From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

It has been an interesting week in the wide world out there beyond this Island's shores but the waves are coming our way. Firstly the downgrading of the UK's credit from AAA to AA1 caused very few waves; the reason for this is simple - because the UK controls its own money printing machine. Unlike in France, Italy, Greece, Spain where the downgrading of an individual nation who uses the Euro can force up the interest rate at which it is forced to borrow money if it wants to maintain its expenditure, the Bank of England simply steps in and buys up the debt and in sufficient quantities to artificially lower the interest rate to whatever the Bank of England wants it to be. What has happened is that the value of £1 has fallen against other currencies, which is making all imports that much more expensive... expect the rate of PRICE INFLATION to continue to increase, I would say that it will go up from its current 8% (using the shadow statistics produced using old government...

Both Neil McMurray and I, will be celebrating our birthdays on the 23rd February, we do every year! Back in 2007, what seems a life time ago, when I first discovered the oppressive nature of the tyranny we live under. To have everything stripped from oneself and be left with nothing, to realise how fragile and illusory everything that anyone has ever built from themselves truly is. But anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger. To encounter what are essentially the false promises of government; that they will be there for you in times of need, only to discover that in those times of need, even when the need is only created by that very same government, that they simply are not. That is a formative experience, a revelation to the truly despicable and self-serving nature of the society we live in. It is a truth that many would rather not have to see and because the illusion is preferable to the reality, so many choose to believe the illusion. One cannot blame peopl...

So yesterday morning I received some free legal advice from a member of the Law Society of Jersey following the recent publication in the Jersey Evening Post. She like me was puzzled by the timing of the story indicating that I could face prison, firstly that it was published at all and secondly that it was published some four months after the actual event and so had been putting her grey matter to good use and trying to work out what they are up to. Her best theory is that it has been decided that too much of the Royal Court's time is being wasted on these trivial Employment Law matters and that they have decided to make an example of someone. Now trivial is of course a relative thing, but to the Royal Court anything under £10,000 is trivial. I am apparently a perfect target, I am not the States, I am not a financial institution, nor a lawyer and thus seen as an easy target. So having reviewed the evidence she suggested that the likely outcome would that I would be fo...

The preferred method of government in getting out of the financial mess that their excesses have created is what is euphemistically termed 'economic growth' but such growth of course relies solely on the individuals within that society devoting more of their time to taxable activity. But is this something which the individuals who make up that society really want? What are the options open to an individual: 1) Income Support Entitlement to Income Support for a single Person Household Adult Component: £92.12 Household Component: £49.56 Rent Component: £161.66 (1 bed flat) Total Weekly: £303.45 Annualised: £15,779.40 Add Back Income Tax and Social Security £1,486.60 (A working person would benefit from the marginal rate (allowance £13,780) but pay 27% on the £1,999.40 left meaning an Income Tax bill of £539.83 and would pay 6% social security on the full amount £946.76). See income tax allowances for 2013 So the equivalent wage (after taxes) to an individual ...

Whilst I am often critical of the unions and their place in the establishment of Jersey it is important to distinguish, the union from the members of the union just as it is important to separate the States of Jersey from the people of Jersey. They are not the same thing. On Tuesday the manual workers will hold a meeting to decide whether they should strike or not and to those who have asked my opinion, I have a simple answer, YES, start with a one day strike. Now I do not support a pay rise across the board for the Civil Service as far as I am concerned the Bailiff is already over paid by about 200% but you have to look at what has happened to pay scales at the lower end of the grading system. Income tax has been increased greatly and stealthily with the introduction of 20 means 20 and the gradual phasing out of allowances, the increase in the threshold has not kept pace with the reality. If the entitlement to income support is £25,500 per year than why is the income...

As discussed in  Has there been a breach of the Public Markets Trust?  the saga over whether or not GST is chargeable on the rents here is still ongoing. It is incredibly frustrating that I still cannot get a straight answer out of anyone, so perhaps readers might want to put forth their thoughts on the matter. Having served on the appropriate agents both a notice of understanding and intent and a notice of default which went unanswered, I duly paid the rent without GST on the following proviso: Under the Goods and Services Tax (Jersey) Law 2007 GST is only chargeable on the basis set forth in Article 6 (1) (a) of the said Law. It is reproduced below for your ease of reference - 6       Charge to GST (1)    GST shall be charged – (a)     on the supply of goods or services in Jersey, if the supply is a taxable supply made by a taxable person in the course or furtherance of any bu...

In deliberation  So we are soon to go back to the Employment Tribunal. I am now clear on what exactly it is that has already been established, namely that the Employment Tribunal does have jurisdiction. What is next to be determined is whether the applicant was an employee or not and who exactly the employer was. I shall also be seeking to show that the applicant has committed perjury and/or misled the tribunal and have requested that they order the production of the sworn statement made to the Social Security department. I have been reviewing the judgement  in the matter of an application by Darius Pearce  and trying to see where I allowed the Commissioner to misinterpret the facts of the case before him or perhaps I even confused him because of my unpreparedness. I was terribly unprepared, which is never a wise move but I had misunderstood the purpose of an application for leave to appeal and what it entailed, a rookie mistake but you can only learn from your...

Keeping the wage slaves working for government  The States of Jersey want you working hard, earning tax revenue and social security contributions for a cash strapped government. Over the past few days the Minister for Social Security has made public a number of 'innovations' to the Social Security system. GETTING YOU INTO WORK The minister unveiled a new scheme  under which local people would be given a tax free sum of £650 at the end of a period of six months of employment. Employers too would be paid £2,080 to take people on for a post which lasted at least six months and £1,000 if the post was subsequently made permanent. The most striking feature of this offer is the insistence on a minimum period of six months which means of course that the relationship has to fall under the auspices of the widely reviled Employment Law (Jersey) 2003. KEEPING YOU IN WORK Then once an employee is established in a position new plans unveiled reveal that if you l...

A masterpiece from Harry McRandle in tonight's newspaper; who would have thought that they could take an event that happened six months ago and managed to fill half a page under the caption 'news'. I should give warning to all that like me, you are just four ifs away from a two year prison sentence. 1) If someone makes allegations against you (true or false) 2) If the Attorney General decides to prosecute 3) If you are found (or plead) guilty 4) If you are sentenced to it. Of course not everyone has this pointed out by the Jersey Evening Post, and no I have no idea why I have earnt this honour. Still Harry has said he will cover my eventual win and actually has provided me with significant assistance in achieving this aim - I should point out that this was not as a result of collusion between Harry and myself, just a fortunate coincidence. I'm glad I can help the JEP sell some papers, love em or loathe em they do keep us bloggers going!

After six weeks of silence the Golden Jackass is back with the latest economic news on the global macroscopic perspective. Just a quick reminder of where Jersey is in the grand scheme of things - the US runs the world, the City of London is the offshore finance base for Wall Street, through which all things fraudulent emanate and Jersey is the offshore finance base for the City of London. The UK is totally dependent on the crumbs from the US table and Jersey likewise depends on the crumbs from the crumbs. The entire Soviet style bureaucracy which Jersey has developed is built on these shifting stands and the edifice cannot stand forever... And now without further ado, the Golden Jackass writes... Friend of gold Jim Sinclair, captures the theme of this article when he said,  "It is the constant drop in the dollar's usage as a contract mechanism internationally. No one sees this but it is the Hammer of Thor on the head of the dollar."   The...