You know, when the States elected a religious-right former Ernst and Young accountant with a manifesto so thin that the only real substance included in it was support for Thatcherite "low, broad and simple" tax reform, some of us did say that good ol' Johnny Boy was hardly about to represent a radical break from the austere and uncaring status quo that dominates Jersey politics.
I'm still not sure that many of us expected the utterly unnecessary and ideologically-driven cutbacks that were announced yesterday.
In a speech to the den of thieves known as Chamber of Commerce at a lunch event on Wednesday, our esteemed new Chief Minister announced that he's going to be finding £30 million of savings in his budget for the next year. Guess who's going to be copping it?
That's right, the very States workers whose unions have for months been threatening a strike over pay. As part of le Fondré's efficiency drive, there's going to be a "permanent reduction" in States staff.
Nice one, John!
The reasoning behind this is based in the most recent Medium Term Financial Plan, the savage programme of cuts that axed over £8 million in income support payments to the most vulnerable (low-income families, pensioners and the disabled), included additional charges, like the commercial waste charge, that the States subsequently voted down due to the standard projections of a jobs apocalypse from
Meanwhile, executives in States-owned arm's-length companies are stuffing their faces, the Parker gang are on a thousand pounds a day, and the gravy train launched by Gorst and co. is going full steam ahead.
There's been a lot of paternalistic bollocks made in the last couple of months about how the le Fondré government supposedly represents a more compassionate kind of governance, committed to the welfare of islanders, blah blah blah.
Doesn't take a genius to work out whose interests they really serve.
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