One of the 'features'
of our system of government in Jersey is that it is small, flexible,
agile. That was the mantra we heard when justifying cutting the
number of senators from 12 to 8. No matter that in the opinion polls
a few years earlier retaining the Island wide mandate was the most
popular option. Notably, least popular– moving to a single
election day -was the one that the States implemented. Anyway last
Thursday George Osborne presented the UK government budget in
parliament. The election had been on May the 7th. We had
or elections on October 15th 2014, but still we do not
have the medium term plan – in effect our financial plans? Where
is the agile, efficient decision making there?
I was intrigued to read
that an “acute shortage” of staff for mid-level positions in
finance companies means that ministers have to drop restrictions on
bringing in staff from overseas. One wonders where those former
mid-level staff who were previously employed have gone. It also
somewhat undermines the case for the new Finance Centre. If finance
companies have not invested in training up staff it suggests they do
not see a particularly bright future. Are we to expect the Finance
Centre is to be filled by incoming companies and staff? The main
rationale for the J-cat system was to ensure we have trained up
locals to do exactly these roles. It seems that failed and the new
employment and housing set up is no better. No wonder then the
Planning and Environment Minister is calling for more empty offices
to be turned into flats.
http://www.channel103.com/news/index.php?storyid=41851&s=11
empty offices should be converted to flats.
If you are inclined you
can download the minutes of States sittings from the web site at
http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/Pages/Hansard.aspx
If you take the pdf download option you can then search it for items.
In this case I did for the sitting of the 23rd June. In
80 pages there is not a single mention of climate change, pollution,
the WHO news that glyphosate if likely a carcinogen, fishing,
farming, food. Even the word quality only gets one mention in
reference to low-quality schools, and environment only appears as part of Planning and Environment Minister title. There are pages on car parks
however.
Pressing ahead with
waterfront developments planning for more people, where to put more
cars and even a sunken road while the latest news, from 2 different
teams is that we are pretty much guaranteed 10 feet of sea level
rise. All is suborned to the short term growth addiction. Getting
it strategically wrong and doing so in the most inefficient manner
conceivable. It makes you weep
