Having a government department in charge of thinking up new initiatives to promote theisland and bring in new business should, in theory, be a good thing.

But there is a major difference between coming up with a genuinely imaginative idea that will benefit us all and jumping on the nearest bandwagon without considering the wider consequences.

I hope our politicians are not so insular that they have failed to notice that a major shift in public opinion is taking place when it comes to the environment.

People are finally waking up to the fact that this is an issue that affects us all and that we are all going to have some hard choices to make when it comes to our profligate use of the earth’s precious resources.

Some of the hardest choices are going to be in energy use, especially when it comes to travel, by car, air or ship.

And, if our politicians had failed to notice the Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg drawing our attention to this, then our island schoolchildren helpfully provided them with a clue last month when they went on strike to focus minds on the matter.

Despite all of this what is the latest brainwave from the Department for Enterprise?

It’s cruise ships and how to get more of them to call into the island.

Seriously - cruise ships?

Have they completely missed the stats on how much pollution these floating tower blocks cause?

Environmental groups in the UK have demonstrated that a single cruise ship can emit as much pollution as 700 trucks and as much particulate matter as a million cars.

When the German watchdog, Nabu, surveyed 77 cruise ships it discovered that standing on the deck of one of them is similar to being in one of the world’s most polluted cities.

If we’re going to be zero carbon by 2020, then these monsters will have to be among the first things to be consigned to the scrapheap of history.

On top of the pollution caused by their exhaust fumes, cruise ships have been caught discarding trash, fuel, and sewage directly into the ocean.

It is estimated that a 3,000-person cruise ship generates 210,000 gallons of sewage weekly.

It is legal for cruise ships to dump untreated sewage into the ocean if disposed of at least three miles from the coastline.

But this can still contaminate the shellfish that we eat and beaches we enjoy.

But that’s OK.

We can disregard the environment, can’t we? Because people who come on cruise ships have plenty of disposable cash and will be tempted to come ashore and spend it. Or that’s how the scenario is apparently intended to play out.

But the DfE knows it’s not true. And we know that they know it because what they have they now deemed it necessary to do?

Incentivise cruise passengers, that’s what. The ones who might otherwise be more inclined to stay onboard at the bar with a large, all-included-in-the-price gin, are to be tempted to come ashore.

The DfE is looking for retailers to take a part in a scheme which promotes special offers to cruise visitors.

And, yes I know: people have to get to this island somehow, whether by plane or boat and it all causes pollution to a certain extent.

But given that ferries have to bring cargo, and given that they rarely travel with a completely full complement of passengers, wouldn’t it be better to fill the boats that are coming here anyway?

At least that way you’d know that the visitors arriving in the islsnd would have no choice but to spend money, staying in our hotels and self-catering accommodation, eating in restaurants, hiring vehicles and all the other things that committed visitors tend to do.

Without having to be incentivised.