Each of the 15 Senatorial Candidates took time out of their campaign to speak to BBC Radio Jersey's Home Affairs Producer Hamish Marett-Crosby about their election platform and what they would do if they were elected. Name: Kevin Lewis
Party: Centre Party Read a transcript of the interview with Kevin Lewis below or listen to it using Real Player. Why are you going for an island mandate? Well I was elected to the position, if you like, by the Centre Party, who unanimously said that I should represent them because we want to get as many Senators and Deputies in at the next election, because we feel we occupy the middle ground representing both the business community and the people of Jersey. So what are the main planks of your election manifesto? Why should they vote for Kevin Lewis? Well I’ve been very disturbed lately regarding inflation, that many people are actually leaving the island. You’ve heard in the past "well if you don’t like it there’s a boat leaving in the morning", but sadly it’s Jersey people leaving on the boat in the morning. I’ve had quite a few emails from people now living the UK who can no longer afford to live in Jersey. At the moment it’s a little trickle, but come the new taxation system and GST I think that may turn into a flood. We’ve heard reports of people having to take their children out of private schools because they can no longer afford to keep them there, and put them into the States system. So, you are going to tackle inflation, or the cost of living at least as your main priority? I would consider inflation to be my main priority. And what do you think the main problems will be that will be facing you and your colleagues, should you be elected in the States, for the next three years? Well hopefully we will have a few members in which will give us a little more elbow power, but it’s taking on the establishment, and they are very set in their ways, we will really have to really reduce this tax and spend mentality. And your priorities within that will be what? Reducing inflation. In what way? To stop the overspends on all these grandiose projects etc. I mean you are having things like a parish refuse lorry following on a States refuse lorry and we need to sort of coordinate the whole thing. What about some of the broader issues? What are you standing for? The Waterfront is going to be a really hot topic this time around. Centre Party is against the new towers that have been proposed for the Waterfront. I’ve seen the revised plans with the towers cut in half, if you like, and what happened before we had high towers and low building in between, now we have lower towers but they’ve brought up the buildings in the centre, so I don’t think that they have improved on it as yet. So, taxation, overspend, Waterfront, social issues? All the social issues, crime in Jersey is not anywhere near as bad as over in the UK at the moment, but it’s heading that way, so law and order will be a crucial issue. So we’re talking about taxes, overspend, social issues, any particular areas that you are going to target? Well we want to protect local businesses wherever possible, we feel with the new tax system coming in it will put them at a disadvantage. Regarding vehicle registration duty we want to abolish vehicle registration duty on vehicles under 2000cc, which will stimulate growth in the local car market, and it will also be more eco-friendly. Have you any policies for tourism, for example, other than just hope more people will come? We want to stimulate tourism; I’m very keen personally on tourism. We’ve recently heard that all the events in tourism have been axed, so all the events like the beer festival, the film festival etc. they’ve all gone. But we want to put that back in again, people coming on holiday next year, in 2006, with their 2.2 children will have very little to do, so we would immediately re-instate that budget, so we would have more event-led tourism. If you were to be elected into the States, your first job as a new States member would be to gather and elect a Chief Minister, where would your priorities lie there? Well only two people have announced that they will be standing for Chief Minister at the moment, and in the interest of open government I have to nail my flag to the flagpole and say that I would support Senator Stuart Syvret. | 
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