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Montfort Tadier

Monfort Tadier is a member of the group Time4Change, he's campaigned against the introduction of GST and is concerned States spending is not controlled.

He opposes the new waste plant at La Collette and calls for more transparency in the government.

Manifesto

I want to start off with a little story.

I want you to imagine that there’s this man and he’s been going off to work for the last ten years, and his wife has been making him cheese sandwiches for the last ten years.

Now obviously at first he was quite happy with this, gradually he started getting fed up and he would complain to his friends at the pub and he’d complain to his workmates about these cheese sandwiches because he was fed up with them. And they came up with this bright idea; ‘Well why don’t you just tell your wife?’.

And he did and things changed. Now he could have said, ‘Well there’s no point in telling my wife because nothing’s ever going to change’ and that would have been a strange thing to do because of course it doesn’t harm to ask.

Now this is often used as an excuse; I’m not voting because it doesn’t change anything. Of course in Jersey this is almost true.

We have a system of government; the way in which you vote doesn’t necessarily bear much relationship to what you get in the end. This is why I am very keen for electoral reform in Jersey.

I think the system we have is overly complicated and it needs to be changed and made easier so that people can vote.

Now at the moment I do believe that there’s a great deal of discontent with our current government.

If I had a penny for every time someone said they didn’t listen to us, I’d probably have about £6.50 now.

People are particularly concerned about GST; the fact that they signed a petition and we had 19,000+ people who bothered to sign this petition, we had 1,000 people turn up in the Royal Square only to have their voice ignored.

Now this has obviously caused a lot of resentment, because democracy is surely about the government listening and responding to the people.Ìý I don’t believe that the current government and the current ministers we have are doing this.

There are of course other examples; we have Harcourt, a scandal effectively which was incompetence by the ministers. We knew that the information was in the public domain yet our ministers did not even know this. They are either incompetent or they were being dishonest – you chose.

Now what I suggest is that if you want change, you can vote for change. Here’s what to do:

Obviously vote, get your friends to vote and vote tactically. I suggest you do not use all your six votes, perhaps use three or four for candidates you really want.

And if you’re opposed to GST and things like the incinerator make sure you find out who voted for those things and do not vote for them to get back in.

Now what can I offer to the States?

I believe I am young, I’m dynamic, I’m not afraid to speak out on issues that I’m passionate about and I believe in, and I will do that to represent the ordinary people of Jersey.

So I would say to you; whoever you are and whatever your opinion make sure you use your vote, as it is the only voice you have against a detached and uncaring government.

It is time for change. My name’s Monfort Tadier, please vote for me on 15 October.