry charged and before Jersey’s courts. (more…)

A ‘no strike’ stance could earn respect

GP Opinion — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:30:00 +0000

LEADERS of the union Unite are today looking increasingly marginalised as it emerged that they have turned down a near-RPI settlement and the States negotiating body expressed its concerns about its conduct and the on-going threat of strike action. (more…)

Position: impossible

GP Opinion — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:30:01 +0000

IN A LETTER here earlier this month, leading advocate and former States member Roger Perrot touched, in a much wider item of correspondence, on financial services regulation and what he described as ‘the continuing wish of our regulators to regulate to a platinum standard’. Despite that, Guernsey and Jersey had managed to outpace their rivals. (more…)

More strikes will only weaken case

GP Opinion — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:30:53 +0000

MANUAL staff employed by the States of Guernsey have a decision to make – whether to take further industrial action in support of their above-RPI pay claim or accept that an arbitrated settlement is inevitable and simply await its arrival. Under the island’s labour laws, failure to negotiate a deal means one of two things: staff and employer going to voluntary arbitration or, if either side objects to that, the industrial disputes officer referring the matter to an industrial tribunal. (more…)

A stain on our island’s

GP Opinion — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:20:26 +0000

SO THAT’S all right then. Panic over. Thousands of gallons of raw sewage are no longer pouring into the sea every hour of every day from various pipes around the island polluting beaches and representing a health hazard to bathers.
Instead, thousands of gallons are pouring into the sea just below the low water mark at Belle Greve Bay. Not so much plus ca change! as phew! ca change.
If the damage to the island’s coastline has been temporary, the stain on its reputation will take far longer to scrub off. Holidaymakers have made their disgust clear on learning that a wealthy island such as ours employs such Third World techniques for ridding itself of waste.
And who can blame them? Imagine arriving at your island paradise in the Med with your family for a well-earned two-week summer break only to find signs on the beaches warning you that swimming was dangerous because of raw effluent.
If there are people and politicians still willing to peddle the old ‘it’s OK because the sea’s strong currents disperse the sewage so quickly’ argument they are now surely rarer than a good beach guide award at Fermain Bay.
Society will no longer accept such a polluting method of sewage disposal. End of story.
Except it isn’t the end. That will come only when enough money and a suitable space is found to build a treatment plant.
At the last count it was at least £50m. and would no doubt now be far more expensive. And who wants a sewage plant on their doorstep?
But islanders need this problem sorted. It is a national embarrassment.
However, as we read today, sewage treatment will have to fight hard for its cash. Education has two huge schools to rebuild and Health wants to modernise mental health services. Both are worthy causes.
And there are those who would prioritise a new runway surface above them all, simply because of its vital importance to our economy, without which nothing gets funded.
Yet these are tough times. And who is going to fight for a sewage treatment plant? Commerce and Employment for one. Yet the supposed champions of tourism, are notable only for their silence.

Leave bully boy out of kiosk wars

GP Opinion — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:30:50 +0000

ATTEMPTS by the Treasury Department and the Crown Officers to close a local kiosk unless its owners of 17 years conform to bureaucratic convention took a disturbing turn yesterday. (more…)