From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

Philip Ozouf offered a mea culpa for his recent behaviour.  He promised to be a good boy if  the States let him stay on. CTV said he was just 'misunderstood' provoking a reaction in the Chamber. "The high contacting parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of legislature ." Extract from the European Convention on Human Rights. Freedom of expression of the opinion of the people is inconceivable without  the assistance of a plurality of parties (Yumak & Sadak v Turkey). Clearly the elections gave the public no clear choice in the composition of the legislature, there was no attempt to ask the public who should be in charge of each department, we get what we are given and we have to just lump it. If anyone ever takes a case under Article 3 of Protocol 1 of the Convention to the Court then it is impossible to tell what they will do with our ...

Gigabit Jersey  launched a limited trial to residents of Castle Quay early in 2011. It is absurd for Airtel and Sure to suggest that we should not have a fibre optic cable network. Just so they can eliminate competing technologies? Philip Ozouf and Freddie Cohen were sold on  the idea  during a recent visit to Mumbai, India and both were committed to utilising public money to support its introduction to Jersey. It has become one of the flagship programmes of the Jersey government but I am not convinced that it is a wise use of public money. Jersey Telecom is a private company which is owned by its shareholders, is run by directors for the exclusive benefit of those shareholders. Now 51% of the shares happen to be owned by the States of Jersey but that does not mean it is a public body by any means, nor that it should be given any special favours by the government. Jersey Telecom should be run by the directors, without the interference of government, with the sol...