States Chamber

What do you get if you cross two fuel tankers with Guernsey's mental health facilities... add in some income tax and concerns over rodents in a primary schools porta-cabins? You are probably thinking is this the start of some strange joke? No - although jokes were of course a feature of this month's States meeting too.

That controversial "gaff" made by Deputy Bernard Flouquet at a press conference last year almost cost him his job. I say almost because he is still, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future the Island's Deputy Chief Minister. However, he did get a formal reprimand... a telling off in more casual language. So now a line has been drawn under the whole affair and we can move on - we hope.

Of course there were members of the public who wanted Deputy Flouquet to go - which brings me nicely onto the next topic of this months meeting. By the next general election whether Deputy Flouquet is in your district or not, you could have a say as to whether he gets back in the States - that is if he chooses to stand. The States agreed to continue investigations into islandwide voting, and how it could work by 2012. So we will keep you posted on that one.

In the meantime though can you think of a suitable name for Guernsey's two new oil tankers? They cost us 16.9 million euros, but we are getting the chance to christine them - and the suggestions have already been flying in. Most Deputies did not have any complaints about the purchase, I say most deputies because there are always some concerns.

In this case the most frequent one was whether we really needed to buy them, or whether the States could have just chartered the boats off someone else. The Chief Minister, Lyndon Trott, said this would not have secured the Islands supply of fuel - and we are now in charge of our destiny.

The future of St Andrew's Primary School and St Sampson's Infants was also something the States were in charge of. So which school will be closing in July 2010? Well this has to be one of the biggest surprises of the meeting - neither of them.

Despite hearing arguments about the need to cut costs, and the fact that there is space to accommodate the students in other schools, the majority of the States did not agree. It was close though, with St Sampson's Infants staying open by just one vote. But as is the case in politics one vote is all it takes.

After this it was onto the second time the States turned to an individual member and debated their political future: Deputy Mike Hadley's resignation from the Health and Social Services department. It was accepted, although that is not what he wanted. Deputy Mary Lowe will replace him on the department.

And the final issue of the day - the Island's income tax laws. Several changes to them were put forward to the House. One related to the upper limit of tax payable on income earnt off island. This was decreased from 250 thousand pounds to 100 thousand. The aim is it will attract more wealthy people to the Island. Although there will be a drop in revenue initially, it's hoped that won't be the case in the long run.

There was a lot the States did not get to debate, and those items will have to wait until 11 February.