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| The Ron Paul of Jersey |
Let's start with Stuart himself, a politician of many years who conducted himself with absolute honesty and integrity, a politician for whom being ideologically consistent was more important than playing the game, a politician who in 2011 took the risk of running for Senator, when he could have walked into any Deputy's seat in any district in St Helier and probably some districts in St Brelade, St Saviour or St Clement. He still could and I expect that he will in 2014.
Over the course of my blogging I would hope that my admiration for politicians of Stuart's calibre is crystal clear. He fits into the Ron Paul and Nigel Farage mould and comparisons to Mandela and Gandhi are NOT erroneous, he has shown what Durkheim extolled as the ideal virtues of a politician. One for whom making a stand on important issues outweighs the personal consequences. Too many of our politicians are solely concerned with their own re-election or in ensuring that the 'right' deals are allowed to proceed for their friends and business partners.
On the 22nd February by comparison Philip Ozouf announced that there would be no tax increases for the next three years. Do you believe him? Well read into what he says -
They will be 'introducing user-pays charges for some services', now I cannot see what the difference is between a user pays charge and a tax. For example, the planning process applies fees to applications by the applicant, but it is not the applicant that uses the process. It is all the people who oppose the application who actually use the service so why do they not have to pay a charge? This user pays idea is dangerous because it is also counted as a 'decrease in expenditure'. The Court service for example 'cut expenditure' by 10% by increasing all the Court fees whilst still spending the same amount of money (and in fact actually spent more).
They will be 'borrowing money to invest in housing projects', now again to me that simply seems to be deferring the cost to the taxpayer with the additional cost of paying interest on the loan.
What happened to all the proud claims that Jersey does not have any government debt? Well, apparently we are going to have very soon. The government has some very major debts which it obscures, not least my pension. I am 40 now and the pot will be empty in 2030 when I will be only 58.
It is said that only the over 65's vote in Jersey which is largely true, the younger generation need to be made aware of the theft that is going on right now. They are already being bought into the bottom of a pyramid scheme for which the money is already all gone (Social Security) but now there futures are being mortgaged so the government can 'invest'.
The government was supposed to 'invest' the Social Security fund to provide for our future and yet not once have they invested in the only asset worth holding for the past decade GOLD.
There are two things that governments simply cannot do; invest wisely or operate efficiently. Governments are solely concerned with one thing; increasing the size of government whether it is in terms of intruding on the private lives of its citizens, increasing their budgets or increasing their head counts.
Ozouf is left-wing and so is Stuart Syvret, but Stuart will always get my vote because he is honest about what he is trying to achieve and the one thing we are short of is people who can conduct themselves as a politician should, with honesty, integrity and with no thought to the personal consequences of their actions. Only by taking on the wishes of the people as their own can anyone ever effectively represent the people. I would suggest to you that Stuart is a representative you can trust and believe in.
