Rather than looking at the ‘States of Guernsey’ in isolation, local author Tony Gallienne will be looking at the ‘state of Guernsey’ during his guest appearance at the Literary Festival.
His book – ‘Guernsey – How we live together’ – was published last year, almost 20 years after he wrote his first book – ‘Guernsey in the 21st Century – A view from the first decade’.
In both, Mr Gallienne sought to give an overview of life in Guernsey, the challenges we each face and our community faces, and how we can work together to overcome those challenges.
In his latest work, he suggests that a ‘social contract’ binds us all together.
If we use that notion of a social contract to guide our politicians and community organisations and our individual lives, he thinks we can each live as good a life as possible.
When considering the social contract that binds us all, Mr Gallienne has spent years researching various aspects of island life.
With chapters focused on different issues, such as ‘Identity, Being & Culture’, ‘Structure & Process’, ‘Money Matters’, and ‘Care & Consideration’ he poses the question at the very outset: “Is Guernsey in a golden age, or in an age of crisis?”
He suggests we could be living through both simultaneously.
Many of the challenges we face are down to money, says Mr Gallienne, but not all of those challenges are caused by decisions made in Guernsey.
How the island has responded and reacted to outside challenges hasn’t always helped though.
“Not only us, but the UK and generally around Europe, countries are struggling to maintain that (government) structure and we’re going through a transition period where we’re having to move to a system that we will be able to afford, and that may mean less universal benefits and more means testing, or private provision.”
With money making the world go round, Mr Gallienne told Express that changing the island’s tax structure is one of the most urgent priorities facing the next States, which will be elected in June, if the States is to maintain its side of the social contract he uses to model his ideal of island life.
“It all boils down to money at the end of the day, so we have to make a choice about tax, because we’re an island that has a finance industry which is based on the idea of low tax regime, and we’ve been lucky that that low tax regime has been able to fund the public services that we enjoy.
“There aren’t many small communities of 60,000 people that would enjoy the sort of public service that we do enjoy, and we don’t like to lose any, it’s easier to give a service than to take it away.
“The other aspect where we’re struggling is with growth in our economy. And again, we’re not alone in this, but our tax receipts were based on a fast growing economy in the 1980s and 1990s and really through to the financial crash of 2008.
“Since then, our growth rate has been less one than 1% and when we introduced Zero 10 and didn’t introduce GST, there was the idea that on the basis of growth of at least 2% a year, we would be okay. Well, that hasn’t come to pass. It’s been less than 1% and I think that’s a real challenge for the future.”
Mr Gallienne will explore some of the topics that he details in his book, during his guest spot at the Guernsey Literary Festival on Monday lunchtime.
Journalist and former politician Matt Fallaize will lead the conversation before a sold out audience at the Guille Alles Library.
Mr Gallienne’s book is available to buy from local bookshops or online.
