Planet Tory, the Jersey establishment’s right wing spoof on a discussion website has we hear undergone something of its own internal rebellion. Regular posters to the site have mutinied against the moderator’s harsh dictatorial rule and innumerable deletions. Some have even been banished for expressing Liberal opinions. None of this is entirely surprising given that Planet Zog exists simply to rubbish progressive politics under the control of establishment apologists and assorted neo fascists.

Long live the Planet Zog Soviet of Workers, Peasants and Compliance Officers!

[Submitted by ec35]

Call me cynical, but I was amused to see that the JEP is living up to its finest standards of propaganda organ for the State of Jersey. No sooner does the Bailiff come under fire for having appointed a pedo and not sought his removal combined with criticism of his Liberation Day Speech, than the newspaper has an article about him and prostate cancer (15/05/2008). This blatant attempt to garner sympathy for a Bailiff on the emotional level is designed to engender the reaction that says “how can you kick a man when he is down.”. The only trouble is that it simply does not wash and such simplistic manipulation of the public is going to work only with the gullible.

Those suffering with prostate cancer will be upset to say the least that a serious disease is being manipulated for political ends. This really smacks of first rate opportunism. Which bright spark in the editorial bunker thought that one up? Perhaps it was the Government spin machine on the top floor of Cyril Le Marquand House. Nul points!

[Submitted by Rosa]

So we have 2 reports from outside groups.

One from the London Business School says that Jersey must spend more on promoting the Finance business and must "raise its game".

The Other from the Howard League for Penal Reform says that Jersey must sign up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Oh dear - now that is a difficult decision to make. Where shall we put our effort?

Shall we pursue the money or protect the children?

Answers please on the usual postcard but don't tell the outside world that we have been neglecting our Human Rights obligations ever since 1945 and that the current child abuse scandals have everything to do with that simple fact.

And don't mention either that Jersey has been throwing resources at the Finance industry for decades - yet there is not even a dedicated civil servant in Jersey to promote Human Rights knowledge and our 53 States Members and our famous Crown Officers seem never even to have heard the words.

Difficult decision isn't it?

Tom Gruchy

[Submitted by tom gruchy]

Amidst all the other aspects of live in Jersey that are unfair, one that comes back time and time again is the ridiculous price of housing. With average salaries being reported as being in the order of £27,000, it doesn’t take an accountant to realise that 2 people living together STILL cannot afford the obscene boxes that pass for first time buyers homes. The JEP proudly proclaims that average house prices are now £435,000, in the sure and certain knowledge that those houses are being moved further and further out of the reach of ordinary families.

The States acknowledge that there is a pool of over 1,300 1 bed room apartments that are sitting idle and there is a need for around 1,200 family homes. When a unit of 3 bedroom units are chopped up to make even more 1 bedroom units, it is reported as being for the ever growing ageing population.

But it seems there is a darker and more malign agenda at work here. Low paid families appear to be pushed out and marginalised ever more, whilst anyone with money is invited in with open arms (and pockets) to buy up the dwindling property that is available and push the prices even higher. It beggars belief that a States Deputy and estate agent can afford Jersey’s most expensive house at £12.5 million and say that they understand the plight of ordinary families. Being poor does not make a person stupid, lazy or lacking in talent. But in Jersey, being rich does not mean you are without doubt intelligent, hard working and full of talent. It simply means you are quite possibly corrupt and believe you are beyond the reckoning of the laws of this land. Of course, it really helps if the law is controlled by 2 brothers who are inextricably entwined with the Chief Minister and his cronies who voted him in, despite him losing the peoples vote.

Jersey is a fantastic place, but the ruling elite are corrupting everything that is good about it and the day they get voted out will be our true 21st century version of Liberation Day.

[Submitted by Cyrano]

If one looks at all of Eastern Europe prior to 1989 one finds that every country had elections. There were strictly speaking no dictators, like in Latin America, Africa or Asia, where elections or even the entire constitution were suspended. If asked if they had democracy in their country, any member of the Romanian or Polish or Bulgarian government would say YES, of course. If normal people were asked, those who did not belong to the governing party, there would be a completely different answer.

Some Eastern European countries were considered more open than others. Some were in fact broad church within those governing parties. Romania was unusual. It was very close to the West. It had almost no foreign debt because even before 1989 Romania exported everything it produced even to the point of starving its own citizens for balance of payments security. (While GST does not yet starve our people, the government's willingness to tax its wage earning residents so as to protect its external business relationships is motivated by the same principle that kept Romania out of debt.) Romania was also ruled by an extended family which in turn controlled the governing party. The close connection between family networks and the state apparatus meant not only nepotism but that there were no institutional checks or controls on their power. Not only was there the fear of the State security apparatus but the fear that the personal and family power was even more pervasive. One does not have to mention the atrocious state of their custodial institutions, orphanages, hospitals, prisons, etc. All Europe saw what they were like when the dictatorship fell.

There are two points here:

One is the difference between the formal democracy that the government claims it enjoys and the lack of democracy as experienced by the majority of people who in fact are not part of the government or the ruling party. Jersey is not democratic simply because the government decrees it to be and because it holds elections. If that were the case all Eastern Europe was democratic. The democratic quality of a government depends on political life for those who are NOT in government.

Two, Jersey is run like a business and a family; some people might go so far as to say Jersey is a family business. Leaving aside who those families might be on such a small island. It takes no genius of political theory to know that neither the business nor the family are DEMOCRATIC institutions. Although people like to associate "Business" with efficiency, organisation and discipline, we know that these are not even the primary qualities of a business: greed for profit, opportunism, and readiness to engage in sharp dealing (buy cheap, sell dear). Business organisations if they are efficient then they are almost always authoritarian and never democratic.

The family is another sacred comparison. People who praise the family associate it with "safety, trust, care, love, privacy, intimacy". But the family is by no means just that: it is often just another form of business: rich families marry and procreate to protect their wealth. Poor families use or abuse every member to earn the money to survive. On Jersey the family is an inescapable part of public life. But the family is not democratic. At best it is usually a benign dictatorship. As we have seen in the history of Jersey's childcare regime, the family is no shining example of democracy and freedom on this island.

In short Jersey is democratic to the extent the German Democratic Republic was democratic-- if you were a member of the governing party. Instead of a wall, Jersey has La Manche.

If Jersey is run along business principles-- even poor ones or with poor performance-- that does not make it a democratic island. No serious observer of business believes that even shareholders are allowed to govern their companies-- unless they own controlling stakes. A controlling stake does not mean a MAJORITY stake. The government of Jersey proves every day that the real voting "shares" in "Jersey Ltd" are vested in a small fraction of the island's elite. When we are lucky, some things this elite wants may benefit the whole island-- but that is accident not design.

If Jersey is run like a family, then it is not democratic. Children may have their opinions and utter them in a decent family, but that does not give them authority over their parents-- whom they can only choose negatively-- by leaving their families. This is the way our Jersey family rulers work, too. The majority of Jersey's residents are treated like "children" by the government. Ultimately the only way to resist government abuse of "its children" is to leave the island, to run away from home. There is no one to run to because along with parents, there are uncles, cousins, in-laws, grandparents, each caught in the intimacy of island repression. The answer of parents to dissent is beyond appeal: "go to your room", "no supper, no pudding". In some families corporal punishment is still used. And of course if anyone wants to know how healthy Jersey' family system is, they just have to look at how children are treated here: subject to abuse both at home and in the places the States supposedly created for their protection. Taxed although they have no income. Deprived of public recreational facilities in order that certain family members may make a profit off others.

No Jersey fails on every test of democracy that was applied to Eastern Europe. The only reason people call it a democracy is out of habit, like the person who puts salt on all his food even before tasting it. Jersey is not democratic because the majority of its inhabitants know that it is not democratic-- declarations of the government notwithstanding.

Jersey is run like a business, a very inefficient, corrupt and poorly organised business that would not even pass the fig leaf standards of so-called Corporate Governance. It is doubtful whether it would pass a genuine audit any better than Enron did. Even were it to be a well-run business, Jersey would not be democratic just for being well-run.

Jersey is run like a family: with dictatorial and intolerant parents who put their own well-being ahead of the well-being of the family as a whole. Who abuse and tolerate the abuse of their children and relatives when it suits them and exploits their vulnerability and trust. Who use shame and secrecy to manipulate family members who do not conform to the parents wishes or the desires of "older relatives". Who use love and beneficence as "gifts" to be traded among family members to obtain personal advantage and not because they really love their "family" or respect their humanity.

Given this abyssmal state of affairs, yes it could be worse, let us say in the Congo or Saudi Arabia. It was worse in Spain under Franco or Portugal under Salazar. But these two countries finally dispensed with their family dictatorships-- which were supported by our "parents" to the end. But democracy is not proven by the absence of death squads and torture chambers. A business or a family do not become democratic simply by default.

In Jersey, democracy only makes sense if it is active despite the government and beyond the government. That is not the case. The government and those who see it as their gift actively hinder democracy through their business-like and familial manipulation of this islands institutions and its inhabitants. Jersey inhabitants have been reduced to little more than a necessary evil for the elite who control the government and the economy. What the government is saying with GST and similar measures is-- we have our income, our future is cared for by our benefactors. Don't go away angry people of Jersey, just go away! In Eastern Europe one standing joke used to be that if the governing party lost an election they would simply choose a new electorate. If we understand what made Eastern Europe "democratic" before 1989-- then we know why the government still claims that Jersey is democratic in 2008.

1989 proved that there was more than one meaning for the word "democracy" and that governments did not have an exclusive right to define it for their own advantage. Whether the States that convene in 2009 will open for democracy remains to be seen. That is what the people of Jersey ought to fight for.

[Submitted by RZ]

The following is the letter from the Bailiff about the demonstrations in the Royal Square. Click to enlarge.

An excellent letter in the local Rag - yes we do get a few good ones - and it's spot on about the Jersey nationalist Deputy Paul Le Claire.

His ruthless attack on our Polish resident friends reveals him for what he truly is. My hope is that the Poles will register to vote this year, particularly in his district - St Helier Number 1 - and ensure that he is swiftly voted out of office.

The Deputy should apologise

From George Machan.

Les Ronciers, Route des Genêts,
St Brelade.

I WAS of the understanding that the Island had turned its back on days gone by, whereby foreign workers were treated as second-class citizens, and that great efforts had been made to repair what can only be considered at that time to be a tarnished reputation with a certain sector of immigrants who had served the Island over a great number of years.

The comments made by the Deputy Paul Le Claire ( JEP, 30 April) verge on inciting racial hatred and no doubt our learned friends, the judges of Strasbourg, would consider such comments to be a policy of ‘suggested unfair discrimination to one sector of the community’.

In an Island which today finds itself dependent upon the actions and activities of the outside world for its very high standard of living I would have hoped that the treatment of a highly educated workforce would have been that of one of welcome and respect. Further, no doubt the Island’s regulator would welcome a highly qualified finance sector as an aide to their aim of preventing money laundering abuse emanating from these shores.

An unreserved apology is the least one can expect from the Deputy, more preferably his resignation. Will it, however, be a case of the old adage ‘if you don’t like it there is always a boat in the morning’?

Published 8/5/2008

Further details can be found in the Jersey Evening Post, the Island's leading source of news, information and advertising, available from 12.15pm on Mon-Fri and 9am on Saturday.
JEP telephone: (01534) 611611 | JEP contact list
Article © 8/5/2008 Guiton Group. website © 2007 Guiton Group

All rights reserved © 2000-2006


[Submitted by kropotkin]

The Bailiff's speech on May 9th was one of the most political ever made by a sitting Bailiff. Up to his ears in the scandal himself, following his reprehensible behaviour during the Roger Holland case, and his closing down of Senator Syvret's Christmas speech, this man has no right to pontificate on a so-called 'media bandwagon'.

It is quite clear so far, and the Police themselves have admitted it, that if it were not for the excellent investigative journalism showed by the world's media, none of this historic child abuse scandal would have been reported - the Jersey media has shown itself to be suppine and merely an appendage of the local state.

It must annoy Phil that exemplary journalists at top UK broadsheets have not only searched into Jersey's secrets and society but have written at length about Phil's own role in some pertinent matters. More recently,for example, one of Britain's foremost crime writers did an excellent summary piece in the Sunday Times - see below here to read.

When some critics argued that the secrecy about collaboration in 1940-45 was instrumental in leading to cover up and concealment regarding child abuse, and indeed the tax haven, we were told that this was inappropriate and far-fetched. Yet, the Bailiff, who like the Bourbons forgets nothing and learns nothing, is allowed to make his frankly stupid provincial remarks in the context of a Liberation Day address. Those of you who want to read Philip's meandering monologue, in all its stark humour, can read below:

BAILIFF’S SPEECH ON LIBERATION DAY 2008
I am sure that many of those who were here in May 1945 will remember the old saying that one of the first casualties of war is the truth. This year we have learnt that even in peacetime, once a media bandwagon starts rolling, it is difficult to distinguish what is true from what is fictitious.

Liberation Day is as good a time as any to take stock and to shake ourselves free of the misinformation to which the child abuse inquiry has given rise. It is extraordinary how quickly it all happened. It all started with the discovery of a fragment of a child’s skull and a sniffer dog who showed interest in six different sites. Within days newspapers and broadcasters had converted that information into stories of finding six or
more bodies of children, and within two weeks those stories had crossed the world feeding a frenzy of righteous indignation and further wild speculation. A cover-up by government was suggested, and there was incredulity that local people had not noticed these sinister events.

Unjustified smears about wholesale collaboration during the occupation led to suggestions that the Island was full of dark secrets and that ours was a community that cared nothing for vulnerable children.

Now we know that the fragment of skull is at least 60 years old and possibly very much older than that. There are as yet no bodies, no evidence of any murder, and no evidence of cover-ups by government.

Hardly any of this has been beamed across the world. Yet many journalists continue to write about the Island’s so called child abuse scandal. All child abuse, wherever it happens, is scandalous, but it is the unjustified and remorseless denigration of Jersey and her people that is the real scandal.

The truth is that we do not yet know what happened at
Haut de la Garenne or in other places. What we do know is that a rigorous investigation is taking place and, in due course, a balanced judgement will be possible. A brave writer in the Guardian earlier this week was the first journalist in a national newspaper, so far as I know, to confront this truth.

Confronting the past, which is one aspect of confronting the truth, is of course not always easy. After all, it took us some time to confront the uncomfortable truths about the occupation; to acknowledge publicly the elements of collaboration and profiteering that took place; and to
remember the suffering of the slave workers and the hardships of the deportees. It also took time to acknowledge the heroism of those who rebelled against the occupiers in ways large and small, and the courage of those who sheltered escaped prisoners at great risk to themselves. It was easier to try to forget the painful memories of enemy occupation. But we
have now confronted the gremlins, and this annual celebration of Liberation Day is a means of remembering the lessons of the past. Of course, it is also the opportunity for those who were in Jersey on 9th May 1945 to recall the jubilation and intoxicating excitement that people felt when the nightmare was over and freedom was restored. This celebration is also the chance for younger people to learn more about the occupation, and its significance in the story of our Island race, and to honour the perseverance and courage of their elders.

Confronting difficult situations is sometimes no easier than confronting the past. I was struck recently by a letter in the Jersey Evening Post from someone who was comparing her own experience in the Island with the appalling report of a man in the north of England who collapsed and was dying by the roadside, and who was ignored by numerous motorists including one who drove over the poor man’s leg and broke it. Our letter writer had also come across an injured man sitting on the side of a country lane and had watched as a driver in front of her carefully negotiated his car around the man and drove off. She stopped and called an ambulance, but was lamenting that such callousness could happen in Jersey. Sadly, such stories are as old as the hills. If only one person drove around the injured man, we are in fact doing rather better than the men in the biblical story where both the priest and the Levite passed by the injured traveller on the other side of the road before the Good Samaritan came along. The letter writer set a fine example. Confronting the situation and showing personal responsibility for one’s actions are qualities to which we can all aspire.

I do not believe that Jersey is an uncaring society. On the contrary, there is a strong political will to protect the poor and vulnerable in the community and to correct any mistakes of the past. Of course Jersey is not Utopia, and there are many problems to resolve. But equally we have much for which to be grateful.

Today our guest of honour is His Excellency Dr Alberto Jardim, the President of Madeira and I extend a very warm welcome to him and to Mrs Jardim. Our own Musical Original singers have just returned from Funchal where they were royally received. I am delighted to say that we have a group of young visiting musicians from Madeira in Liberation Square today. I hope that the President’s visit will lead to many more cultural exchanges of this kind between two Island communities which have more in common than one might think.

I also extend a warm welcome to Colonel Alexey Korkach, Air Attaché from the Russian embassy and to Señor Alveraz Gamido, First Secretary to the Spanish Embassy, who will both be at Westmount this afternoon but who are also in the Square for our celebration this morning. And finally may I thank all the senior citizens from the parishes who have made this annual pilgrimage to Liberation Square. Whether you were one of those in occupied Jersey or one of those evacuated to the UK, you
collectively kept alive the flame of freedom and worked to create out of the ruins of 1945 the vibrant and successful community we now have.

Thank you.

[Submitted by kropotkin]