At last week’s full council meeting, Cllr Patrick Joyce (Independent) gave a speech on the Conservative’s budget proposals.
As with David Pugh and Vanessa Churchman and Reg Barry’s speeches, the words he used in the chamber may differ slightly from this, but this is what he read from. Ed
Some mornings I wake up and wish my parents had never met today is one of those days.
I will not be supporting your (conservative) budget to night.
I support the Independent alternative budget, while this not perfect it is listening to the people of the Island.
Look at alternatives first
Instead of the present knee jerk reaction it would have been better if all alternatives had been looked at first, then the members of this chamber could have taken a balanced view as to the best way forward for the people of the Island.
However Cllr Pugh is in a hurry and can’t waste time on such niceties, thankfully he hasn’t forgotten his manners, when it comes to cutting budgets; it’s still women, children, the elderly and the disadvantaged first.
A great deal has been made about others coming up with alternative budgets which we the Independents and others have done, the fact of the matter is it is not our job, highly paid officers who alone have all details and knowledge should be giving us all the alternatives.
Cuts proposed by officers
The officers of this council have come up with the budget cuts that ensure their salaries, pensions, and empires remain intact, are they completely oblivious to the fact the country and the council have been in deep financial problems since the autumn of 2008, if so why are we employing them.
These officers and cabinet members tell us, it’s not their fault, it’s the banks, the last government, this government, the last liberal council, Geoff Lumley and anyone else you can think of, they can tell us where everyone else went wrong and what they would have done, but can’t conceive that they are responsible for our present plight.
These highly paid people, cabinet members and officers, can suddenly deduce that we can get rid of 500+ workers, all manner of offices and properties, relook at our officer structure, find out where we are wasting money, and cut back here there and everywhere. It’s a pity they didn’t consider these points over the last few years.
Cabinet a bunch of wets
Sadly the council cabinet, with perhaps the exception of one lady, are a bunch of wets that do not question officers but blindly follow what is proposed, and then the rest of the ruling group like sheep fall into line. They should all remember, only dead fish go with the stream.
Hopefully the people of the Island will remember this at the next election,
As Lyndon B Johnson said, “son you’ve got to learn that overnight, chicken salad can turn into chicken sh*t”
