Telecoms & Water

For the new intake to the States I was wondering what achievements they have made to benefit the wider community. Apart perhaps from Deputy Power in St. Brelade what are the local deputies doing for their community. Very little on the surface. I know in our area residents wished the speed of traffic to be reduced and this had been a concern of the electorate. Nothing was done.

Why are we, as taxpayers, still paying a salary to Senator Stuart Syvret. Whether he likes it or not his constituents are not just those that voted for him but the Island as a whole. Who is paying for his sojourn in London. Is he relying on the UK tax payer or on the benefaction of the MP.

But more importantly, apart from the JDM, I don't follow their politics, nothing has been said about the workers of Jersey Water and Jersey Telecom. Here are two companies which are owned by the States. The jobs are of real people with families, no doubt children in those families who are looking forward to Christmas. All the States can do is stand idly by and claim that this is competitive private enterprise. I would suggest that if Jersey Telecom wanted to make money it would do so by offering better customer service rather than demoralizing staff with talk of redundancy or compulsory redundancy.

The States of Jersey and the politicians (apart from the few mentioned above) should be ashamed of themselves in respect of Jersey Water and Jersey Telecom. They own the business. But as long as the States members take a salary it seems a case of looking after themselves even to the extent that they conduct constituency business from so called political asylum.

What the States needs to do is look at the wider civil service and the offices of various departments where 4 people can sit employed at our expense with clear desks and the JEP open the desk or the internet being browsed. No doubt there are other examples.