THIS OZOUF IS UNBELIEVABLE

During my lifetime I have worked with a large number of people in a variety of industries in Jersey, London, New York, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Victoria.

I’ve worked with Government Ministers and politicians of other ranks; actor’s and film stars; editors and columnists; television personalities - modest ones and divas.  I’ve played with and against national football stars and rubbed shoulders and played with international golfers of world-wide fame.

In all of that giant mix of people I have never met anyone so ego-driven, so conceited about his own ability, so dismissive of people who disagree with him than that political non-entity, Philip Ozouf.  Australians would describe him thus – “he is so far up himself it must hurt”. 

He is a man without political honour.  He told the electorate he would fight any attempt to increase GST.  He came fourth in the election out of six.  Such was the anti GST feeling at the time, if he had come clean about his intentions it is quite likely that he would not be in the States today.  He was elected on false promises.

Once elected, he had to convince States members that he was the man to be the island’s treasurer.  During that procedure, he was asked by Deputy de Sousa “In the event of a recession, will you increase the rate of GST”. His answer was :” I can give you a categorical assurance that I will not increase the rate of GST”

And then he did

He has tried to justify this disgraceful action by claiming that when he made that statement he could not have been aware of the financial crisis that was to later engulf the world.  This argument was so shallow as to be only millimeteres deep.  First, the question was “in the event of a recession” so he had to answer the question on that basis.  Second, he was lying when he said that he could not have been aware of the financial crisis that was to later engulf the world when he gave his “categorical assurance”.

Why is that totally untrue?  Because a financial crisis had already engulfed the world when he gave that assurance.   Northern Rock had already collapsed, two huge American insurance and mortgage brokers had had to be bailed out, Lehmans had collapsed, RBS, Lloyds and HBOS has also been handed eye-watering amounts of British tax-payers money to save them from collapsing and the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had announced that the worlds’ financial institutions were “facing meltdown”  If Philip Ozouf was unable to comprehend the likely effect of that on the Jersey banking industry- our major money-earner- he certainly should never have been made Treasurer.

The fact is , by claiming that when he gave his “categorical assurance “he was not aware that the world’s economy was in trouble was simply a disingenuous way of getting out of  the hole he had dug for himself . It was a barefaced lie.

Now this political pygmy is claiming that a “minority of States members are wasting time in the Chamber and do not represent the views of islanders”

So all of those States members who supported the 20,000 anti GST petition, the later 10, 000 anti GST petition and the 9,000 petition did not speak for their constituents?  Those members who voted for a progressive form of taxation which would have seen the very wealthy pay more towards the cost of running this island were not representing their constituents?  Who does this judgmental control freak think he is ?  And who cares what he thinks about how other members are doing their job?  The people whose judgments matters will show their support or otherwise at the elections.  They are the judges who matter.

It is the electorate who judge the performance of their elected representative. not this jumped up little prat.  But we all know he can’t help himself when confronted with tough opposition.  Readers of this blog will be aware of the story I have related before that when I sat on the Planning and Environment Committee when he was president. I had had a series of serious disagreements with him over policy matters and he had the audacity to say to me the following words “I won’t stand for our insubordination.”  Wow, red rag to a bull which had a result that was widely reported in the press!!  

This little hypocrite also had the audacity to say “we want an Assembly not with just businessmen but one which has a divergence of views and is capable of debating the “things that matter”,  He also said that” we need to  raise the standard of debate and behaviour......and appoint people capable of being in Ministerial office”.

His view of what constitutes “things that matter” can be interpreted as “things that I think matter” (back to the control freak syndrome).  And as for appointing people who are capable of being a Minister, he sat on Frank Walker’s knee for three years and would have been part of formulating who was in their cabinet.  Then, as Treasurer, under that disaster of a chief minister Senator Terry le Sueur, who made him assistant chief minister, he would have great influence in choosing the current Council of Ministers

People of ability- don’t make me laugh!

·         Deputy Anne Pryke, former nurse with no management experience in charge of health who thought that £340,000 was good value for the chief executive at the Hospital

·         James Reed - farmer who has made a monumental hash of the education portfolio and has no idea how to handle matters.

·         Alan MacLean - estate agent, who has feather-bedded the finance industry but done absolutely nothing in terms of diversifying our economy and has allowed tourism and agriculture to drift along without any plans for re-invigorating both industries

·         Terry Le Main - a man of intelligence and intellect?  The thickest member of the Assembly, who was a disastrous housing minister, built no States or  affordable houses in the last ten years and stopped maintenance on States properties, leaving us with a £48 million  bill to put the damage right.

·         Eddie Noel, an assistant minister for Treasury.  An absolute joke.  He sounds like a schoolboy, looks like a schoolboy, acts like a schoolboy, and talks like a schoolboy and has the understanding of crucial matters of a schoolboy.

Looking back at decisions of the Council over the last ten years – remember these are people that Ozouf  believes are capable of “Ministerial office”, and what do we find:

·         An incinerator twice the size of what is required, sited on a beautiful headland  paid for in cash rather than  a long term loan and in such a manner that left us vulnerable to currency fluctuations which is likely to cost us over 4 million plus.

 

·         Top public servants salaries through the roof.

·         Pay-outs to two public servants of over £800,000.

·         Consultants being engaged to do the jobs that top public servants are paid to do.

·         Having been promised a Waterfront of “international standard” we have an area defined only by its monstrous ugliness.

·         The disastrous zero ten tax policy.  Having been warned before they introduced it that it would fall foul of the European Code of Conduct on Business Taxation, they went ahead with the inevitable result.  This created a “black hole” of £100 million, forcing us to introduce GST at 3% and then increasing it to 5%.  The solution put forward by the Council to get it approved by Europe will cost the island between £10 to£15 million.  The only way this money can be raised is to put up GST even further.

These are people that Ozouf regards as capable of Ministerial office.

And as for behaviour and personal attacks in the House, there is no one more adept at frustrating members who are genuinely trying to get information from him.  He is a monumental time-waster at question time-a member has to drag information from him.  He regards question time as a place to demonstrate to his mates how clever he is in not giving away any information.  He criticises other members for making personal attacks- yet he is at the forefront of this and showed it last week when he attacked Deputy Roy Le Herissier whom Senator Le Gresley had named as his assistant minister if he was elected Planning and Environment Minister (he wasn’t).

If elected to office in the Senatorial elections in October, I will do everything in my power to ensure that Ozouf  he will be neither Chief Minister or Treasurer and that most of his sycophantic, supine, Ministers are sent to the backbenches and are replaced by people with a genuine desire to see that government in Jersey is transparent, inclusive, intelligent and fair to everyone and has a dynamic approach to revitalising other industries.  Roll on October.