Falklands : Falklands: MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT SPEECH OF THE HON MR ROGER EDWARDS
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 02.06.2012 (Article Archived on 16.06.2012)
Mr speaker, Honourable Members, in rising to support the Motion for Adjournment I would like to start on the subject of legal highs and thank the Attorney General in this department for all the hard work they put in to bring this so swiftly forward.
MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT SPEECH OF THE HON MR ROGER EDWARDS
Mr speaker, Honourable Members, in rising to support the Motion for Adjournment I would like to start on the subject of legal highs and thank the Attorney General in this department for all the hard work they put in to bring this so swiftly forward. It didn’t go as far as I would like but I was told that the law allowing hanging people by the thumbs from plough shears was repealed some years ago. But I am pleased that this is a stop-gap that will fill in adequately until full legislation can be brought in later.
I did speak about the budget earlier but I feel I must speak about it again. My Colleague, Gavin Short, pushes for taking a cautious line and I think he is absolutely right. We heard from my colleagues Jan Cheek and Mike Summers about Pension Funds and Savings. The windfall was taken up with that. We rely on savings for a lot of our income but markets go down as well as up and of late we have seen a huge down-turn in those markets but, of course, those investments, or the lack of those investments or the loss on those investments won’t be made unless we actually cash them in whilst on the down-turn. So until we actually cash in those investments they are still looking good and we need them.
But to highlight some of the things like people asking why we aren’t blacktopping the MPA Road and building a new port and reasoning that we have the oil industry knocking on the door saying they need more infrastructure and they need it now; we have all heard around the table and I have fully supported it – we do need more Council Housing, plots for the private sector to build on, etc., etc.. We are in desperate need of a second power station. If something happened down here at this Power Station, Stanley would be in a black-out situation. As Gavin mentioned we nearly came to that earlier in the year when we had one of the engines went flying across the Power Station. It is one Power Station and we are susceptible to problems.
We also have agreed to stick in close to £10 Million on Capital Projects this year. The rolling 3-year programme is considerably higher than that. So our money is already committed and, as you heard, this year is a surplus, next year is a deficit and it’s only a couple of hundred thousand for the years, 3, 4, and 5. So we must take care. It is difficult.
I know this afternoon I am going to be attacked by one person because they told me on Wednesday that if we put electricity up they would attack me on it so I am expecting to be attacked later today about electricity prices. Sadly, electricity had to go up but it does increase the pressure on people already suffering fuel poverty. And fuel poverty is one of the things that will be taken into account when we look at assistance to the lower paid later this year.
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