Please feel free to rip it apart, without feedback no-one can make progress.
My 2008 manifesto.
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Why am I standing?
I stand because I am disenchanted with the abilities of our current States members to look after the "normal" people of this Island. The ones without 2.2 cars, without a mansion in the country or seafront and without property investments and a huge bank balance. The forgotten majority and the real backbone to the Island. I worry about the future for my children, and their chances of employment, ability to own a property, chances of a decent quality of life without needing to live in rented accommodation until they receive a possibly greatly reduced pension. Our voice is not heard in the States as was shown with the near 20,000 residents who petitioned against the introduction of GST, I want to champion the people of Jersey and be an effective voice within the States.
In the last elections I saw manifestos from many of the candidates which were nothing more than a list of wishes, or duplications of the questions that you the general public wanted to hear. My manifesto will include answers to those questions, they may not be the correct answer yet, but I fully believe that it is necessary to prove that a candidate is able to put something on the table, to show that they can think and plan ahead and to show a conviction to making Jersey government accountable and to understand the needs of its electorate.
What are my main manifesto points?
Full GAAP Accounting and GAAS Auditing
All departments, Quangos and companies linked to government should become fully GAAP account compliant (Including WEB, Heritage etc) and importantly accountable for overspend which should result in personal financial fines or removal from office for accountable persons if overspends are deemed unacceptable. GAAS accounting standards should be implemented on the auditing of these GAAP Accounts to be able to minimise the possibility of fraud and misrepresentation of monies. GAAP and GAAS are essentially approved accounting practices which reduce the chance to cook the books and require that all financial information is shown.
Provide efficiency from our States departments and Quangos
Provide value for money by eliminating waste, duplication and unnecessary spending without effecting the services received. This is a top down elimination of waste and not a bottom up approach. Looking at the accounts it is difficult to see where money is going to or coming from so GAAP accounting is a necessity to be able to provide efficiency within the States. I have noticed though that this years accounts have shown that last year we had 5 States employees earning up to a quarter of a million pounds EACH when all where in a bracket with a maximum of £220,000 in 2006. In 2006 there were 277 States employees earning more than £70,000 but in 2007 this figure jumped to 418 that’s a 51% increase, but the biggest place to save money is possibly in the area of inter-departmental invoicing which is open to abuse.
Encourage local small businesses
I believe that the small business is an essential part of Jersey's ability to diversify and employ from within the Island. Social Security payments should be reduced to the employee's wage for the first year or two. Regulations of Undertakings and manpower returns should be scrapped in order to allow quick growth should a business become successful and a credible work permit scheme should be employed to prevent a mass growth of outside labour.
Encourage savings for later life.
We cannot rely on pensions alone and it is important to make sure that tax relief is not only available on private pensions, Savings Plans and ISA's but continues to be available so that it encourages those entering work to save a bit extra for their retirement which will help in the reduction of our social security requirements in later years.
Encouraging students.
I believe the education department is failing our children. By using a target which is set to show the abilities of a select number of academically proficient children, they are spinning the figures to make it look like they are providing a service and that year on year that service is getting better. It encourages those in education to put more emphasis on those that will succeed rather than making sure that the children that are not as academically strong get a fair chance at being a productive member of society. These forgotten children are the ones that are entering highlands some as we have heard, without an ability to read and write properly. They are there to try and make a future for themselves and this should be encouraged but should have been encouraged early on in their school years (from 5 years).
Our teachers have to work to a target put to them by the education minister; do you not think that they would like to make sure that all the children are leaving with at least a good understanding of the real world and the abilities to see them succeed in this life? I do, I believe that the majority of teachers are in this profession for exactly that reason and that some are pressured into concentrating their time to achieve a false target to make a government department look good. Let's invest more into those that may not be able to get through their exams and help them become productive members of society not reliant on our social security system for their future.
But what happens to those that have hit the target? Those going on to University are entering the UK systems without any help from the government. What grant system do we have in place to make sure that our youngsters are on an equal footing with their fellow students?
A Jersey Gallery
No, No, NO. I have read the strategic plan for the art gallery and it is fundamentally flawed, the income they stipulate is the amount that is gained from a world renowned castle, our greatest landmark and the "expected income" for the art gallery is based on the same price and same visitor numbers. It mentions that the Museum's income is less than a third of this and yet it is ignored as the most probably amount for income. As well as a price tag of 22 to 30 million pounds to build (which will probably go well over budget) The employees that they list in the pay requirements have titles such as “ass Curator” (sic) etc, but no monition of the curator or his wage. it will cost well over half a million a year to run if the correct income amounts are put into the equation possibly closer to the million than half million. £30 Million plus the yearly cost that could be spent on making sure that all our children get a good education and a decent start in life £30 Million that could help our senior citizens afford to stay warm in the winter and provide free TV licenses for those in the higher age groups. £30 million that should not be spent while we are entering financial turmoil.
Taxis and Travel.
I would like introduce the prospect of twilight taxis to Jersey. This will be a number of extra licenses granted but only for the hours 10pm to 6am. It would be nice to request that these taxis are hybrid, thus encouraging some greener issues. Both taxi and cab prices should also by law be displayed on the rear door windows so that a customer will be able to work out the cost of a journey prior to leaving and decide if they wish to look for a cheaper ride.
Busses should be made so cheap (20p anywhere) that it is a viable option to using a car, even during wet or inclement weather, although this is a good idea, I have yet to find where funds would come from to supplement this, but I am confident that a thorough review of a good set of accounts will identify something without increasing taxes.
Fixed Growth Tier Housing
I have an idea for housing that will help our children to get into property ownership and allow them to enjoy a family life of their own in their own property. Using part of the States reserve, the States provide a price and requirements for property which will be put to tender to UK and Island developers and pay for properties to be built. These properties are then sold at cost of property and land plus 10% which goes back into the States coffers making sure that we are receiving a return on the investment. These properties are then registered with the court at their sale price and will be regulated to resale at later dates at the purchase price plus cost of living increases taking each year individually. This effectively takes these homes out of the property price ladder. Initially it may be set to Jersey born residents who have stayed in the Island for at least the last ten years, who have never owned a property either in their own right or through share transfer, but as more properties of this type are built the Jersey born part can come off and then the residency reduced. Anyone who inherits a property which is be assessed at more than £200,000 will need to sell their fixed growth property within a year and no buy to let or investors will be allowed. Tier residents will be able to purchase another tier property if they are selling their own tier property to move up or down in property size.
As these properties will have their resale price fixed it is envisaged that the split between the two types of property will be tier and normal will widen. This effectively means that anyone moving onto this scheme will be stuck in it for life unless their finances change drastically or they inherit. It will remove a number of people from the rental sector and therefore free up more rental properties making it easier and hopefully cheaper to rent within the island.
I will give more details on PlanetJersey.co.uk and will encourage discussion on this issue.
Immigration
If we remove the regulation of undertakings law we need to be able to stem/slow a possible influx of new people entering the Island. I have had a look at a number of immigration policies and the one I see as most befitting the Island is along the lines of the one in Madeira. It is not of course called an immigration policy, but is a work permit. In order to get a job in Madeira you need to fulfil three requirements. A similar one for Jersey could be.
1) A police check, to make sure that we are not importing trouble.
2) A medical, to make sure that they will not be an immediate burden on the social security system or drug addicts.
3) That they have sufficient savings and a place to live to enable them to last until a work permit is granted (2 months).
Employers found to be employing people without a work permit will be fined a minimum of £5,000. It would also mean that Social Security cards would need to be changed to make sure that anyone coming in didn’t say that they had already been in the island for x amount of months. If it is compliant with for Madeira in connection with the EU and human rights, then its should hold true in Jersey which is not even a member of the EU.
General Election
As was published on PlanetJersey on May 16th, “I have not decided yet if I will stand in this years election, but if I did I would stand first in the senatorial and make it plain to everyone and at every husting that I would stand for 3 years only so that a general election could be called”. This means that if a general election is only being stopped by the ones standing in this election saying that they have another 3 years to run and I was elected, I will resign and put myself up for re-election so that a general election can be called. I am glad that another candidate took note of my post and applaud him for taking the same stance, and hope that this will be guaranteed by other candidates during these elections. Jersey needs a general election, it needs the opportunity to remove those that they consider poor deliverers of their election promises and to also remove those that are not working in the interest of the general public, the voters, the taxpayers.
Childcare and Maternity Credits.
In 2002 I stated that we need free childcare for the under 4’s, my view on that has not changed as it allows mothers to go back to work and helps reduce the need to import from outside of the Island. I want to add an extra part this year and that would be the introduction of Maternity Credits. Young women, especially those in relationships are not on a level playing field when it comes to gaining employment. Our social security system encourages discrimination especially in the smaller markets. Why? Because a small company will need to pay Maternity pay and employ another person should a women get pregnant and so will give preference to men and older women. To prevent this and help discourage this discrimination I propose to request that the government adopts a Maternity Credit system, where an employer is able to remove the cost of the maternity pay from the amount of social security that is being paid by them on a quarterly basis. This is not a handout and is similar to the type of system that is already employed in places like the UK, but as always Jersey is sadly trailing behind in its attempts to make the workplace fairer.
Encourage Greener Cars
I would like to see GST & VRD removed from all zero emission vehicles, increase free parking spaces in public car parks available only to these vehicles and with charging stations in place. I admit that this will initially be to the benefit of the better paid, but eventually these cars will filter down the chain and hopefully replace the older model low MPG machines. It would be nice to see this happening in the taxi and hire car area as well.
GST
In my 2002 manifesto I was against the introduction of GST and made sure that I put this across at each hustings. I still believe that there is another way to make up the difference that the 0/10 will be losing us and if elected would make sure that I investigated each area completely in order to identify where this would be. If at the moment GST will not be removed from food (as was recently voted) I would like to see the amount made from food GST put back into reducing the cost of our staple diet such as fruit, veg, milk and bread.
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