On yesterday's Sunday Talkback show on BBC Radio Jersey Senator Frank Walker, the First Minister of the island (equivalent to prime minister was asked if Would face me in a head to head debate. When this opportunity almost arose in June 2005 in the States of Jersey (their parliament) he simply refused to attend, despite a request to do so from the States committee that arranged the meeting that he do so.
I wouldn't be surprised if this time he somewhat shocked his advisers by saying (near enough):
Any time he likes at any time of their choosing.
He then added:
Richard Murphy and the Tax Justice Network are dedicated to bringing the Jersey finance industry down.
TJN is concentrating not on London, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, the VI, Cayman or Switzerland but on Jersey. They want to destroy Jersey's finance industry. They want to destroy the tax receipts from that industry that pay for education and health and want to destroy all the local jobs that come from our finance industry.
So, any time of their choosing.
Well, let's hope that this time you don't chicken out Frank. But let me give you a little warning. We don't pick only on you. We're not happy with any of them. And when the time comes you'll have to do a little better than saying 'it's not fair' and 'don't pick on me - pick on him' when you know you're guilty as charged.
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I’d be interested to hear any debate that materialises on this.
However, if it were me taking on Senator Walker, I’d make sure that I had a fast boat ready to get me out of the Bailiwick of Jersey pronto.
I’d have in mind what happened to the tourists in the film Deliverance…
Roger
Hey come on. I accuse the finance industry of quite a lot. But things of the type to which you allude? No, there are limits (I think).
Richard
Richard,
I agree with Roger, I think you may soon be the most hated man on the Island after that statement by Frank Walker.
Jason
What do you mean \’soon\’? If the local press were to be believed John Christensen and I already vie for the title.
Frank Walker is want to say we\’re no friends of Jersey. He\’s wrong. We are. We just aren\’t friends of his. He might think he and Jersey are the same thing (and I sincerely believe he does). But that\’s another thing he\’s got wrong.
Richard
Why is there such a focus on Jersey. All countries to some extent give tax incentives to attract business. (Even to the extent of subsidies).
What makes Jersey so different?
David
You ask a fair point and since it is one I won’t want to debate with Senator Walker (as it’s a non-issue) I’ll answer it.
1) Jersey likes to think of itself as a premier league offshore financial services centre. I call it a major tax haven. It’s actually the same thing. But one reason for concentrating on it is that it is significant.
2) It’s the most important offshore tax haven serving the UK market, where I live
3) We know a lot about it. John Christensen was senior economic adviser to Jersey before finally having enough of the place and its policies. I have been an adviser to a committee of its parliament. We therefore have in-depth knowledge of the place.
4) We have good friends there who asked us to help them.
5) The issues in Jersey are an embodiment of much of concern in tax havens in general, from secrecy, to corruption to the role of the profession to the subsumation of the state by the finance industry to the oppression of the local population to concern about what will happen when finance leaves. It also happens t be heading for going broke faster than most of the havens, which adds a certain interest. So as a case study it is ideal.
We didn’t pick it. It rather picked itself. But I can assure you, the others worry us just as much.
As do the onshore havens. Note what I say on the Netherlands and Ireland, let alone the UK if you want evidence of that. And John Christensen is good at giving Switzerland a hard time, as are our friends there.
Richard
Richard Murphy, John Christensen and Prem Sikka are aleways most welcome In Jersey by the real Jersey people who have morals, ethics and a social conscience, unlike the lawyers,bankers and accountants that use our Island as a whore and suck up to the pimp (read the political elite).
So you welcome Jersey going down the pan? Thousands out of work, out of their homes, massive social upheval (a number of suicides, inevitably)..? Good for you for having your so called morals and conscience.. but what is worse, Jersey doing what it does (which will always be done by SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, no matter what) or destroying an island economy? Thanks a bunch for devoting so much of your life to trying to make mine so much worse!
Carl,
Jersey’s demise will come from two areas.
1. external organisations like the OECD, EU and UN.
2. the fiscal policies enacted by our political elite over the last 35 years, who have pandered to the whims of the global finance industry.
You also need to consider the decline in public behaviour in Jersey, drug and alcohol misuse, extreamly high incarceration rate and other social problems. There is a direct corralation to these problems and socio- economic inequality, which in Jersey’s case will increase as the new GST and the Income Support Scheme are enacted.
Again, those responsible for our current and future anomic decline are the political elite of the last 35 years.
Hi,
I’d just like to say that after living in Jersey for over 20 years now, this island is second to none in the quality of life, the friendliness of the people and the general way of life – nowhere in England or Scotland that I’ve lived (London, Exeter, Edinburgh) have I ever felt so welcome, so much a part of life as I have here. I’ve met Mr Walker and spent some considerable time with him – He’s one of the most genuine and friendly people with the interests of the island closest to his heart.
Just because we have it best…
Chris.
Chris (I note otherwise anonymous)
You sound like someone in financial services – with access to the ‘great and good’ of Jersey. No doubt what you say is true, for you. But have you opened your eyes to the ‘other Jersey’? It seems not, based on what you have written.
It’s there for those who will see.
Richard
Chris,
You really do live in an insular little world.
Fact: Alcohol and drug misuse is twice the UK average. Imprisionment is more than twice the benching norm for developed countries. sexual crime is 50% higher than the UK. Relative poverty is above EU averages. 70% of housholds have an income of less than the median, which is eight percentage points higher than the UK.
Senator Frank Walker and most of the other Ministers are hell bent on introducing neo-liberal policies which will see direct taxation reduced for the rich and companies and increase indirect taxation for the low earners.