The economic future for 'Jersey'

Whatever the Government Says, times are getting tougher
and it is the Government's fault

The JEP has covered a story relating to the attempts of Alan MacLean to limit the population. Although the paranoid streak in me read the headline 'the population can be controlled' in a slightly different way.

With the end of the 'fulfillment industry' the economic future for 'Jersey' is going to need some rethinking, or maybe they will continue along their plough ahead regardless path as they usually do.

You see to the government, 'Jersey' does not mean the people of Jersey, nor the island of Jersey, it means simply the government of Jersey.

It is simply not important to me whether the plans for continued government expansion continue apace or not, in fact if I had my way the government would be shrinking and fast.

The principle of subsidiarity would hold that the smallest administrative unit possible should make the decisions. Now the smallest unit possible is the individual, then the family and so on and so forth up to the mega corrupt super bureaucracies of the EU, Federal Government in the US or the Soviet Government in the USSR (as was). The reason for this is simple; if the individual is making decisions for themselves then they are likely to make wise decisions, enlightened self-interest if you will. But the further up the chain you go the more distant the person who makes the decision is from the consequences of that decision and so corruption inevitably arises as the decision makers make those choices which benefit themselves personally, although this may be to a lesser or a greater extent.

There is no reason that certain decisions could not rest with the Parishes in Jersey, this would include Road Maintenance, Street Cleaning, Planning, Primary Education, Welfare. Indeed it would be preferable to have these things controlled by private individuals and the parish assembly (which is constituted of all residents and ratepayers) rather than some nameless, faceless Civil Servant who has no personal stake in the decisions made.

There is a big argument for keeping the Constables in the States, but I would prefer to see more of the States work returned to the Parishes and therefore giving the Constables no spare time to do States work

I quite like most of the Constables personally, they are affable and approachable, that is because they are directly held to account by the people they represent.

That is the solution for Jersey's economic future, kill the high spending, corrupt bureaucracies and return the power whereever possible to the Parishes.

Government is not the solution, government is the problem. They will likely now react by raising taxes, selling off assets and borrowing money, to ensure that the Government continues to operate and flourish. Debt is the currency of slaves.

The problem is that the Government do want to keep the population controlled and they are not talking about the number of people living here, they are talking about making the island a prison.