Navel Gazing

I was deeply unimpressed by the shameful debate on Thursday on the 2nd day of the September States meeting. It’s not like me not to say anything but I refused to take part in something that could only serve to bring Deputies down in the eyes of the public.

It was obvious how the media would interpret it – as Deputies voting themselves a pay rise.  The fact is we shouldn’t have been put in a position to vote on our own pay. The Independent Review Board looked at pay at the end of the last term and this was approved by the previous States. That should have been it. The Requete was gesture politics that effectively has backfired on the requerants and brings the whole Assembly down.

I voted against the Requete because I do not believe we should vote on our pay. In addition, far from voting ourselves a pay rise, we have continued to allow our pay to reflect the level of median earnings on the Island. As investment managers like to tell you, ‘your salary can go down as well as up’.

If nothing else, I hope Thursday’s debate will be a lesson learnt and that everyone realises we should not be wasting 4 hours navel gazing and look at the more important issues that are staring us in the face.

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