The decision by the States to stop free milk for primary school children to save a small amount of money is a a disgraceful act of meanness which will harm the healthy development of Jersey children. Free school milk for primary school children was stopped in February.

I know that a number of States members were persuaded to support dropping the free-milk scheme by misleading information given to the House by two ministers – the Minister for Economic Development, Senator Alan Maclean and the Minister for Health, Deputy Ann Pryke.

The first “porky” came from Senator Maclean who told the House that the free milk scheme was costing the tax-payer £180,000, when, in fact, a week earlier,he had received a letter from Jersey Dairies saying that they were prepared to subsidise it to the tune of £40,000 - so the cost to the Jersey tax-payer was £140,000. The States were not given this information Click here to read the whole article

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Petition to stop cutting school milk

WHY THE” SMALL SOCIETY” IS NOW THE “very small society”

When the “ tax and cut debate” was at its height last year and the JDA and combined unions were bombarding States members with powerful and well-researched arguments based on the universally accepted maxim that you don’t slash public sector jobs when a recession is in progress, there appeared on the horizon a strange animal calling itself “The Small Society”.

This so-called organisation allegedly consisted of the Jersey Hospitality Association, the Jersey Association of Trust Companies, the Jersey Bankers Association, the Institute of Directors and the Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society. They produced brochures which were placed in stores owned by Kingfisher (Checkers, Marks and Spencers) and they took full page ads in the JEP headed SAVE FIRST, TAX LAST. THIS IS THE SOLUTION”

In their ad they claimed they were “a group committed to ensuring that the development of Jersey’s government policy and infrastructure is appropriate and in the best interests of the island” (in fact their policies are appropriate to the wealthy section of Jersey society only-people who don’t want their taxes increased). They called on the Council of Ministers to "commit absolutely to the programme of cost savings that they have proposed and to, in fact, go further”..

Dr Cameron McPhail

All of their arguments were published under a heading of “FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW”.We publicly challenged their facts and tried to organise a public debate between myself and Deputy Geoff Southern and any two spokesmen who the “Small Society” chose to nominate. Unfortunately, we were unable to match up dates and availability of the Town Hall so it became impossible.

Fortunately for Jersey, there was a champion for the truth not prepared to put up with this mis-information onslaught by people allegedly representing some respectable organisations and who should know better.

His name? Dr. Cameron McPhail, well-known economist in Jersey who has held a variety of important posts within Jersey’s institutions. He was chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Wealth Management Division and before that ran the RBS International Division. Today, he sits on a number of important boards, co-owns Flower and Plant Nurseries Ltd and specialises in investment and private equity management. Click here to read more. Thank you Dr. McPhail

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“SAY: NO TO GST” IT'S NOT OVER YET!

New fight to rectify this injustice

Senator Alan Breckon has lodged a new proposition to remove GST from foodstuffs in line with the UK’s VAT arrangements as well as from domestic energy and fuel.

Old story: new fight: against background of changed circumstances.

Click here to read the whole of this article

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JOHN MILLS IS WRONG ABOUT OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

and

TAKE THAT MR DIX

JDA Secretary and president of the Jersey Teachers Association, Anne Southern, has been particularly angered by a letter to the Jersey Evening Post, by Mr. John Dix, who persistently shows his ignorance on many matters, and decided to have a dig at the island’s pupils and teachers. The message is very clear—with respect to education in Jersey Mr. Dix is, as usual, totally out of his depth and in denial of the facts. Well done Anne- he deserves all he gets Click here to read more

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COMPLAINT TO THE PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSION

JDA president Mr. Ted Vibert has lodged a formal complaint with the Press Complaints Commission about the reporting and coverage given by Jersey Evening Post reporter Ben Queree over the JDA petition, which attracted over 10,000 signatures, asking for the Chief Minister to sack the Treasury Minister. The PCC is an independent body which administers a system of self-regulation of the press and adjudicates on breaches of their code of conduct which applies to all UK newspapers. “The purpose of the PCC is to serve the public by holding editors to account We strive to protect the rights of individuals while at the same time preserving appopriate freedom of expression for the press,” said a spokesman.

The JDA complaints against the JEP and Ben Queree are:

• They published in- accurate misleading and distorted information about our petition.
• They failed to distinguish clearly between comment and conjecture and fact.
• Ben Queree failed to establish whether or not his complainant was in fact a signatory to the petition.
• He also failed to ask the JDA why they had not included the freezing of GST at 3% in the “prayer” of the petition, which was the nub of the JEP campaign against us, which went against all aspects of fair reporting
• The prominence given to the story based on one identifiable signatory was totally disproportionate considering over 10,000 people had signed the petition.
• The editorial headed JDA SIGNS AWAY ITS CREDIBILITY was totally out of proportion to the facts of the case

It is expected to take several weeks before the Commission makes a determination of the case.

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WHO PAYS JERSEY TAX? ….. WE DO!

Figures produced today by JDA Deputy Geoff Southern show that in the past decade the tax burden for running Jersey has shifted dramatically from business to the ordinary workers of Jersey.

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IT'S TIME WE SAW THE BACK OF THIS LADY
What was extra-ordinary about the information that the new hospital managing director was getting £312,000 a year was that Health Minister Deputy Anne Pryke thought this was” good value for money”.
The fact that she got her figures wrong and it was £216,000 was a measure of how much this lady is out of her depth. That she is in charge of such a massive portfolio as health is scary. How can she possibly think that £312,000 a year was value for money when the man was earning between £110,000 - £140,000 a year in his last job. (He must have thought all his Christmases had come a once when he took the Jersey job) Click here to read the whole of this article

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EVEN MORE ELECTION PROMISES FROM THE SENATOR
Such has been the mendacity of our Treasury Minister that I decided to go back and look at his election manifesto of 2008 and see how many of his promises he has broken. I have earned a reputation as a team player” He forgot to add “provided you agree with him - ask Deputy of St. Lawrence. “I had the vision to improve St. Helier and we delivered Broad Street and many other town improvements” of course, the St. Helier Constable or the ten deputies had nothing to do with this. He claimed that the Competition Law that he introduced-along with the Competition authority -“ which at last outlawed cartels and price fixing and has made a real difference on prices in telecoms, transport and many other areas” Click here to read the whole of this article

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FUNNIEST STATES QUESTION OF THE MONTH

This award goes to Deputy Paul Le Claire who produced this gem at the last sitting of the States addressed to the Chief Minister, Senator Le Sueur about his statement on zero-ten. “This seems to put an end to the great uncertainty within Jersey and the position of its tax regime. In the statement it says we believe this puts our regime back to the position which ECOFIN approved in 2003 when it was agreed that zero ten was acceptable that clearly states that there was a concept that was approved . Does the Chief Minister not agree with me that now is the time to stop asking questions and disagreeing with the chief minister and now is the time to get behind the chief minister and bury our heads in the sand along with them?” Senator Le Sueur answered: “There are some people who will never be satisfied with anything I say”.
Great question , Paul. Poor answer, Senator. The reason why a lot of people don’t believe anything you say is because you have caught the Ozouf disease of spin and obsfucation.

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TREASURY MINISTER SHOULD RESIGN SAYS JDA

The Treasury Minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, should resign in the light of the statements made by Lord McNally on Saturday about Jersey’s zero-ten tax policy.

Lord McNally is the UK politician responsible for the relationship between the States of Jersey and the Coalition government. In meetings with senior States members on Thursday and Friday, he spelt out very clearly that Jersey’s zero-ten tax policy was considered harmful by the EU Council on Corporate Taxation and it had to be changed “better sooner than later.”

Former Senator Mr. Ted Vibert, President of the Jersey Democratic Alliance, said that the misleading and contradictory information being put out to the public by Senator Ozouf had been disgraceful.

“When we received inside information that the EU Council had determined that zero-ten was harmful taxation and therefore non-compliant with their Code, Senator Ozouf told the island that no such meeting had even been held and that I was being irresponsible by suggesting that such a meeting had been held and what the result was.”

“In fact that meeting was held on 23rd September, attended by representatives from Jersey, and the Isle of Man, and they made submissions to the Council and answered questions.

The Treasury Minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, should resign in the light of the statements made by Lord McNally on Saturday about Jersey’s zero-ten tax policy.

Senator Ozouf consistently refused to accept that zero-ten was non- compliant with the EU code of conduct. In public meetings he kept assuring islanders that he was “totally and positively” sure that it would be approved by the Council..
Former Senator Mr. Ted Vibert, President of the Jersey Democratic Alliance, said that the misleading and contradictory information being put out to the public by Senator Ozouf had been disgraceful.

“In fact that meeting was held on 23rd September, attended by representatives from Jersey, and the Isle of Man, and they made submissions to the Council and answered questions.

“Their report was then submitted to the EU Commissioners for evaluation to be discussed at the Commissioners meeting on 19th November. At that meeting, the Commissioners decided that zero- ten did not comply with their Code of Conduct on Business Taxation and had to be changed.
Mr. Vibert said that Senator Ozouf then admitted that a meeting had been held but that the Council had only discussed the deemed distribution and attribution aspects of zero-ten and not the whole of the regime.. This information was also repeated by Jersey Finance.
However in their statement issued last week, the UK Treasury said “the EU Commission’s evaluation focused on the zero-ten regimes as a whole, not merely the deemed distribution and attribution provisions in isolation”

“Yet another untruth from the Treasurer” said Mr. Vibert

Mr. Vibert continued: “ We then had Senator Ozouf claiming that it was all a minor matter and could be easily fixed. We now know from the horse’s mouth that the zero ten policy is in tatters and this is a very, very serious position in which Jersey now finds itself. The JEP editorial of 9th December put everything in its perspective when it said “if the relevant EU group has already made up its mind that zero-ten is damaging or must be abolished or radically amended, a vital pillar of the island’s tax regime would be under threat. The knock-on effects of having to dismantle zero-ten would be dramatic. It would mean that forecasts for the tax the island can expect to receive in the future would be very seriously undermined”

“And finally, we had Senator Ozouf insisting that the UK Treasury had got it wrong This was countered by a policy advisor from the Corporate Tax team of HM Treasury, who confirmed that everything in the press statement they issued were the views of HM Treasury.

“Any doubts about the position were totally removed by Lord McNally whose message was very loud and clear that zero-en was unacceptable and had to be changed.

“At a time when the ;people of Jersey need to be told the truth on this vital matter all we have had is spin, obfuscation and completely misleading statements. Coming from a man holding one of the most important positions on the Council of Ministers, who travels the world as the face of Jersey finance, it is completely unacceptable. The Chief Minister should give him his marching orders” said Mr.Vibert

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ZERO-TEN TAX REGIME NOT COMPLIANT

The EU Council on Business Taxation has just declared that the zero-ten tax system operated by Jersey and the Isle of Man does not comply with the EU Code of Conduct for Business Taxation, according to information received by the Jersey Democratic Alliance.

President of the JDA, Mr. Ted Vibert. said that he had received information last night from their contacts in Brussels that zero-ten was deemed to be non-compliant with their Code of Conduct. Guernsey’s position was not considered as it has declared that it will be scrapping its zero-ten tax regime.

The Code of Conduct was agreed by members of the EU back in 1999 following a two yeas process of investigation and negotiation amongst member States. Its purpose is to eradicate harmful tax measures which are defined as “ tax regimes which affect, or may affect, in a significant way, the location of business activity within the the Community” .

“There are five core requirements to be met for a tax system to be deemed compliant and a failure to meet just one of them will result in a verdict of non-compliance. Our information is that zero-ten failed three of them” said Mr. Vibert.

Said Mr.Vibert: "From the very outset, we have opposed the zero ten tax system as it was obvious to us that it was in breach of the EU Code of Conduct . However, various senior Jersey politicians insisted that it met all the requirements of the Code. Only two months ago Senator Ozouf was assuring people at public meetings that he was confident that it would be approved.

“A scrutiny panel, of which I was a member, said that it did not regard the verbal assurance allegedly given by a member of the UK government that it would be acceptable to the EU Council was satisfactory and it was dangerous and irresponsible to go ahead without written confirmation from the UK. It was only ever a crafty attempt to circumvent the EU code thought up, no doubt, by some international tax lawyer”

“The people of Jersey are now paying a terrible price for this tax system which has seen a £100 million drop in our revenue resulting in cuts to hospital services, job losses, GST increases, school fee rises and even school milk taken away primary schoolchildren”
“Senators Le Sueur and Ozouf are the two politicians remaining in the House who were instrumental in pushing zero-ten through the States and they should resign immediately” said Ted Vibert

For further information contact: Ted Vibert mob 07797846764 625591

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More Lies from Senator Le Sueur

Over the past few weeks the chairman of the Jersey Chamber of Commerce has made statements to the effect that the “black hole” in our revenue has been caused by overspending by the States. He was supported by Mr. David Kern, the Chief Economist of the British Chamber of Commerce.

The island’s chief minister then joined in the chorus, blaming overspending by the States for our fiscal deficit and insisting that he had constantly been calling for restraint in spending.

It is surprising that our chief minister should support such ill-informed comment. The figures for the last seven years shows that our revenue has totalled £3.8 billion and the cost of running the island has been £3.3 billion—a budget surplus of £500 million. If capital projects of £365 million are added in Jersey is still £135 million in front. This figure includes paying cash of £108 million for the incinerator- in retrospect a rather foolish decision

Far from constantly calling for restraint, Senator Le Sueur, on several occasions, has praised the States for their responsible attitude towards spending. Nowhere in the financial reports presented to the States from 2003 to 2010 has there been any or criticism from him about States spending. The reason, of course, is that Jersey has not been overspending, despite the claims of the Chamber of Commerce.

Just to remind your readers what Senator Le Sueur has said during the presentations of his Budget reports:
• 2003 “ financial discipline was exercised over the General Reserve Fund resulting in 24.6 million of the 27.7 million allocation being spent.”
• 2004 “States expenditure grew by less than the rate of inflation, reflecting the real strides that have been made to put the brakes on what may have been regarded as the spending excesses of the past”.
• 2006 “we ended the year within budget. In a year of significant financial pressure, this was an excellent result”
• 2007 “spending rose by3.3%. Not only was this increase less than the rate of inflation but it was also the smallest increase in States spending in the last 20 years.” So why does the Chief Minister side with the Chamber of Commerce to push forward this totally untrue scenario of overspending on to the public of Jersey?. One can only assume that it is because he still wishes to hide from the public that the real cause of the” fiscal black hole” is the disastrous zero-ten tax policy that he pushed through with former Senator Frank Walker and Senator Ozouf

We , the people of Jersey, are paying for that mistake in cuts in services, jobs losses and increased taxation.

Christine Papworth
Chairperson,
Jersey Democratic Alliance

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Budget: Freeze GST says Deputy

Deputy Geoff Southern has lodged an amendment (P 157/2010) to the 2011 Budget to freeze the rate of GST at 3% until at least June 2012.

“Now is not the time to be imposing such tax rises on the working people of the island” says the Deputy. “Such a move will cost households over £800 a year on average. At a time when Senator Ozouf is considering a 2-year pay freeze it will hurt every islander.

GST remains a regressive tax which hurts the least well off most. It will also further depress the economy, damaging local retailers most. These are facts which no amount of “categorical assurances” can deny. Senator Ozouf is putting any recovery in danger with his high-risk game of immediate tax rises for the low and middle earners.”

“The time has come to use the Rainy Day Fund forestall knee-jerk tax rises such as a hike in GST” says the Deputy. “We could and should spend £26m of last year’s £50m interest on the Strategic Reserve to protect ourselves over the coming year. Tax rises must not be imposed until recovery is in place. Once GST is raised, it will never come down. If we do not stop this now, then sooner or later it will be at 17.5 % and we shall all be worse off.”

Further info: Geoff Southern 07797 772 632

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Ozouf launches attack on Jersey

by Geoff Southern

With the Budget chained firmly tied to the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) last week, the Treasury Minister, Philip Ozouf, finally and openly declared war on the ordinary residents of Jersey.

“Having warmed up with snatching school milk, closing hydrotherapy and letting go of front-line police, customs and medical staff in stage 1 of the CSR, he has launched a full-frontal cut and tax attack in stage 2, which leaves none but the wealthy unharmed,” says Deputy Geoff Southern, on behalf of the JDA.

The message is clear: If you are a worker whose pay is frozen; if you are a pensioner on a fixed income; if you are vulnerable and on Income Support; young or old: Jersey is not for you. Don’t be poor or sick in Jersey. In fact even for those workers on an average wage, struggling to support your family, Jersey is not for you.

Despite all his promises, Senator Ozouf has raised GST. The average household already pays over £1,400 a year in GST. Senator Ozouf will raise this by an eye-watering £900 to over £2,300 at a stroke from June next year. We all knew he would put GST up – here it is – a 66% hike. How will ordinary workers and families make ends meet?

Over the next 3 years he will take over £100m extra from the pockets of ordinary Jersey residents, and only £25m from business, little from the really wealthy 1(1)(k) residents, and still nothing from non-local, non-finance companies.

After giving away £100m of business tax through zero/ten, he asked the ordinary Jersey residents to pay an extra £70 m to make up for the shortfall. He now wants to make them pay again. This is yet another budget for the wealthy at the expense of the rest.”

What impact will these proposals have?

FOR WORKERS

– a £14m cut, the largest single element, will come from employee terms and conditions – top of the list?
a 2-year wage freeze

• Whilst wages are frozen, GST costs for the average family will go up by over £900

• Ozouf claims only around 150 job losses. The reality is that
250 jobs will be lost by 2013, with more to follow in 2014. These job losses will further depress the economy.

• Massive reductions in overtime and shift rates, sick pay and pension conditions which will be trialled on public sector workers before they spread into the private sector.

FOR PENSIONERS

• Single pensioners will pay an extra £300 a year in GST for pensioner couples it will mean a extra £700 GST

• Proposed £2m in compensation for those least well off will be swamped by a £4m reduction in Income Support

• Rehabilitation and assessment services for older people will be reduced by £400 k

FOR CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE

• Nursery and pre-school hours reduced to 20 hours £275,000 extra in fees charged to parents

• £90,000 to be charged for instrumental lessons

• Over 60 teaching posts to be lost by 2013 from schools accounting for over £2.75m spending cuts

• Unemployment for young people will continue to rise

Further info: Geoff Southern 07797 772 632

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No Need for these School Cuts

The school cuts being proposed by the Education Minister would not have been necessary if the States had agreed to use interest from the Strategic Reserve (Rainy Day Fund) to ease the island over our current financial problems, according to Jersey Democratic Alliance president, former Senator Mr.Ted Vibert.

Deputy Geoff Southern made this proposal in the recent debate on cuts to various Government services but was defeated. He argued that the Fund was set up for precisely this reason. To not to use a small part of it - or just the interest received - for the next five years after which Jersey’s economy (along with the rest of the world ) should have recovered was, he said, economically incompetent.

Said Mr. Vibert: “The attitude of the Chief Minister, the Treasury Minister and other members of the Council to the thought of using the Rainy Day Fund in any way to ease us through our current problem, which they themselves caused through their zero-ten tax policy, has been quite extra-ordinary.

“Any businessman faced with a drop in revenue that threatens his company’s survival, but who knows that this is only temporary, goes to his bank manager and borrows money to tide him over. That has been the very life-blood of business from time immemorial. Why then is it so wrong for the States of Jersey to do what is obvious, instead of inflicting financial punishment on its citizens.”

He added: “Some States members described the JDA proposal as the slippery slope to ruin. Borrowing responsibly within your means and with the ability to pay your loans back has been the road to success for thousands of businesses throughout the world and actually avoids the slippery slope”

Mr. Vibert said that it was clear that the States were determined to push on with their cuts, regardless of the consequences. Whilst the JDA felt that fee paying schools should share the burden of the cuts, it should be obvious to the Education Minister that carrying out these cuts over a three year period would cause many problems for some people who were already straining their financial resources to provide their children with the education they chose. In addition, there was the upheaval that would be caused by children having to change schools if their parents were unable to meet the fee increases.

“If these cuts have to be made, they should be phased in over a five year period not three” said Mr. Vibert. “This should help to cushion the blow and give sufficient time for parents to arrange alternative education if that’s what has to happen.” “In addition, there should be no reason why a grants scheme could not be set up to help those parents whose children are still at school and who find they cannot afford this type of education We already have such a scheme for university grants. This could be phased out completely by 2015”

“It’s just a shame that, as is their usual practise, so many members of the States fail to consider the effect their actions have on many sections of Jersey society.”

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