From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

You may recall that I wrote a post on the Jersey Public Markets  and whether there had been an attempt by the States of Jersey to misappropriate public property held in trust as States of Jersey commercial property. This arose from the attempt of the States of Jersey to charge GST on the rents of the markets. This has caused somewhat of a rebellion amongst stallholders with many refusing to pay the GST, I on the other hand took the legal approach and served on the Inspector of Markets a NOTICE OF UNDERSTANDING AND INTENT which stated the following: 1) That the rents on the Public Markets were not 'commercial rents' as there was no intention for the rents to give rise to a profit, as specified under the 1885 Law. 2) That when the GST bill was debated the Minister stated that the intention was for the suppliers to absorb the cost of GST and that I therefore could not believe that the very same Minister would now act in a contrary manner and try to pass on the GST where ...

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 spect...

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...

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...

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...

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?