Nicholas Le Cornu

A Candidate for Change & Reform

Political biography
Founder member of the political pressure group “Time4Change”.
Spokesperson for Time4Change on the international and national TV, radio and newspaper media, including Sky TV, Radio 4 “Today” programme and Radio 5 Live, articulating the need for constitutional reform in the island and issues emanating from the child abuse scandal. Organiser of demonstration in the Royal Square to “welcome” GST on 6th May 2008. Campaigner to make Wheel Clamping illegal. Thirty years of grass roots campaigning.

Educational and Professional biography:
Born: 1958 in Jersey. Education: Victoria College; Warwick University – BA (Hons) History; College of Law, Guildford; Caen University. 1985 Articles City of London. 1987 admitted as a Solicitor. Commercial lawyer in London. 1993 Returned to Jersey and practice in trust and company administration. Currently employed in Funds administration. I know the value of the financial sector to our economy.

Personal & Contact
I am married to Irina, who is originally from Ukraine, and our son Rudick has just graduated in Economics. Irina’s wider family and many of our friends were active in Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” which achieved a liberal democratic victory over authoritarian government in 2004.

Nick Le Cornu, Flat 4, 23 Havre des Pas, St Helier, Jersey, JE2 4UQ. Tel: 745573; 07797740886
Email: -email-

1. My vision for government and society in Jersey
I believe Jersey needs wide-ranging reform and new politicians who will not only listen to the people but do what they promise when elected. A new culture of openness, accountability and honesty between politicians and the people must be created. People are tired of government cover-up and spin; of manipulation and misinformation; of outcomes attributed to coincidence.

2. States Reform
Current political structures and elections do not offer genuine policy options. Frustration at the slow pace of change and the feeling that government does not listen, has led to despondency and elections at which 60% of the electorate refuse to vote.
Islanders are jealous of their independence and tradition but also know that the present system denies many rights that other Europeans have come to enjoy. Implementation of the democratic elements of the Clothier Report is urgently needed: a General Election for all States members; one category of States Member elected for the same term of office; larger electoral constituencies; the separation of powers, so that the Bailiff, a judge, is no longer President of the legislature.

3. Abolition of GST
I will press for rescindment of GST entirely - but at least its removal on all food and clothing. There are alternatives to GST and these must be revisited, not just dismissed so as not to offend the wealthy.

4. Fair Taxation – the alternative to the failure of GST and Zero Ten policies
A fair taxation system should operate on the principle that each citizen should contribute to the common good.

GST and Zero Ten are attacks on all those whose income is derived from wages or salaries. Even those on good wages and salaries are seeing these stagnate compared to prices. The poor and working people are certainly disproportionately hit by GST. However, everybody who earns income and lives in the island is negatively affected by GST.

Zero Ten and its child GST are part of a tax model that is undermining the state’s tax base. Finance institutions and their foreign company clients should be taxed in an equitable manner and not in a more privileged way than the people of Jersey. Taxation should be based on what the community actually needs - for infrastructure, healthcare, education, culture, leisure - and not levied to cover shortfalls created by the privileges given to companies.

The debate is essentially whether the island is here to serve the financial sector’s needs for low taxes - for which the government is willing to sacrifice the welfare of all but the wealthiest islanders, or the financial sector is here to serve the islanders.

5. Financial Monoculture and the myth of economic diversification
This government is not sincerely interested in diversifying the economy. By diverting most state resources to the financial sector, no tax revenues are left to promote alternative businesses on the island, which will initially need subsidies to start growing.
If wages remain depressed while taxes increase and the housing market remains extortionate, then skilled people capable of working outside the finance sector will leave Jersey. This is a capital loss for the island if employee qualification levels sink to a level which leaves only the indigenous and finance sector employees.
To be genuinely attractive for other industries then the island has to have a stable, more qualified and content workforce than in other comparable locations. I advocate more imaginative ways of assuring that Jersey’s economic development policies actually benefit all of Jersey’s people.



6. The Public Sector - better provision and delivery of services
Citizens do not own the state, as shareholders do a company, but they can profit as stakeholders. We all have a stake in the quality of public services and infrastructure. I will promote a rational, planned and effective Public Sector, not just one of pseudo efficiencies, misplaced profits and privatisation. Subsidised services can benefit all.

Extravagant Capital Projects are the critical source of state budget expansion. A strategic plan is needed to determine essential expenditure. We must establish a ceiling on population, plan for that maximum and avoid the current government’s policies of growth at any price.

7. Administration of Justice
The office of Bailiff in Jersey has evolved over many years for historic reasons and the time is now right for this Crown Officer to cease being “President” of the Island of Jersey. It is confusing in the eyes of the world for Jersey to have both a “President” and a Chief Minister and that it is undesirable for a non-elected person such as the Bailiff (a Judge), to pronounce upon important public and political issues. The Bailiff’s time-consuming and sometimes conflicting duties as Speaker in the States Assembly should be taken over primarily by the States’ Greffier and his staff.

I propose that a Department of Justice should be created to:
* Run a proper legal and judicial system that is appropriate for an Island with international horizons in the 21st century.
* Incorporate the duties of the Judicial Greffe and supervise all the Courts
* Produce and publish explanatory information on all aspects of Jersey law in Plain English.
* Supervise the training and professional conduct of Jersey lawyers.
* Administer a user-friendly Legal Aid scheme for which lawyers are paid.
* Employ, train and promote lawyers in the public service in accordance with an appropriately financed career structure.
* Promote a Bill of Rights and incorporate Deputy Bob Hill’s proposals for a Human Rights compliance, scrutiny and advisory body.
* Accept responsibility from the States Greffe for the Complaints Board for the Review of Administrative Decisions as an Ombudsman with amended and enhanced powers including decisions that are legally enforceable.
* Provide legal advice to the States Assembly, States Departments, Ministers and other Government agencies in accordance with clearly defined rules.
* Prepare and conduct criminal prosecutions.

8. Wheel Clamping – Ban it!
I began a campaign against wheel clamping when my car remained clamped in a commercial car park over Christmas for 12 days, following my refusal to pay a £150 “release fee”. The campaign was escalated in the States and through the JEP “Fair Play” team. I say that commercial car parks wishing to control spaces should erect and maintain protective barriers. Wheel clamping on private land with payment for release is a form of extortion - demanding money with menaces – and is brutal, arbitrary and intimidating. The Home Affairs “Green Paper” on clamping will not change that. Smart uniforms and courses on etiquette are not enough. As a motorist, I believe wheel clamping should be made a criminal offence in Jersey, as it is in Scotland and in continental Europe.

9. Income Support and Welfare
I applaud the initiative of the Social Security Department to create a “One Stop Shop” in respect of Health Benefits, Pensions and Social Welfare. This is a real advance over the parish welfare system. However, the implementation of Income Support has caused much confusion. The system requires simpler rules that can be understood by everybody. Payments must ensure that all those people on low incomes have sufficient income for an adequate life as of right.

10. Housing
Jersey’s Housing Law has been in place since 1949 yet the housing problem is just as bad now as it was 50 years ago. The existing Housing Law and Regulations are actually making Jersey’s housing problems worse because 10,000 working people and their families are paying just to live in lodgings. Their £25 million is removed every year from the House building fund and put into the pockets of private property owners, landlords and speculators. It is no wonder that Jersey’s house prices increased by 25% in 2007 alone.

Housing Qualifications should be reduced to 5 years now, combined with a positive plan to adequately house all residents of Jersey. Building resources and land should be prioritized towards the provision of homes and not yet more offices and speculative commercial developments.

11. The protection of children and young people
Time4Change was founded as a result of the frustration of many people over the child abuse enquiry at Haut De La Garenne that was turned from a past tragedy into a present scandal by government ineptitude. Following public demonstrations and meetings, a group of concerned islanders joined together to create Time4Change as an organization that could campaign for social and political reform.

Long-standing defects have been exposed and change is urgently needed. To that end, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child should be ratified now for Jersey – like 170 member countries of the UN. With that universal framework in place, Jersey can set about introducing all the protective measures that are missing and in particular a MINISTER should be appointed with specific obligations and responsibilities for the welfare of ALL young people to 18 years of age.

I want such a Minister to coordinate the responsibilities of existing child agencies; to fight for adequate funding and facilities for pre-school care, and to protect children whilst in institutional care or custody.



[Submitted by Nick Le Cornu]