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Strong support for GST at BBC Guernsey's southern roadshow

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Strong support for GST at BBC Guernsey's southern roadshow
John Fernandez

BBC Guernsey political reporter

BBC A man with white hair and glasses, wearing a blue and white checked shirt. On the left of the picture is the Your Voice, Your Vote logo. BBC

Godfray Guilbert said the biggest election issue for him was balancing the books
A lady with grey hair and glasses. She's wearing a blue ribbed gillet.

On a visit to the shops, Gill Freeman said States finances need fixing but through a rise income tax rather than GST

The roadshow on the state of the island’s finances was held in Forest on Friday.

Gill Freeman was among people to attend and said her top election issue was balancing the books.

She said she preferred the idea of an increase to the rate of income tax, which the States rejected in favour of GST last year.

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She said: “GST is unfair as it gets the lowest paid.”

The agreed States policy, according to the treasury, is to mitigate against the regressive impact of a GST through the lower rate of income tax.

Two men arguing behind a branded purple BBC Radio Guernsey microphone. On the left is Lord Digby Jones, he has white shoulder length hair and a yellow shirt and on the right is Deputy Andy Taylor, he's wearing a blue Guernsey and glasses and has spiky blonde hair and a beard.

Lord Digby Jones and outgoing deputy Andy Taylor clashed over the island’s system of government

‘Necessary evil’

Former UK Business Minister Lord Digby Jones said he wanted the next States to “have a sense of urgency” when it came to tackling the island’s public finances.

He said: “We need to follow through with GST+, as that is urgent, otherwise we are just going to run out of money.

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“That’s not nice to have. It’s a must and we need to big time sort out the dosh.”

Outgoing politician, Deputy Andy Taylor agreed: “This government needs to drum home the actual situation we are in, the financial difficulties in the future.

“If we don’t tackle those we are absolute scuppered.”

On the way to pick up her friend at the airport, Sandra Poulding agreed GST was a “necessary evil” for the island.

Deputy Bopb Murray wearing a blue hat and black sunglasses and smiling into the camera. He has long ginger hair and a ginger and grey beard.

Deputy Bob Murray is leaving the States after one term in office

Another States member, who is leaving government at the end of this term, Deputy Bob Murray, came to visit the roadshow on the way to grab some Guernsey biscuits.

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He expressed his exasperation at the current States and said he was concerned incoming candidates would fail to grasp how big an issue the future of the island’s finances was.

He said: “The island has still not grasped the nettle in terms of the challenges we face, and I think we will have to wait for something like a car crash situation to have people wake up to the problems the island has.

“Hopefully GST will be introduced, it is a major way we can start to address the deficit in public finances. The other crown dependencies won’t deal with us on corporate tax reform until we bring in a GST, why would they?”

A number of general election candidates have promised to reform the island’s corporate income tax system, if they are elected.

While others have suggested a mix of income from corporate tax reform and a new wind farm off the coast of Guernsey would be enough to stop the need for a GST.

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A man with grey whispy hair looking at the camera. He's wearing a t shirt that is blue and has the words Classic Flowers embroidered on it.

For Paul Domaille the only issue on the ballot paper is the electoral system itself

Island wide voting ‘not working’

Outside Forest Stores, people weren’t just talking tax, as several voters expressed their frustration with the current electoral system.

As she got some meat for her dog from the shops, Liz stopped by and said the States should go back to the parish system of electing deputies.

She said: “This election is too much, this way of electing is not good for our community.

“People’s days are full, they have children to go home and look after, they don’t have time to go through 82 manifestos.”

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Paul Domaille said his top priority at this election was supporting candidates who would reform the voting system: “I don’t think island wide voting is working.”

A lady with brown hair looking at the camera. She's wearing a white hoodie with a drawstring.

Former deputy Gloria Dudley-Owen said she wants to see housing for local people prioritised by candidates

Population concerns

Former Deputy for the west, Gloria Dudley-Owen, said she’s been “disappointed” with the election campaign so far.

She said: “There are some candidates definitely lacking in knowledge about the issues.”

In the past Mrs Dudley-Owen has campaigned to tighten the island’s population laws and said high levels of net migration to the island were a concern that candidates needed to take seriously.

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She said: “I think it’s quite tragic what is happening with our population, we seem to have a bias against helping the Guernsey population.

“Net migration was high last year, we do need workers but I feel our people, our local people are being neglected in their needs when it comes to housing.”

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Finance

Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help

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Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help

A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.

The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.

This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.

She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.

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Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.

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UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review

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UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.

The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”

The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.

Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.

The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted.   Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.

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The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.

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Finance

Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position

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Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.

The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.

The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.

Audit contract details

Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.

“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.

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Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.

“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.

New finance director position

The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.

“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.

Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.

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Closed session

The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.

Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.

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