Another year beckons

GOLD! 

The prospect of the world coming to an end on the 21st December left me with a rather tricky dilemma; do I go and see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey just in case or do I wait until 2016 and just buy the DVD extended version box set once it is available at a reduced price and get maximum value from the experience as I did with Lord of the Rings?

In the end I decided that I would re-read the book and go (re-reading the book being essential so I could see what they had changed you understand). Personally I cannot believe they are going to drag it out over three films, but of course the sight of a horde of gold coins appealed to me.

It was a tough choice but I succumbed to temptation and went for my first experience of 3D cinema since they did away with the red and green glasses. I think that red and green glasses are the way to go, the experience was nowhere near as good as whichever Nightmare on Elm Street it was that I saw back in 1991 in bi-colour spectacles. The advert for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria was the best 3D bit.

It was also my first experience of the VIP box, which will hereafter be a necessity should I venture to the cinema which is I guess an experience I limit to every other year. It reminded me of how comfortable the Odeon was when there was just one screen.

I greatly enjoyed Christmas this year but the presents that teenagers get are unbelievable, literally. One thirteen year old has Facebook that they received three sets of clothing, four holidays and not in Europe, an iPhone 5 and £485.00; now maybe it is just me, but I believe that spending £5,000 on a child for Christmas is just a little excessive. Especially when you send that same child to a States of Jersey free school, where on earth are the priorities of these parents?

This child will never get a job which will be able to sustain a similar lifestyle without a proper eduction but is being given unrealistic expectations, so I think that is going to be one unhappy life; unless of course the child is lying - which I hope is the case since I told my step-daughter that without doubt she was.

Whilst we are on the subject, again I am going to seem like a technological dinosaur but since I have a desktop at home and a desktop at work and my life is essentially based around those two locations why on earth would you spend more than the cost of a desktop on an iPad or iPhone which does everything the desktop does but nowhere near as well. I can understand it if you have a two hour train journey to and from work but what is so urgent anyway that you cannot just wait... surely all your friends on Facebook don't need to know that you have just grazed your knee immediately after you do it?

So people spend £500 on the latest gadget which is going to be completely without value in five years time to do something that can already be done and probably done better, or is completely unnecessary to do at all.

This process of selling us goods of ever decreasing usefulness, in ever decreasing increments of technological advance, which may or may not improve on existing technologies appears to be mirrored in many industries; pharmaceuticals are running out of wonder drugs; banks are running out of ways to de-fraud us and governments are running out of excuses for their incompetence. Creating ever more demand which drives GDP growth by encouraging the slaves to work longer hours to meet the ever increasing demands of ever more spoilt children who will grow up to be unemployable but will expect government to keep on giving.

What was good about Christmas was simply having a whole day without business, after 15 consecutive twelve hours days at the grindstone. I'm not employed so the government graciously allows me to work as and when I wish to - and I love work because I do as I please, when it pleases me to do it. All that effort to earn just one day to spend with the people I wanted to spend it with, eating home cooked food that hasn't been industrially processed. That is in my mind what being an adult is. Providing not only of yourself but the people that you wish to.

It is that which I think is worth working and fighting for, the right to draw happiness from the simple things life with no unexpected adventures.

The world I live in is one crazy place, how is it possible for so many people, to get it all, so wrong? Why do so many people prefer to treat every day as Christmas, to be children and be given free stuff that they have not earnt? Free stuff that I am paying for.

Childhood does not always end at 21 and there are too many children in this world, but then again maybe I have just been reading too much Tolkein, a theme to be continued.

Merry Christmas

Fred Clarke, St Helier's greatest ever Constable

Constable Clarke opens a fair 

As part of looking back to see where the States of Jersey have gone wrong, it is probably beneficial to look back to the times when the States of Jersey got it very right.

Fred Clarke served Jersey and the parish of St Helier for three terms as Constable of St Helier, now apart from the one little problem where a Centenier Pearce was unfairly dismissed  from office in order to cover up the maladministration of the then Attorney General, one Philip Martin Bailhache, later Bailiff and currently Senator, he excelled in the role, and all the while unpaid.

His operation of the parish finances was remarkably similar to the operation of his company C. Le Masurier, he never spent a penny on anything that he didn't have to.

So successful was Constable Clarke in running the parish that the finances remain in reasonably good health in spite of the spiralling bureaucracy which has been created by later Constables Le Brocq and Crowcroft. There was none of Constable Crowcroft's stealth taxation through parking tickets or selling the right to park on public land to the public, I never quite worked out how people didn't see through that little confidence trick. No it was plain and simple - the government should only spend other people's money where it is absolutely necessary.

When the States was filled with successful businessmen, businessmen let's face it who did very well by building a successful economy within the Island, the whole Island prospered. Now the Island is run by petty bureaucrats who depend on the wages they receive and are always looking to improve their lot, at the expense of the people of Jersey.

My attempts to get an answer to what the effective rate of tax in Jersey is, have met with, 'I'm sorry we cannot work that out'.

However the formula is simple, particularly for someone with a doctorate in Mathematics, simply add all the monies received by the States of Jersey in all shapes and forms by every department less all the income received from corporation tax and divide that by the total income disclosed in income tax returns less the income tax returns by companies. Multiply the answer by 100 and voila you will have the mean rate of taxation.

Then apply the distribution curve for the income of families from the statistics already produced and you will be able to infer the effective rate for families in the upper, lower and median quartiles.

So if the mean rate of effective taxation for an average family is calculated to be say 50% then the effective rate in the upper quartile is likely to be around 10% and the effective rate for families in the lower quartile is likely to be in the region of 70%. We know the effective rate for families in the lower quartile in the UK is 73%.

You may ask why the government does not simply levy income tax at 70%, well that is because we would not re-elect them if we knew how much of our time we spent working for the government, we would all be on benefits.

Whatever the result is we should compare it to the effective rate at the time when Constable Clarke and his ilk ran the island, when effective rates of taxation were around 25%.

What built Jersey is what will save any of the indebted nations now; an immediate reduction in the amount of money spent and a reduction in the levels of taxation in all forms.

Has there been a breach of the Jersey Public Markets Trust?

Jersey's Central Market viewed from
the Halkett Place double gate 

Reading old laws is a fascinating business; there is a totally different feel to them and to that end I present the LOI (1885) TOUCHANT L’ADMINISTRATION DES MARCHÉS PUBLICS (the law regarding the administration of the public markets). English translations are mine and are included in brackets after the French.

1  ‎La régie, l’administration et la police des Marchés sont du ressort des États, et seront exercées selon les ordres et sous les directions de cette Assemblée, par le Ministre responsable pour Transport and Technical Services. 

(The governance, administration and policing of the markets are the responsibility of States, and will be performed in accordance with the orders and directions of the Assembly by the Minister responsible for Transport and Technical Services.)

The States of Jersey are solely the trustees of the Public Markets. 

2 ‎Les États ou le Ministre responsable pour Transport and Technical Services, par délégation des États, nommeront un ou plusieurs Inspecteurs dont le devoir sera de faire observer les Règlements qui pourraient être établis de temps à autre pour le meilleur avantage desdits Marchés et ce sous la direction dudit Ministre. Le Connétable et les Centeniers de la paroisse de St. Hélier sont également chargés de veiller au maintien de la paix et du bon ordre dans lesdits Marchés.

(The States or the Minister responsible for Transport and Technical Services by States delegation, shall appoint one or more inspectors whose duty is to enforce the regulations that may be established from time to time to the best advantage of such contracts and under the direction of the said Minister. The Constable and Centeniers of the parish of St. Helier are responsible for ensuring the maintenance of peace and good order in such markets.)

3 Les États auront le droit d’émaner des Règlements pour le bon ordre, la police et l’entretien des Marchés, et pourront, comme par le passé, louer les boutiques, étaux et emplacements dans les Marchés, afin de subvenir aux frais qu’entraînent l’administration et l’entretien des Marchés.
Les États sont également autorisés à établir des Règlements pour la régie et l’entretien des Abattoirs Publics, ainsi que pour réglementer le débit de viande de boucherie, tant en dedans qu’en dehors des Marchés.
Les Règlements émanés en vertu de cet Article resteront en vigueur jusqu’à leur rappel ou modification. 

(The States have the right to set Regulations for the order, policing and maintenance of the markets, and may continue to rent shops, stalls and markets sites in order to meet the costs that cause the administration and maintenance contracts. States are also authorized to establish regulations for the control and maintenance of Public Abattoirs, as well as to regulate the flow of meat, both inside and outside of markets. Regulations passed under this Article shall remain in force until their recall or modification.)

4 ‎Les amendes imposées par les Règlements qui pourraient, de temps à autre, être établis en vertu de l’Article 3, seront au bénéfice de Sa Majesté.

(Any fines imposed by the Regulations which may from time to time be established pursuant to Article 3 shall be for the benefit of the Crown.)

Prior to the occupation Jersey did not have income tax per se, it was the Germans who established our 20% tax rate. So every law not only sets out exactly what the States are going to do, but also how it is going to be paid for. In this case the rents from the market stalls are to be used exclusively to pay for the administration and maintenance of the markets. 

How do we know that rents may only be used for this purpose, exclusively? There is a simple rule of legal interpretation which states that only those items listed apply (and it is for this reason the phrase including, but not limited to is included in so many statutes).

Therein lies the problem for our money grubbing modern day States of Jersey, they cannot fully exploit the site without changing the law and destroying one of the greatest examples of Victorian engineering in Jersey.

Everything from the cellars (which are cool in summer, warm in winter for meat storage) to the roof is an engineering masterpiece and designed for a purpose, even down to the central fountain which regulates the humidity. A structure designed to prolong the life of meat, vegetables, flowers and fish from the days before electricity and refrigeration.

The 1885 law makes it clear that the property belongs to the people of Jersey and the States merely administer the building, they do not have the right to sell or alter the property in any way. Maybe it is time to look into the rest of the properties before we (the beneficiaries) have our property sold by the States of Jersey (the administrators) to be used merely to pay their own employees. Maybe the time has come for us to appoint new administrators before our ancestors (the settlors) wishes (that the markets should be there to benefit the people of Jersey) are surrendered and the gift provided by the 19th Century residents of Jersey is stolen in a 'breach of trust' by the States of Jersey.

Many of the public markets have already gone, Sand Street is now a car park and the Cattle Market is now the property of Jersey Telecoms Ltd. Whilst you cannot object to much needed car parking, the Cattle Market has already been given away by the trustees when they had no legal right to do so. Trustees may not sell property held in trust except to benefit the beneficiaries and I don't remember receiving any part of the proceeds from the sale.

Chinese assault Gold markets

Kitco reports that the Chinese have forced down the price of gold on the markets and following the price today has made interesting reading, the price plummeted all the way down to the London PM fix at $1692 before rebounding sharply once the fix was in to back over $1700 then ending the day at $1696. The interesting thing will be to see how much physical metal was purchased today from the LBMA.

It was a crazy day for bullion sales. I personally had my entire inventory purchased, with additional orders placed and booked. A quick tour of the jewellers and antique dealers revealed that gold coins for sale are near to non-existent.

It is refreshing to see that many people in Jersey are heeding the warning signs of the impending end of the Anglo-Saxon domination of the world. The number one present this Christmas is going to be gold and silver bullion and coins.

There is an increasing disconnect between physical sales and market prices however, physical sales continue to rise whilst the market price continues to be held at around $1,700.

The United States confirmed that it is going to continue with zero interest rates for the next three year; this on a day where it was confirmed that the US has now outstripped Stalin's Russia in terms of the percentage of people incarcerated and that the government now plans to place microphones on public transportation to record conversations.

The outlook on the UK economy was cut from Neutral to Negative suggesting that a credit downgrade is coming which will bring in its wake increased interest rates or massive quantative easing, either of which is terrible for those invested in property in the UK and those areas which use the pound such as Jersey.

In EULand the news of the appointment of a bank supervisor to oversee the Eurozone banks with a market capitalisation of over $30 billion, which leaves most of Germany's banks still regulated by Germany, but other nations banks overseen by Germany. This clears the way to a central European bank, overseen by... yep, you guessed it, Germany.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, Germany having had its experience of hyperinflation where the cost of one egg reached 4 billion marks has a much more traditional approach to expenditure... don't buy it until you can afford it. With its recent requests for the repatriation of its US held gold, it certainly looks set to be a potential future world economic hegemon. All it would take is a war between China and the US and such a future would be the likely outcome.

If the future for the UK (and thus Jersey) is a choice between living with the increasingly fascist United States or with the Germans; then I am going to start learning to speak German.

Which States Member will ask what the effective rate of tax is in Jersey?

UK families get less back and pay more, it is official. Whilst Germany has an effective tax rate of 40% and the Netherlands 48% and the best place to live in the world is Chile where effective tax is just 20% the average family in the UK pays 73% of their earnings in tax.

At the last election I tried to calculate what the effective tax rate in Jersey was, but Dr Gibaut (whilst quoted constantly by Senator Bailhache through the hustings) would not provide the figures for me.

Isn't it time one of our representatives asked Dr Gibaut to provide the answer?

Oh unions, unions, I want to support you but

When will unions make arguments that
everyone can support, a policy idea 

Working for the government is for the vast majority basically being on 'benefits plus', they offer no more to the community and economy than those who choose not to work but live on income support or disability benefit due to 'depression' a 'bad back' or other unconfirmable but at the same time undeniable 'illness'.

Changes to terms and conditions are needed; an end to paid sick pay, a reduction in paid holidays to two weeks a year, a change from final salary (or average salary) pensions to a personal pension account with a defined value.

There also needs to be some evidence. We need an independent review of public sector wages taking into account: ease of recruitment into a range of jobs in the public sector versus the private sector, job comparability with a range of private sector jobs (but taking true accountability into account – businesses go bust if manager makes a mess), job security versus the private sector, ease of retaining staff in the public sector, overall sickness and absence comparisons with the private sector, and pensions comparability. Only when this is done will there be a proper picture of how the public sector compares.

If such a review were undertaken it would clearly demonstrate that most of the Civil Service is overpaid, most but not all...

It seems that accountants in the Civil Service are underpaid compared to their private sector counterparts and so too are Nurses, who are underpaid even compared to similar grades in the Civil Service and they actually provide a service which benefits the public.

The JEP reports

FURIOUS unions are threatening industrial action after the States’ negotiating body broke off pay talks and imposed a controversial wage settlement on thousands of workers.
In a statement yesterday, Chief Minister Ian Gorst said that after nine months of negotiations, all attempts to resolve the pay dispute between the States Employment Board and the unions had been exhausted. 

And he said that the board now had no option but to impose its final offer of a 1% one-off payment this year, 1% rise and one-off payment next year, and a 4% rise in 2014 dependent on workers accepting changes to their terms and conditions. 

But in a strongly worded joint statement, seven public sector unions said that the forced public sector pay settlement had ‘severe implications for future negotiations’, and warned that they are now seeking legal advice.

Now I have no objection to 1% pay rise I do not object to for those on lower grades (1-2), but a 1% pay rise for the Bailiff is £3,600 per year or £300 per month.

Something needs to be done to flatten the pay grades for the upper echelons which are out of control.

I would like to see pay hinged at say grade 7 (whose pay would remain unchanged) with grade 1's getting a 6% rise, grade 2's getting a 5% rise and so on  with grade 13's and up getting a corresponding 6% decrease down to grade 8 getting a 1% decrease.

How is it fair to decide that one man's work is worth £1,350 per day (the Bailiff) whilst another man's work is worth just £70 per day (grade 3), why are the unions not complaining about this? In many European countries there is a rule that the highest paid worker in an organisation can get paid no more than 10 times the salary of the lowest paid worker. It is time such a rule was introduced in Jersey. Are any of our States Members going to bring such a proposition? I would imagine it would be a crowd pleaser...

Where are the unions when it comes to making demands such as these which everyone can support?

Enjoy this Christmas, it will never be the same again

I have noticed on Amazon that many sellers are selling goods at less than cost price and, this being an unusual state of affairs, it is important to ask why they are doing this and what the longer term consequences are going to be...

The watch retail business is an interesting case study; everyone wants to sell Rolex and if you sell Rolex any brand will be desperate to put their range in your shop - of course selling Rolex is not easy, you have to have an invitation to even step onto their stand at the trade shows. The trend is for fewer and fewer Rolex agents and losing the agency is the death knell for that business, take C.T. Maine's for example. With a minimum spend of £250,000 per year of the models selected for you by Rolex (rather than the ones you want), it can be a double edged sword.

There are the 'branded' watches; the Armani's, D&G's, Police etc of this world which when you open the case are £20 watches using old Citizen mass produced Miyota movements, which are sold at a massive mark-up because people are stupid enough to pay those prices. I would not buy Rolex jeans so why people buy Armani watches is beyond me, but that's people for you. If that is the price of fashion, you can keep it! The old adage is true, there are many people who know 'the price of everything, but the value of nothing'. Geoff Southern's views on Plemont seem are the perfect example of this.

Then there are the traditional watch manufacturers; the Swiss makers (Rolex, Omega, etc), Citizen (Miyota) and Seiko. Virtually every other watch you buy will have one of these movements in.

Now I am Seiko's golden boy of the moment when it comes to the junior brands, but because my shop is in the Central Market and not the high street I cannot stock Seiko, it's a harsh world out there.

For the vast majority of these Seiko junior brand watches I am the UK online market leader (i.e. I have the lowest price) and for those of you in Jersey the price is even lower in store. I get the maximum discount with only John Lewis/Debenhams, Argos and H Samuel selling more watches, but then they have more shops than me.

There are some interesting points to note... for example Argos have their own special range of watches made just for them (initially) these have very high RRP's and of course are then sold at 50% off, which is still higher than the price for similar watches in the main range. I am beaten on a few prices on a few models the reasons are due to grey imports, bankrupt and clearance stock and lets face stolen goods being sold online.

There are interesting developments in the watch world, manufacturers are dedicated to their retail stores (and most will not supply you if you intend to sell on the internet only) and they are also dedicated to protecting their brand, which means that the priority of supply, goes to those who maintain reasonable prices and do not price gouge. They cannot tell you what price to sell at but they do not have to supply you.

In my first business venture as Space-Craft I successfully sold Games Workshop products to the point that they are no longer allowed to be sold on the internet because it was destroying the brand, now watch companies and other manufacturers are catching on and the internet trade is more strictly controlled.

Realistically the prices of goods online should be higher than in store, there is the postage cost, the cost of buyer fraud, the cost of buyer returns and of course, like employees, it is the buyer who is overly protected by statutory protections.

Why do manufacturers want products in stores? Well firstly because the retailer acts as an effective filter to stupidity - I can show you how to push the crown in on your watch to make it go, without you having to return it to Seiko under guarantee. I can tell you that all that is needed is to change the battery. I can adjust the watch bracelet so it fits you. More importantly there is no advertising that compares to a shop window.

So we are back to the issue of some retailers selling goods at less than cost, now this has always occurred. The simple reason is that if I can sell 1,000 things at 99p without any problems then my 'customer metrics' on eBay or Amazon are always going to be within their parameters so if there are problems then it is only with a tiny proportion of my sales. If I only sell 50 watches at £1,000 each and two have problems then Amazon and eBay are on your back tell you to buck your ideas up. If I have sold a 1,000 things and have problems on nineteen then that's fine, it's all about gaming the system.

But for people to start selling £50 watches at a loss is a new development and points to desperation; they are risking their agencies with the very manufacturers who ensure their long term survivability and a lot of this is going on this year.

This is a short term purple patch, that consumers would be advised to take advantage of. Very soon the weak hands will be shaken out, go under or sell up and once that happens prices are set to rise and fast. Hyper inflation is just around the corner, I only have to look at the cost prices of the this year's models against those from previous years to see that.

Forty one jewellers and 100,000 people in Jersey, the market seems over-saturated... I wonder whose lease is expiring this year, maybe they are the lucky ones.

Breaking News: Royal Bank of Canada to set up in Singapore Jan 2013

Jersey's largest private employer and heart of the finance industry in Jersey, is to establish a 'branch' in Singapore in January, senior managers were informed last weekend.

For those of you who have been following the posts on this blog which have highlighted Singapore as the favoured jurisdiction for those few people left with anything worth stealing by the banking/government colossus of fraud and exploitation may still be surprised to learn that plans are already underway for Jersey's finance industry to move its operation to this location.

Of course the move will not happen all at once, expect things to happen gradually in small unnewsworthy, and thus unreported, tranches over the next 24 to 36 months until the office in Jersey is little more than a letterbox.

Royal Bank of Canada employs approximately 1,000 of Jersey's 18,000 private sector workforce (out of a total workforce of 42,500 when the unproductive, make work States of Jersey, and its subsidiaries, jobs are included) but all these jobs are those of the upper quartile in terms of earnings which will likely gradually drift off, closer to where all the money is, India and China to the new office in Singapore where wages are a lot lower than here.

The question also follows, where will the Royal Bank of Canada pay its taxes, Jersey or Singapore? I'm sure they have done (or will soon do) a deal with Singapore that will see a large proportion of the profit taxed in Singapore at a favourable rate.

Expect this to be reported as a 'positive development', if at all, by the JEP. In the long term this is a positive development, we are closing in on the day the States of Jersey goes bankrupt, the price of housing will fall and government expenditure will finally have to be reined in to somewhere closer to simply unrealistically high from its current level of ludicrously high.

Who knows maybe our States Members will act now to avert the looming financial crisis by actually cutting expenditure instead of talking about doing it? Yeah I though that was funny too!

Common Law is not the same thing as Customary Law

"All nations who are ruled by laws and customs are governed partly by their own particular laws and partly by those laws which are common to all mankind." Emperor Justinian

COMMON LAW - This was used in Roman Times to denote the laws which were common between the City of Rome and the various regions of Italy. It was also used by Alfred the Great to denote a 'Common Law' of England which was based upon the ten commandments which would stand above the local customs and baronial courts. In a very real sense then the Common Law is superior to the regional and subordinate laws of 'the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies' having been adopted into Jersey as part of the apocryphal 'Constitutions of King John' which, whilst the basis of Jersey law, were never actually written nor given to Jersey by the King but borrowed from Magna Carta.

CUSTOMARY LAW - This is different to Common Law in that it represents the customs of a particular region, it should include, but it is not limited to, Common Law. Jersey uses a number of customary laws (or did or bases current laws upon) Norman Law which are not part of the Common Law.

The Jersey Courts will refer to customary law, they will never refer to common law.

LEGAL FICTION - (Latin fictiones) Certain Roman proceedings were conducted under various fictions, such as that the parties were citizens of Rome rather than foreigners in order to give jurisdiction to the Court. So by saying I do not wish to be recognised as a citizen of Rome, but as a foreigner, you are saying that this Court does not have jurisdiction.

CIVIL LAWS - These are the laws which are particular to a nation (or body of people). The City of Rome had its own law as did each of the various states of the Italian peninsula at this time. In order for the Laws of Rome to apply to non-Romans, the Court acted often under the fiction that the party was a Citizen. England did not have a 'legislature' for several centuries after Alfred the Great. Though it would later come back to defining a 'civil code' of laws instead it used what is known as Maritime Law. The majority of non-English based legal system use a civil code.

MARITIME LAW - As opposed to the Common Law which can only be applied to those things possessed of life, an animus (or spirit) whether human or animal, the maritime law has within it a form of 'limited liability' in that the most which can be confiscated in damages is the ship and its cargo. This was on the basis that of all things inanimate a ship was the most life-like. For example if a cart pulled by an ox ran someone down then the owner of the cart could be compelled to surrender the ox (which is possessed of life), but not the cart (which is lifeless and therefore cannot be held to be at fault), under common law. Damages for those lost at sea were limited to the confiscation of a ship and its cargo. It is Maritime Law which is the basis for such things as 'Company Law' or any form of limited liabilty, all Statutory Law (as it deals with an organisation, the States of Jersey, rather than the individuals who comprise the States of Jersey) is also derived from Maritime Law. Finally all international law is likewise based upon maritime law

Have we ever GIVEN States members a pay rise?

The man who thinks he should be paid £75,000 per year

The Constable of St Saviour has lodged a proposition which has been reported in the JEP as 'Don't give us a pay rise'.

Now I find this an exceedingly interesting use of the English language and fundamentally a false statement.

Firstly the use of the word 'give'. I cannot recall ever having 'given' the States members a pay rise, indeed I am with my good friend and business neighbour John Farley, former member of the States of Jersey, in believing that things started to go down hill when States Members started getting paid. If it were left to me they would not be paid at all. As an alternative those who were not of sufficient private means should be awarded income support, albeit without the need to have to look for work. Stuart Syvret served us for many years on this basis before paid States Members, for some reason, that they should be paid was about the only thing that all States members could agree on from the Clothier report but was not a particular priority of the people of Jersey.

The truth of the matter is that our money is stolen from us by hook and by crook and some of it finds its way into the pockets of our representatives, some of this money they even openly admit to taking.

Yes they TAKE it from us. 

They even go to great lengths to show that they have nothing to do with their own pay. They appoint the members of a board which determines how much they should be paid and usually they then decide that they cannot argue with the decisions of the 'independent', yet totally dependent body. That the members are totally dependent on them for a nice little earner on the side and how much the members of the board are paid, of course, does not factor into their deliberations one bit.

Fundamentally it is wrong that members like Senator Bailhache who is on a £240,000 States pension already is given another £40,000 on top. (I mean it is both wrong that he was paid so much as Bailiff, more than the combined salaries of the Lord Chief Justice and the Speaker of the House of Commons combined, and thus qualifies for such a pension and that he takes the £40,000 on top of that). He may of course feel that the drop from £365,000 to just £280,000 per year is a very generous gesture on his part, he does suffer so, from delusions of mediocrity.

The Golden Jackass is back

After four weeks of silence, and what a four weeks it has been, Jim Willie has published his latest research and thoughts on the ongoing destruction of the Western financial system and the long awaited return to a gold backed currency.

"Since the Lehman Brother scuttle and the Fannie Mae adoption and the AIG black hole admission, the financial crisis that began with the housing bubble and subprime mortgage bust has turned virulent. The global financial crisis is better described as a global monetary war to defend the toxic USDollar, whose sunset can be seen. In the last 12 to 18 months, the monetary war has again morphed, this time into a far more serious and financially violent global Gold War. Nations are fast realizing that their only true liquid assets of value are their gold reserves, and even they have been tampered with or stolen in a vast re-hypothecation scheme."

Interestingly enough I noted in the latest investment plan that the States of Jersey is to invest make a new type of investment not previously held, this is described as 'Alternative Investments Classes' and top of the list of what exactly an alternative investment might be is 'commodities'. It seems that one candidates campaigning at the last election has been listened to by someone and the States of Jersey may follow the rest of the world into GOLD.

"The Gold War is on, having moved to a higher gear, but nowhere near a climax gear. The true value of gold is being realized. The strength of gold during insolvency crisis is being observed. The resistance and rescue from the plague of insolvency is being made clear on a global stage. The new important part of the Gold War comes with the Allocated Gold Account scandal which will dwarf the LIBOR and MFGlobal scandals. The demands for repatriated gold accounts, primarily from the criminal bank sectors in London and New York, have amplified. Germany has finally joined with demands for gold repatriation. The demands will continue to grow even as tampered gold bars add to the motivation to repatriate. If only Chavez of Venezuela knew that he was to start a global trend to call gold home, in a Gran Aletazo de Mariposas. The grand butterfly flapping has caused a whirlwind that will turn into a tornado to wreck the central banks in a final death blow."

In a series of Laws, the road map for the next six months is painted clearly

"The law can be stated: The Gold Standard will return from a sheer standpoint of value, stability, and resistance to storms based in failed bond auctions, debt writedowns, and insolvency consequences. Only a hard asset backed new currency can replace a fiat paper currency reserve.

The law can be stated: The Gold Bull continues unbounded with the Zero Percent Interest Policy (ZIRP) as its primary cylinder, while the artificial 0% distorts all financial markets, all assets, and all value. The Gold Bull will continue until the USGovt debt default, and until the USDollar retirement.

The law can be stated: The bond monetization known as Quantitative Easing (QE) powers the upward move in the cost structure for the global economy. The result is a shrinking profit margins imposed on the entire economies, felt in job cuts and reduced budgets for expansion, even maintenance.

The law can be stated, as a profound consequence: The combination of ZIRP & QE lead to capital destruction and systemic breakdown. Observe the fast falling Money Velocity while money supply grows at a staggering pace.

The law can be stated: The anti-Gold system continues to attempt to reinforce itself until its final implosion. Criminal means and false accounting backed by media propaganda are their tools that reinforce the current power structure. It will yield to foreign designed trade settlement systems, to the forced Gold Standard return, and to vast liquidation.

Criminal deeds have become the norm. The established norm has been for outsized naked short positions for the Big Four US Banks. They are an everyday fixture. No laws are enforced for selling enormous supply without metal. Why on November 15th, my colleague Turd Ferguson reported the following gold ambush. In the TFMetals Report, he summarized the ambush as he wrote, "Over the course of about 5 minutes, one single order was filled. This massive dump of about 25,000 gold contracts managed to move the price of gold down by nearly $20. To give you an appreciation of the size and scale of this deliberately criminal act, 25,000 contracts is the paper equivalent of 2.5 million ounces of gold, or roughly 77 metric tonnes, the paper equivalent to the alleged physical holdings of Australia or Indonesia." No end to the naked shorting. The financial press reported not a peep on order by the Syndicate, who act as advertisers on the network channels.

On November 2nd, the Silver Doctor reported a similar silver ambush. NetDania provides a service, to estimate volume from five separate market sources. It is not an exact indicator of volume data, but does shed much accurate light on the deeply corrupted market. According to NetDania, a total volume of 38,400 contracts, equal to 191.99 million ounces of paper silver were dumped on the market in only ten minutes between 8:30am and 8:40am EST. The volume for those ten minutes corresponds to nearly one quarter of annual global silver production! No response by market regulators, business as usual.

Criminal deeds have become the norm. Money laundering has kept the entire major US banks afloat, the money laced with narcotics. Overnight satisfaction of loans is sometimes done with heroin paper packets the size of bricks. For the last 20 years, the New York and London bankers have illicitly (nicer word than illegally) leased official gold accounts. Those nations are one by one demanding their gold repatriation. Hot war has been justified in order to win the release of official gold held in accounts. Plenty of Arab despots sit in power, but the Libyan seat was targeted as special for its 144 tons of gold. The London bankers pilfered the Libyan gold account in the Qaddafi name, offering flimsy requirements for its return to their people, demands which will never be met. The stolen private accounts at MFGlobal waiting for silver delivery served as another criminal deed. The crime scene was protected by the US regulators and the courts. Apparently, the wrong interpretation of bankruptcy law matters little. MFGlobal was a brokerage firm, not a financial firm. Therefore, the private accounts should have been held first in line for redemption, not last.

The most prominent criminal practice has been challenged, the illicit usage for leasing of official gold accounts in the name of sovereign governments. The challenge will make for the grandest banker scandal in modern history. My source estimates that over 40 thousand metric tons have been vacated from the official accounts over the last two decades. Clearly, the volume indicates a lot of unofficial unaccounted gold, which nonetheless exists. The pressure has finally come to the London bankers largely responsible for the happy fingers. The New York and Swiss banks have been working overtime, often in midnight emergency shipments, to avoid a direct default. That would be both embarrassing and an invitation for prosecution which would be difficult to prevent, given the public outcry. As the London bankers struggle to meet the repatriation demands, the pressure will not relent. They must replace the leased gold or see their crime scene exposed.

The law can be stated: With Gold goes the geopolitical power. As huge amounts of Gold are shipped Eastward, with huge tonnage leaving London for points East like China, so goes the important shift in geopolitical power. A Paradigm Shift is in progress, at work.

ADVENT OF THE GOLD WARS

Since the Lehman bust in September 2008, the global financial crisis has been a fixture, without solution. My preference is to call it the Global Monetary War, whose unspoken main objective by the powers in control is to maintain power, to preserve the big banks as fortresses of power, and to protect the USTBond & USDollar in their primary perches. Two important events have altered the crisis. The first was the breakdown of the Southern European sovereign debt structure. The Greek Govt Bond went into crisis mode in late 2009, which spread to Ireland, Portugal, and lately to Spain, Italy, and France. It will consume the Euro currency, despite all their best efforts NOT to fix anything, despite their best efforts to alter the bond subordination in new bond issuance. The Europeans are guilty of kicking the debt can down the road, just like the Americans. The victims that topple the system will be the big national banks in the affected nations of Europe, even the German banks. Their flagship Deutsche Bank has been dead for years, full of hollowed corridors. 

The second important event was the widening demands for repatriation of official gold accounts. It might have begun with Chavez in Venezuela, but it has continued. The Ghana Govt made their gold account repatriation demand, but a mysterious death of their leader halted the process. The Germans are spearheading this revolt. The Dutch will follow. The Austrians are next. Even little Ecuador wants one third of their gold account returned. Others will join.

An extreme wild card has surfaced. It began to be in play when Saudi Prince Bandar was assassinated a couple months ago, at the hands of HezBollah. Of course, the event was kept secret, but the Saudi Minister of Security was killed as revenge for the Saudi role in the high level Syrian assassinations. Phony photographs and other doctored official accounts have been produced by the Riyadh crowd to conceal the damage. The House of Saud, so the Jackass has claimed for two months, is in danger of falling, along with the Petro-Dollar. Well this week, reports have come out that King Abdullah faces death. He underwent a mid-November back surgery but has not recovered, or even come into consciousness. His entire set of organs has shut down, no longer functioning. The risk to the Petro-Dollar was high with the Bandar killing. The risk just went double acute with a succession to the throne imminent. Domestic challenges by an increasingly aware population, beset by higher cost of living, will come. The great Saudi oil surplus is slowly dwindling, what with higher domestic usage in a higher standard of living. The foreign challenge will remain from HezBollah, with roots from the radical and very powerful Shiite sect. Expect the Petro-Dollar defacto standard to fall in the coming months, as only weak successors remain in the line of surviving brothers. Think bottom of the family barrel (of oil). The teetering USTBond and confronted USDollar make for a poor foundation on which to keep the Petro-Dollar in place. Imagine the impact if the Saudis announce that Euros, Pounds, Swiss Francs, and Yen, even Gold are accepted for crude oil transactions. The Petro-Dollar is walking dead. 

For the past few days I have been looking at why the Jersey Finance Industry will move to Singapore, well here is on further reason... as the hegemonic power shifts to China, where better to be based than Singapore, a jurisdiction with a history of banking, that yet protects the identities and actions of its clients from those desperate Western governments eager to rob what little wealth remains to their citizens. A jurisdiction largely ethnically Chinese which speaks mandarin fluently.

As the wealth flees the City of London so it will flow from Jersey to the welcoming arms of Hong Kong and Singapore and the protections of the new global superpower China.

Nicking Tom Gruchy's hard work again!

Money Week reports that the British Pound is headed for a fall, Max Keiser goes into greater detail on this. Given that treasury yields are at a 300 year high there will follow an inevitable decline and when that happens interest rates WILL GO UP.

Whilst mortgage rates are set by the government at 10% below the market rate (if I want to borrow for my business the rates on offer are between 10 and 12.5%).

Banks are just not lending as the Daily Mail reports:

The failure of high street banks to lend to consumers is highlighted by the fact that 82pc of net mortgage lending in the six months to the end of September was accounted for by one institution – the Nationwide.

The reason is that the UK is up to its eyeballs in debt over 700% of GDP taking government, banking and private debt altogether, only Ireland and Japan are more endebted.

The new Chief at the Bank of England has been appointed and he is a graduate of Goldman Sachs (as even reported by the BBC) this is the very Goldman Sachs who are operating the vulture funds over Greece and many other European nations. On the basis that the worse it is going to be the better we are told it is going to be then this new appointment is going to be awful. Expect a ramping up of 'quantative easing' otherwise known as money printing.

Money printing devalues your pensions, investments and savings whilst giving free money to banks to lend out or rather to fill black holes in their balance sheets with.

It is no surprise that the UK is now looking to Jersey amongst other places to squeeze every last penny it can, as we have previously reported, just two days ago in a sort of prophetic posting, all this will achieve is an end to the finance industry in Jersey.

So with the new Work and Housing (Jersey) Law due to come in Tom Gruchy interviews David Warr of the Chamber of Commerce

What is missed out is that there is a vast unproductive pool of labour which, instead of acting as a parasite on the backs of the hard working people of Jersey, could be used in productive employment instead, to fuel future economic growth: the whole Civil Service, Parish staff and Quango staff which employ 50% of 'workers' in Jersey, but not in a productive manner. This would have a double effect on productivity as it would reduce the administrative burden caused by the over-regulation from the private sector.

When the finance industry leaves (or gradually drifts off) to Singapore we will have no choice (finally) but to re-examine the profligate waste that is our government, with hyper-inflation leading to higher interest rates and a property crash just around the corner the future liabilities of the both state and public sector pensions will be reduced in real terms, (States pensions are no longer index-linked).

Jersey can of course get itself out of this, slash landing fees, remove GST, decimate government several times over... basically undo everything that has been done under Bailhache, Walker and Le Sueur and go back to being a duty free shopping destination. Which of your elected representatives are up to the challenge? I suspect that Senator Farnham may be on the same song sheet.

My prevailing memories of those times is that everyone was happier than they are now, what's your priority? A happy society or an enslaved society beholden to a small rich persons club?

I think that rather than have to make a decision the majority will simply continue with head in the sand, things can only get better mentality because the voters prefer the delusion to embracing the necessary changes whilst others will beat the 'tax the rich and spend more on bigger government' drum.

Being able to say I told you so, as I have for the past seven years, gets very boring, very quickly. There is a better way and there can be a happier society in Jersey.

They have told you the game is over, are you listening?

Where the money is moving to

The First Director of the JFSC has told us that Caesar was ambitious, I mean that we are too dependent on the Finance Industry. If it is so then it is a grevious fault, and like Caesar, greviously shall we answer for it.

At a meeting hosted by the Guernsey FSC the delegates were told there is too much regulation, (I remember one candidate saying that at the last Senatorial election in Jersey but was ridiculed for doing so).

Meanwhile Baroness Williams proven her age by proclaiming us as one of the most secretive jurisdictions in the world the JEP reported

"JERSEY has been labelled ‘one of the most secretive tax havens in the world’ in the House of Lords after it was revealed that UK citizens hold some £19 billion in Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man accounts.

In an exchange between Baroness Williams of Crosby – former Labour and SDP MP Shirley Williams – and deputy government chief whip Lord Newby, it was also revealed that the UK tax department is setting up a new unit to specifically look into money held offshore. 

Baroness Williams, a former UK Education Minister who sat in the House of Commons for 17 years, had asked the original question on Monday about how much money British citizens held in Channel Island accounts, and what was being done to investigate them. She also claimed that ‘Jersey is one of the most secretive tax havens in the world’."

Whilst I applaud Baroness Williams for trying her best to get us some new customers, the rich really do know where the most secretive jurisdictions in the world are and they know that both Jersey and even Switzerland will do nothing to keep the prying eye of governments out from where they do not belong.

In a recent poll Singapore was voted the most favoured jurisdiction for the world's rich to berth their wealth and Jersey's financial institutions are keen to move their client base there.

The rich do not want governments knowing what they are doing. When I am asked by government what my business is, my natural response is 'NOT YOURS'.

Switzerland, long held to be a finance centre of choice, is losing business fast as they open up their banks to foreign scrutiny, just as Jersey has done as fast as possible. The writing is on the wall and even the JEP is telling you this now, as long as you are listening to what is being said.

If they can do that to a child then...

A Gazan missile is launched at Tel Aviv
and below the Israelis respond

“Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.”

in·no·cence [in-uh-suhns]

noun

1. the quality or state of being innocent; freedom from sin or moral wrong.
2. freedom from legal or specific wrong; guiltlessness.
3. simplicity; absence of guile or cunning; naiveté.
4. lack of knowledge or understanding.
5. harmlessness; innocuousness.

It has been a long time since I was an innocent. My own innocence was ended in 2007 at the tender age of 35 by being dragged from my house at 3:30 am and locked in police cell denied sleep then interrogated for three hours, locked in a prison cell on Christmas Eve and held for 31 days until I was proven innocent at trial. It was in being proved innocent that in fact all innocence was lost.

If you still believe that justice is more important than law to the Courts, that lawyers are more interested in representing you than in appropriating your funds, that the bank is looking after your money for you rather than risking it to make money for themselves, that politicians are interested in more than their next re-election and how much they can stuff into their pockets in the mean time, then you are as innocent as any child.

What then are the lessons that you might draw from the ongoing unveiling of the previously hidden atrocities which have been inflicted on the most innocent members of society? Perhaps it is that you, yourself, in your innocence, that is being abused, you probably don't even realise it yet, or are too ashamed to admit it to yourself but it does not mean it is not happening.

The latest fraud going on is that being perpetrated by the mainstream media to persuade you that the moral right to kill and maim rests with the Israelis.

Price challenge to Senator Ozouf

Well it seems that Phil Ozouf has decided NOT to run for election in 2014 and has alienated what one would consider to be his natural constituency, the small to medium sized businessman (there are no big businesses in Jersey).

The fundamental assumption upon which he has erred is that the tax component of the price of goods in Jersey is limited to GST and impots, this of course is not the case.

We could of course respond with our own question, how come government in Jersey is so much more expensive than in either the UK or in Guernsey and, of course, in asking that question we also answer Senator Ozouf's.

So let us examine in great detail why the difference between £1.22 and £2.34 (being the quoted cost of a packet of cigarettes in the UK and Jersey respectively) actually demonstrates that profits in Jersey are lower than in the United Kingdom.

We will assume that the production costs are the same up to the point that they leave the factory, we will also assume that the distribution costs are the same to either a) the point of sale in the UK or b) the harbour in Portsmouth from where the goods are shipped to Jersey.

Therefore the cost of shipping from Portsmouth to Jersey is a cost which must be borne above and beyond the UK retailers.

There are two key points to note here; firstly that Jersey has the highest landing charges anywhere in the United Kingdom (for example EasyJet have stated that they could fly a person from the UK to Jersey for £15 in the summer months (with a full plane) and yet the cheapest deal you will find is £52.00 and that is not available for every seat on the plane. The reason is because the taxes on landing are levied at over £40 per person. Who sets this charge? The government and it is only set to rise as the Harbours and Airports are soon to become a company which is determined to make a profit. Compare this with the height of the Tourism industry when the States recognised that in making a loss on the operation of the harbour and airport they at least encouraged people to come and spend their money here.

The second point is that the States of Jersey deliberately chose to build a harbour which would limit the competition that Condor would face (i.e. one with a shallow draft). This of course means that much less cargo can be carried in on each boat which of course raises the cost of importing goods, and Jersey is never going to be self-sufficient economically.

Two decisions made by the States which mean that the cost of the goods you buy is greatly increased.

Next there is the simple size of the market in Jersey compared to the UK, the administrative cost of importing the goods into Jersey is no cheaper than it is in the UK but the number of cigarettes is far lower. Therefore the administrative cost must be split between far fewer items, making the cost per item far higher.

Some free e-books that are worth a read

For those of you with download capability there are some rather interesting books available as a free downloads from Amazon via your kindle or such modern contraptions.

The judgement is handed down

Well the judgement has been finalised, I did not win (yet), but I have to say that the Royal Commissioner has once again given a fair judgement which I cannot really argue with, other than to say that the Law is wrong to limit appeals simply to points of law but allow erroneous conclusions to stand simply because they can be arrived at.

It is this matter which will be the point of appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

To sum up the judgement the Commissioner basically says, "it is your own fault for refusing to turn up to the hearing".

The highlights of the judgement are as follows (name of applicant has been changed to Miss Z, as a courtesy):

3. Article 94 of the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 (“the Employment Law”) provides that an appeal  on a question of law only shall lie from a decision of the Tribunal to the Court with the leave of the Tribunal or of the Court. The Tribunal denied leave in this case. 

4. It was held in Voisin v Brown [2007] JLR 141 at page 143 that an appeal on a question of law will arise where it can be shown that (a) the Tribunal had misdirected itself in law or misunderstood or misapplied the law; (b) there was no evidence to support a particular conclusion or finding of fact; or (c) the decision was either perverse, in that it was one which no reasonable tribunal directing itself properly on the law could have reached, or was obviously wrong.

24. Mr Pearce seeks leave to appeal against the decision of the Tribunal on the grounds as set out in his document e-mailed to the Assistant Judicial Greffier on 24th October 2012 as follows: -

(ii) In order to claim jurisdiction, the Tribunal must establish “beyond all reasonable doubt” the existence of a contract. 

That is clearly incorrect – the standard of proof is that which applies in all civil proceedings, namely the balance of probabilities.

The point of contention here will be that the Tribunal must establish its own right to sit beyond reasonable doubt under Article 8 of the European Convention, even when the subsequent proceedings may be decided on the balance of probabilities.

(iv) Mr Pearce asserted that Miss Z had sworn a statement to the Social Security Department that she was employed by Nigel Pearce & Son Jewellers. 

This statement was not produced either to the Tribunal or indeed to this Court and therefore no conclusions can be drawn from it.

So it is for me to bring an action to the Royal Court against Miss Z for committing perjury or for misleading the tribunal.

29. Mr Pearce challenged the jurisdiction of the Tribunal on a number of grounds including that he was not “a member of the Island of Jersey and its dependencies” and therefore he was not subject to its rules and regulations. To become subject to such rules and regulations required, he said, a voluntary act on his part. He told me it was for this reason that he had not attended the hearings as to do so would have given the Tribunal jurisdiction over him. He had attended the application for leave as “a child of God” whose jurisdiction was the only one he recognised. At the same time he confirmed that he lived in Jersey.

30. Articles 76 and 86 of the Employment Law are clear as to the Tribunal’s jurisdiction in this matter. Article 101 (1) provides that the Employment Law shall only apply to employment “where the employee works wholly or mainly in Jersey”. It was not in dispute that Miss Z worked wholly in Jersey. 

So there we have it, physical location is a determinant of jurisdiction as far as the Royal Court is concerned in the case of the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003

31. Mr Pearce informed me at the hearing that he declined to complete the form JET2 as requested by the Tribunal because, having seen the error as to the identity of the respondent in the letter from the Tribunal (there was no such error in the actual complaint which he also received), he wanted the time period for the filing of complaints to expire, thus preventing Miss Z from bringing a further complaint. Even after that time had expired, he made a conscious decision not to appear before the Tribunal or to produce any of the evidence on which he now wishes to rely. In conducting himself in this way, he cannot now complain about the decision reached by the Tribunal on the evidence that was actually before it.

The Right to Self Determination

 When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

from the Declaration of Independence

It was in this document that the right to self determination was first assumed. It is by no accident that the rights is enshrined in modern United Nations Convenants as the Declaration of Human Rights was a joint production between the United States and the United Kingdom. Since the United States only came to be through the exercise of this right there can be little doubt that it would be included.

Free Man: A rather unusual development

In my last post in this series you may remember that judgement at the end of the hearing was reserved, well a new development took place this week, one which my legal friends assure me is never done; a draft judgement was issued and I was allowed to make comments on either typographical errors or on points of law, in advance of the handing down of the final judgement.

As this is a draft judgement I cannot disclose the contents, but I have taken the opportunity to point out the grounds upon which I will rely for the resultant appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (this being my last available domestic remedy) which number six, so far.

Whilst five are fairly standard points of law, for one of the points I finally submitted in writing the basis of my claim for non-membership of 'the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies' the jurisdiction in which all Jersey statutes operate and all administrative Courts (the Royal Court, the Magistrate etc.) operate. I therefore thought I should share it for comment (or ridicule) depending on your point of view.

The judgement does not make mention of the matter of jurisdiction in the following regard.

Nowhere does it state in the Law that physical location alone is a determinant of jurisdiction. Indeed the Interpretation (Jersey) Law 1953 refers to the jurisdiction of 'the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies'. The 'Island of Jersey' is capitalised and thus it is a proper name which refers therefore to a group of people and not to a physical place, the United States for example exercises authority of its 'citizens' no matter their physical location. What is more a lump of granite which is what the 'island of Jersey' (note lower case island) is constituted of cannot have 'dependents' as it is by our own human standards inanimate.

I live within the geo-political territory claimed by the Diocese of Winchester, that however does not make me a member of the Church of England. Likewise I live within the physical territory claimed by the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies, that does not make me a member of that group of people.

No evidence was presented to indicate that I was either a member of 'the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies' or subject to its rules and regulations. Such membership can by its very nature only be a voluntary act; and under the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, any person whose human rights have been abused has the right to self-determination, (as mine were from 2007 to 2009 when the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies allowed itself to become and instrument of vengeance and torture under the advice and guidance of an Advocate of the Royal Court (Advocate <<name removed>> to be precise) solely for her own personal financial gain).

This is a right I have exercised as a matter of public record.

I noted before attending Court that I was attending solely as a child of God and subject to his jurisdiction alone. Clearly I am not therefore subject to the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003, nor any statute of that society, and therefore cannot be named as a party in any proceeding carried out under its auspices.

Subject, as I am, solely to the Royal Law, as affirmed by Her Majesty at her coronation as being that which is constituted within the Bible, I have only two laws to abide by; love my God above all else and love my neighbour as myself.

To submit to the rules and regulations of the 'the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies' is to worship false idols, an act for which I would have to answer to God.

A God-fearing man's conscience stands above the Law and on this matter my conscience is clear.

I have endured every torture and injustice that the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies have subjected me to and it has made me stronger, I thank the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies, I forgive the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies, but I want nothing to do with the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies other than the return of the monies fraudulently obtained under the euphemistically termed 'Social Security (Jersey) Law 1974', Ponzi scheme.

If forced to conduct a campaign of satyagraha against 'the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies' rather than live in peaceful co-existence, then so be it; I am answerable to God for my actions alone and I have no desire for Him to find me wanting.

I will not be bowed, bent or broken, by fear or by favour, I will not be turned from the path of righteousness.

I will not take advantage of the weak and slow-witted as the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies does, I will not assist the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies' protection racket, and I want nothing from the Island of Jersey and its Dependencies, but to be left alone to live out my days in praise of God and fear of His judgement to come.

Bailhache - Suffering Delusions of Mediocrity Again

The Examiner reports that 15 individual states have filed petitions with the recently re-elected President Obama to secede from the Union echoing the actions which lead to the US civil war in 1865.

"Louisiana, Texas, Montana, North Dakota, Indiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon and New York. These States have requested that the Obama Administration grant a peaceful withdrawal from the United States."

The world's only honest politician, Ron Paul, has spoken

The United Kingdom are of course facing our own form of secession in the form of a referendum on independence for Scotland (we of course face the BBC's assertion that the Scottish will vote against it which is not reflected in the opinions of the Scottish people I speak to) and the pressure on the UK to secede from the European Union continues to mount, and of course they will likely not be the first to seek greater independence.

Big government is failing around the world so Bailhache's plan would seem to be the worst possible idea and to have come at the worst possible time. Guernsey and Jersey together will still not be more than a parasite, on the world stage, the better plan, the one that we have used successfully for centuries, is simply to be overlooked, to be inconsequential, to be beneath consideration.

I do not know where Bailhache has gotten these delusions of mediocrity from, but they aren't helping.

Manipulating Property Prices and Rentals in Jersey

I last looked at The Construction Business in Jersey about a year ago and I thought I would re-visit this and see what has occurred one year on.

The first thing to note is that the income support allowance for accommodation has increased by just over 6% (from £661 to £701) which is of course significantly higher than inflation and significantly higher than the increase in average wages.

Landlords have not been slow to pass on this 6% increase to their income support funded tenants, indeed many structure the leases to expire just weeks after the increase is announced, in order to gain full benefit of this government handout. A handout which of course does not benefit those most in need in any way, shape or form whatsoever.

Housing too have not been slack in increasing their rentals which have gone up from 75% of the 'market rent' to 90% of the 'market rent'. Someone seems to have conveniently forgotten that this is caused by the increases in the accommodation component of income support and that the current rentals are far, far from the 'market rent' - if only the market were left to set rentals.

This process will of course assist our government to meet its 'growth' targets because the economy is now so much bigger; more rents are being charged by, and more rents are being paid by, the government, of course this is just an accounting trick which will mean that all those Civil Servants and States members have successfully completed their roles, met their targets and achieved the much needed growth.

I also noticed that the qualification for 1.1 (k) status now requires a property to be valued at over £1.5 million pounds a 50% increase - given that there are only a certain number of properties which will ever be deemed acceptable to those with multi-millions and given that there will likely be no restriction placed upon these people purchasing property when the new Work and Housing (Jersey) Law 201- comes into force next February perhaps this explains why the 'average house price' has not fallen but risen.

If the high end properties have experienced a 50% increase in value despite the recession  and indeed with the raising of taxes around the world it is now more attractive than ever to pay what is effectively no tax, then this will help to mask the plummeting house prices in the lower price band.

Looking through Estate Agents website there is something of a bi-polar effect occurring, those who can afford to hold out are refusing to bring the prices of their properties down to a level at which they will sell (and those that are selling are selling at around 20% below asking price) whilst people more motivated are busy slashing prices as fast as they can.

It still appears to me that there is at least two more years of decline to come, people just aren't desperate enough as yet. But with rising food and energy prices, taxation on near exponential increase and stagnant wages more and more people will be trapped in the 'safety net', become dependent on government and be forced to their knee to tug the forelock before the all mighty (and not the almighty) and they had better be grateful, or else.

Property prices are just about the only thing that the States of Jersey can control, and don't they do such a great, public minded, job of it?