From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

Based on the hypothesis that everything that happens in one's own existence is simply an outward reflection of one's internal soul, that everything happens for a reason and that everything is interconnected has proven over time to be a sound basis upon which to work. So what has the nine months since my last blog post taught me? Recently I have been conducting some experiments on the process, which is occurring either by design or organically as a result of the conscious actions of the bureaucracy, of controlling the community consciousness. Or just why do you think, what you think and how does the government try and perhaps succeed in affecting this. Where did the idea come from? I recently went to the Magic: The Gathering London Grand Prix, this is a game which developed as a result of some Dungeons & Dragons players wanting to have a better way to play out wizard battles which uses cards which represent spells, the aim being to kill your opponent before they kill you...

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...

Sir Phillip Bailhache and Ian Gorst I like Ian Gorst, he is a most amiable person. I must admit that it has come as a shock to see him elected as Chief Minister. I even had to re-write the blog post! Fundamentally neither candidate met my primary criteria - a basic understanding of economics. Nick Palmer on his blog expresses similar concerns. I'm afraid that, like it or not, the economic reality is going to come home and it is going to hit hard. For far too long the entire Western world has been spending beyond its means, driven by the demands of the electorate to provide ever more extravagant public services coupled with the natural and inevitable inefficiency of bureaucracy. Jersey is perhaps the worst culprit for this, but we have had unusually high revenues which have masked the problem until now. Sir Phillip was right about one point which you may have missed during the hustings - he accurately pointed out that the inability of the Chief Minister to appoint his '...

In their election manifesto, published on www.centreparty.com , the party stated that it would fight against the introduction of both a sales tax and the "20 means 20" package to phase out tax allowances. Both Senator Paul Le Claire and Kevin Lewis were Senatorial candidates in the 2005 election, and Darius Pearce announced that he would be standing under the party's banner as a Deputy candidate for St Helier No. 3. The party also stated that it wanted more candidates to contest as many seats as possible. Its manifesto covered policies on responsible immigration, fair taxation, community safety, housing policy, environmental development and legal reform. It stated: " A political party is accountable to its members and the voters. " " It can provide the expertise necessary to scrutinise the executive arm of the government. " " It will provide the continuity needed to carry through all the policies to which the voters a...