From John Refault, the Constable of St Peter.
I CAN understand the frustration of your correspondent Doug Smith (JEP 30 September), who wrote regarding the States Members who abstained from voting on Members’ sandwiches.
I was one of the four who abstained, and I would surmise that Mr Smith could not or would not wish to have endured the one hour of debate consuming the time of 53 Members plus five non-Members on a matter of housekeeping.
If your correspondent multiplied the average income of those 58 people in the Chamber, including the Greffier of the States, the Attorney General and others, and added to that the officers’ time in putting the proposition together and then posting it out to all the Members’ homes, then perhaps he can start to realise why I and others abstained.
Mr Smith is right – the electorate do have a right to expect their politicians to vote on matters of substance that will maintain and enhance the way of life for every person in this Island of ours. I would add that the electorate have a right to expect that Members exercise good judgment on what really matters to the people of Jersey, and I for one do not believe that sandwiches fulfil that expectation.
Had the proposition been about the number of Jersey people who are becoming unemployed, the number of people who have had wage restraints, not just this year but also last year, imposed upon them, the number of people who are having to exist on Income Support, the number of Island businesses closing down and the potential structural deficit facing us in 2012, then I would join him in shouting from the rooftops against anyone who had abstained.
However, in the matter of Members’ sandwiches I am afraid that I cannot join him in his crusade. I see the proposition as being petty, puerile, populist politics of the worst kind that just deflects Members’ attention from matters requiring urgent and mature judgment for all our benefits.
However, I do support any initiative that trims excess within the States, and I would have agreed to the withdrawal of lunchtime sandwiches by a conversation of consensus in the coffee room outside the Chamber. Voting ‘pour’ common sense.
