Bailiwick Express recently published an interesting personal insight into all the 2014 Senatorial candidates , here is mine

Q . What one thing would you do to improve life in Jersey?

 A. Policies to reduce traffic congestion , still more and better public transport , restore a traditional car ferry in addition to fast ferry for reliability and day trips .

 Q What’s your favourite place in Jersey?

 A St Aubins harbour

 Q What’s your favourite meal?

A. Spaghetti Bolognese

 Q. What’s your favourite pizza topping?

 A. Quatre Fromage

 Q. What’s your favourite drink?

 A. Cider (Somerset or C.I )

 Q,. What’s your favourite song?

 A. Turn, Turn, Turn by The Byrds ( Bob Dylan song)

 Q. What’s your favourite book?

 A. As a Bibliophile , impossible for me to chose one

Modern Fiction – Sovereign-C J Sampson ( Historic crime fiction)Early 20^th Century Fiction – Dead Ned John Masefield ( Poet Laurate) so fresh – warants a film script

Classic – Far from the Madding Crowd- Thomas Hardy

Non Fiction – Diaries – Alan Clark ( Politics with spice )

 Q. What’s your favourite film?

 A. Not a great film goer , but anything with great film music , by John Williams, Craig Armstrong , Thomas Newman , Hams Zimmer ,

Most fun The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ( music by Thomas Newman )

 Q. If you were an animal what would you be?

 A .Dolphin

 Q. Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with, and why?

 A. Boris Johnson , his gift for making humour and creative expression and I would love to learn how he does it ,and pick up lots of anecdotes

 Q. Who would you hate to be stuck in a lift with, and why?

 A. Russell Brand

 Q. Who would you vote for in this election if you couldn’t vote for yourself?

 A. Sam Mezec

All candidates recently received ten questions from Save Our Shoreline which raised some excellent issues. The first concerned Population Control – Here is the first SOS question and my answer:

Q. Have you a specific policy idea to limit immigration? If elected how would you implement it?

A. Set a population target and stick to it, meet with all the Industry representatives  and agree priorities, introduce work permits under Housing and Work legislation, allow additional permits for social purposes as well as economic purposes, set preferential policies to aid local returning students.

My replies to SOS other questions will follow in later posts

Attended this afternoon’s public meeting with the Planning Committee spoke on behalf of a neighbour. Very well run meeting ,  the decisions I heard sounded very sound and well judged , gave me confidence in the members and the officers .

At last nights hustings in St Brelade a very searching question was posed about the discriminatory treatment by Social Security of young people seeking jobs and university returners, depending on living at home or independently .It seems an arbitrary decision has been made to automatically exclude all young people at home  from any support , regardless of circumstances.

The question got confused with another about support for University and in two minutes was not sufficient to reply effectively, so i followed this up with the questioner by email, and am posting an edited reply for wider benefit .

I think we need to have a fairer scheme to help those seeking work and one for returning university students , in neither case to aid an alternative lifestyle of not working which is bad for society and the individual, but to bring them into the productive economy.

The Social security Minister policy to exclude over 18’s living at home gaining any financial support for job-seeking is a crude attempt to reduce social security spending.

I would want to have a fair system of such benefits for unemployed youngsters which recognises that living at home being a member of a single household means the household circumstances need to evaluated as a whole. Whereas the young person living as an independent household, which is almost certainly necessary in some family circumstances, or perhaps where the young person has a child, then the means of the young person would be assessed. In these cases there should be no age distinction regarding benefits.

My support for job-seeking allowances for young people living at home is conditional on an assessment of the household financial circumstances, and this should never fall below support sufficient for the practical expenses of job seeking. It would also be conditional on the young person meeting all the requirements of the job seekers scheme, attending interviews etc. To do otherwise would be providing an incentive for a lifestyle choice of not working, which I do not want to see.

I think there is a case for a variation of the system to encourage young people to come back to Jersey after university. I like the idea of a year tax free year and we could add Social security credits.

The scheme should also recognize that a period working in the UK after Uni. , is good for career and youngsters who return say 28-30 with work experience bring big benefits to Jersey. I would therefore keep that tax allowance open for them say, 10 years. We could also give preference in a new work permit policy introduced for controlling our population.

So a whole package of measures for uni. students is needed – not just a job seekers allowance.

The bigger picture is that our local young people have a bad deal from my generation. No access to affordable housing, unsatisfactory access to tertiary education in education, no opportunity to build up a decent pension, narrowness of employment opportunity and for many low wages.

All these policy failures need tackling. One example is reforming our pension scheme which is stuck in the 1960’s when life expectancy was much shorter. I want to encourage young people to accrue decent pensions early in life. More flexibility for private pension’s schemes under tax rules is required. And we should examine the feasibility of setting up a government run tax free supplementary pension scheme run with excellent fund managers and low admin costs to provide a voluntary alternative to local private schemes.

To save having to listen right through the video – here is the text of my speech given at St Saviour, St Clement , St Mary and St Lawrence (with variations) . Week 2 speech will be posted later

Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen

The new Senator will have just twenty months before the general Election to make an impact. There will be no time to learn how to use States procedures.

My experience in the private, public and voluntary sectors will enable me to hit the ground running. I know what works in the States, as a States Deputy

During three years I brought 21 private members propositions & amendments, half were approved (see my record on this website), and I lodged over 119 questions and held ministers  to account as a Chairman of a Scrutiny panel

The Council of Ministers have become out of touch with the public. There is almost a bunker mentality. Their decisions are defended, at any cost.  The public have lost confidence with government.

We need a new direction. I can offer that new direction

But my challenge is not just about style.

Public spending is no longer under control. The wrong people get hit by Council of Ministers (COM) cuts, Gardeners, cleaners, and front line workers. Voluntary redundancy means loosing some of our best people.

We have seen the shambolic £5 M new hospital saga, there is no sign of the promised review of our tax system yet COM are racking up the tax on middle Jersey.

Without a mandate, COM propose to introduce so called charges, tax increases in disguise,

They have made NO progress in reforming zero ten to tax the profits of non-resident corporations who trade locally disadvantaging local businesses.  They have attacked our young working families by reducing their support for child care and attacked pensioner’s benefits.

They have given up on controlling immigration. They plan to build on open spaces and promote dense “town cramming” housing developments, damaging the quality of town life.

Departmental silos rule. For decades States chief officers have defended their empires which impose layers of management cost on their front line services which have to suffer cuts year after year.  The recent PAC report proves this approach has failed. We can no longer afford salaries of £200 k plus pensions of £3 Million, and golf trips costing £20K

We have to freeze tax increases and halt new charges until our house is in order

We need a new Senator who will be open and honest , listens to the public and works to gain our peoples commitment, A Senator who can challenge constructively and build policy. In short we need leadership.

If elected , I will bring forward proposals to require  ministers to rethink and freeze new charges . I have no axe to grind, no career to pursue. If elected I will resign my employment. I promise to work hard for you

I respectfully ask you trust me with your vote .  I wont let you down

Thank you for listening

John will be at St Pauls Centre, New Street  0900-1300 with all  other senatorial candidates

Download Car Sticker  

Tomorrow morning at St Pauls Centre, New Street, St Helier , the drop in meet the candidates session will be held between 0900 -1300 . All the candidates will be available for individual informal discussion with members of the public

Please help me reduce my election costs – My Election Poster is now available for supporters to download from my website, print and display. PDF & JPEG available. Thank you .

Hustings this evening , Parish Hall 730 pm

My  election flyer available for download