The ARMANDO LaGRANDE Column

What's essential should be essential

Oh dear, water and electricity are going up. You didn't think they were going down, did you?

The thing is that these are essential commodities, and as such, should be kept as low as possible. How does anyone expect redundant MOD workers etc to be able to pay increased costs?

And if things go according to EU plans, the finance centre will also bring us more woe.

So, is this the right time to increase electricity and water charges?

And there is more! These essential commodities are already super-high in this tiny Rock, why make them higher?

Bound to have an impact on our being able to compete or not compete with the lower charges others have to pay elsewhere.

We cannot all afford a palace in Sotogrande to pay less on water and electricity, oh dear, dear me!

Partition expert on the Rock

I hope, and many hope, it is not a bad omen that the next Deputy Dawg has come to us from partition crazy Cyprus.

It is to be hoped that he, Philip Barton I think his name is, will switch off from his Cyprus mode.

All we need is to partition the Rock - military areas for the MOD, the airport for Spain and what remains for the Gibraltarians.

Crazy?

Topsy Torpy...

Well, well, we have just had an impromptu visit by the joint operations chief, one called Glenn Torpy. Not to talk about the MOD cuts, even if the topic was raised here and there.

If he found everyone against the MOD plans he should be grateful, because if things go the way the experts want it to go, he will not have the resources to mount joint operations.

A topsy Torpy world, I must say.

It stinks!

What's this about sewage flowing freely in the new hospital?

There is only one thing to say: It stinks!

Point of View

by CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Growth of public sector without improvement in the services it provides

The Government’s acknowledgement during the recent bus dispute that there is a difference between public and private sector employment practices highlights the responsibility that the Government has to control the growth in public sector employment as well as pointing to the huge disparity that exists between public and private sector pay. Where private sector pay and conditions are dictated by the job market - which in many sectors extends beyond our borders - pay and conditions in the public sector are dictated by parity with the UK... and the consequent pressure that the threat of industrial action brings if these conditions are not met.

Parity may have been a fair mechanism to set public sector pay in the past, but today it no longer seems relevant as there are many cases where employees receive greater remuneration than their UK counterparts.

Certainly it is unacceptable that public sector employees should be allowed to cherry pick the terms and conditions that they would like from UK agreements, reject those that they would prefer not to have, and then call for strike action when negotiations don’t go their way.

It is a matter for concern that the public sector has grown significantly in the last eight years without any appreciable improvement in the services it provides.

Furthermore, terms and conditions within the Public Service are unrealistic with Civil Servants continuing to enjoy retirement at 55 on a two-thirds pension, summer hours and levels of pay which would be unaffordable in the private sector.

The fact that 66 per cent of Government employees earn more than £25,000 annually compared to just over 18 per cent in the private sector earning a similar amount, serves to illustrate how public sector pay has escalated over the years.

Government could make a good start by reforming parts of the Civil Service and ensuring that it delivers a high standard of service to the private sector - which, after all, is the engine of the economy.

Any private operator providing the dismal levels of customer service that some Government departments offer would have gone out of business long ago.

The private sector cannot operate without the public sector. The stability of the economy depends on the private sector being able to conduct its business without disruption from the public sector.

The recent Post Office dispute typifies the disruption of the private sector’s day-to-day business.

Furthermore, there is always the threat of secondary action. Unions have the responsibility not to call industrial action unless they have exhausted all possible avenues of resolving the dispute - including arbitration.

The Government has the responsibility to legislate accordingly, to prevent the Unions from taking action before it is merited by making it compulsory to engage in a process of arbitration before striking; by making it illegal to hold a strike until a proper ballot is taken of all employees; and by banning secondary action.

That the whole of Gibraltar can be brought to its knees by an unreasonable dispute which causes lasting damage seems totally unfair in the 21st Century. In this day and age more and more institutions are being regulated in law - surely this should also apply to trade unions in Gibraltar as it does in the UK.

Blimey, we are going from one crisis to another these days, and I don't mean that you slip when you sit on a chair in the new hospital!

What would we do, querida Cynthia, si no tuviéramos un buen follón on a regular basis. We've been having battles and lios for 300 years, and it is clear we cannot do without them, verdad?

Digo que si. Lo del funiculi funicula anda despacio, como las cosas de palacio.

I wonder who are advising these people, porque they seem to be in a world of their own. I mean, ahora dicen que el John Galliano y el Albert Hammond are behind the project, which only serves to infuriate the public even more!

Claro. Anyone who knows the Gibraltarian mentality will ask: Y estos dos que pintan in our Gibraltar?

Que pinten lo que quieran pero también andan en su mundo, which is not the world of all those who live and work here. What else are they going to come up with?

Lo que tiene que hacer el development commission is to reject the project without any further ado so that all those people who are against it - and I haven't heard anyone in favour - can carry on with their normal lives.

Es que this project is as absurd as if they wanted to put a funicular from Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament! And if the Westminster borough council dared to say No, los Ratcliffe de este mundo would say that London would be getting a bad name. Oh dear, que tonteria!

In any case if they want to do a fashion show or a singsong, que lo hagan en St Michael's Cave which is our natural auditorium that is there already without having to deface the north face of the Rock, my dear.

Anyway, the battle of the MOD may be about to begin, porque all we are getting now is a phoney war, while down to earth at the frontier el Chief Minestra dice que le hicieron toasting como si fuera un pan de lata, mientra que los Spanish police dicen que they did nothing abnormal.

Es que no nos ponemos de acuerdo en nada, so el Chief Minestra may have learnt this lesson y a personal way y se dará cuenta que los so-called cooperation talks are as out of place as having a train go up the Rock.

It might be a better idea to offer the tourists a parachuting experience, being offloaded from a helicopter over the Rock - at least it would be original.

A lo mejor hasta Hollywood wants to come out to do a film. And why don't we spend our time in developing los tunnels which are already there and away from sight. That would be a great tourist attraction.

Claro, porque if there are power cuts like we had yesterday in parts of our Gibraltar, la cosa estaría mas bien oscura.

If you ask me what we first have to do is to get the important, essential things working properly before we embark on locuras funiculares, porque if we carry on like this nos vamos a tener que embarca. Adiós my dear.

Cheerio!

Talking Point

The writing is on the placard...

The writing is on the wall for the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses - or rather it was on a placard used during the anti-funicular protest last week.

It said: GFSB 66% of what membership?

This follows a 'survey' carried out by the GFSB about the funicular, but people are rightly asking how many members of the GFSB took part in the said 'survey'.

The fact that the GFSB has chosen to remain silent only serves to provoke more questions about this 'survey'.

Why don't they provide full details about it, particularly as it is about such a controversial and public-interest matter as the funicular?

It has also emerged that their vice-chairman Ken Robinson is in favour of the funicular project.

FORGOTTEN

Increasingly, the GFSB appears to have forgotten why it was formed and why it obtained the initial support it did obtain.

The Chamber of Commerce, it was said, had become too institutionalised and got itself out of touch with the problems of the day. They were accused of being a 'capitalist' cosy number, with smaller traders not getting value for money.

Rightly or wrongly that was the accusation made at the time.

So, the creation of a small business association met with initial support.

At the beginning, there were press releases and other utterings from the GFSB in support of the plethora of problems that affect small business in Gibraltar.

We used to hear that small businesses had to be treated differently from bigger businesses in that, as a general rule, a small firm did not have the resources for so much bureaucratic nonsense - and how, quite often, the owner of the firm had to get involved in the kind of work that in bigger firms is undertaken by staff - but a small firm may not be able to employ other people.

And owners have to concentrate in generating revenue if they are to remain alive.

DOWN THE DRAIN

Increasingly, the good work of the GFSB appears to have gone down the drain, with more and more people asking what is the use of having a federation that gives the impression that it no longer cares as it used to in the past.

Quickly, they are becoming another Chamber, say some of their disgruntled members.

President Marilou Guerrero and deputy Ken Robinson seem to think that they have moved up in the world - and in fact keep travelling around the world!

This, say traders, at the expense of the membership who no longer hear of the GFSB putting up a real fight for their interests.

Robinson has now aligned himself with the capitalists behind the funicular project, which small traders are concerned about.

The sign that was carried at the anti-funicular protest is symptomatic of the malaise that is filtering through.

If those in the GFSB used to criticise the old Chamber, now there are others who are criticising them for apparently having forgotten to put up a real fight in defence of small business interests.

Where will it all end?

Around the world...

Of 17 press releases issued by the GFSB since October 2002, only four were about Gibraltar, one being about Mrs. Guerrero and another about a general meeting.

The rest were about countries around the world!

There were press releases about visits to Algeria, the USA, Israel, Istanbul, Romania, Brussels, Geneva, New Delhi, Madrid, Aviemore and Singapore!

What good has been derived by Gibraltar in general and the GFSB members in particular?

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