Senators

Jeremy Maçon

Twenty-one year-old Jeremy Maçon is the youngest candidate standing for Senator.

He has wanted a career in politics since sixteen and especially wants to give the youth in Jersey a voice that truly understands them and their issues.

Manifesto

Last summer was disastrous for British agriculture, particular for their wheat harvest, which was said to impact on us. It was obvious that food prices would rise dramatically, and a caring government would have done it’s upmost to keep food prices down, our government though decided to introduce 20 Means 20 and, worst of all, GST.

There are other ways of recouping income loss from removing exempt tax from companies administered in Jersey, but our government chose instead to place the burden on the people of Jersey. Even now when it is evident that a significant number are struggling they still refuse to remove it.

We have a government that is out of touch with the people and generally only listens to the voices of those representing the finance industry and big business.

We do need the finance industry, and are very grateful for the contribution it makes towards out standard of living, but we desperately need to diversify.

Many students don’t return to the island because they don’t all want to work in the finance industry, but there is little choice for them either in employment or recreation, and there is little chance that they will ever own their own homes.

The infrastructure of our island is desperately in need of renovation, yet we allow more and more immigration. Eventually immigrants gain housing qualifications and want their own homes, they also have families and so more schools are needed and so on.

Over the years we have seen many nationalities come to the island and our culture is the richer for it, I myself have one French and one German grandmother apart from my Jersey grandfather, but the fact is we have to reasonable and accept that there is a limit to the population Jersey can bear.

We can never hope to house everyone properly and still maintain open spaces if we continue with this open door policy. We would do better to take care those who are already here now, and give everyone the best possible quality of life we can.

To turn around some of our current problems we need to do the following:

Introduce a charge on companies administered in Jersey to recoup the £600 exempt tax.

Encourage diversification to not only encourage our young people to stay, but to safeguard the future if we ever lose the finance industry.

We need to control immigration through a visa or points system, if we are to retain our green fields and ever hope to solve the housing shortage.

We need to provide means-tested childcare for the under-threes so parents who want to can return to work.

We should introduce US style school buses to get as many cars off the roads as we can at peak times.

We should bring modern recreational facilities to Fort Regent, financed through private enterprise.

And most of all we need to remove GST once and for all.

If you elect me I promise to do my upmost to make sure your voices are heard.