Chief Minister, Senator Ian Gorst, has lodged a proposition
P.33 2014 which, according to Reform Member and St Helier Deputy, Sam Mezec, is possibly the most fundamental change to Ministerial Government since its inception and if adopted will take power away from the States Assembly and put it solely in the hands of the Chief Minister. Indeed it will take power away from Ministers (yours and my representatives) who will have to vote how they are told or face losing their position on the Council of Ministers without facing a vote of no confidence by the so-called "democratically" elected Chamber. The Chief Minister will be doing the hiring and firing.
As a consequence (of P.33) Reform Jersey is holding a public meeting at St Helier Town Hall this Thursday 24th April at 7:30pm for all islanders where Reform Jersey will be setting out its own stool on this radical, and possibly dictatorial, reform and gauging the public's view.
Reform Members Deputy Nick Le Cornu, and Sam Mezec, in an exclusive interview, with Citizens Media, briefly discuss p33 and the up-coming Public Meeting.
Please attend the meeting if you want to learn more about this proposition, or just as importantly, want your views heard on it.
Great interview and if you think Jersey is a dictatorship now just wait and see how bad things get if Gorst gets this proposition pushed through.
ReplyDeleteSee also my blog at:
ReplyDeletehttp://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2014/04/presidential-politics.html
on the two propositions - Senator Ozouf's as well.
So it now becomes feasible that someone gets 'elected' to the States in an uncontested seat like Trinity or St Mary, and that person becomes Chief Minister, and then appoints all the other ministers. Imagine trying to explain that aspect of Jersey's democracy and accountability to a foreign politician.
ReplyDelete"Imagine trying to explain that aspect of Jersey's democracy and accountability to a foreign politician."
DeleteWell that would be the job of the island's "Foreign Minister" Sir Philip Bellyache, who could explain that it is none of their business how the fiefdom is run.
If the seat is uncontested then the electorate get what they deserve, don't they?
DeleteOr you could say that the public get the representative with the most support, just as if they had beaten someone else to it. That's far from the worst aspect of our 'democracy' IMHO - the worst is that I as an elector cannot influence more than the election of a tiny proportion of States Members, so no matter what I do I'm effectively powerless to any significant degree. So why vote?
"the worst is that I as an elector cannot influence more than the election of a tiny proportion of States Members"
DeleteHow is that different to any other system? In the UK voters only have a say on 1/650 MPs.
The worst part of Jersey's system is that it is heavily biased to the country Parishes.
but in the UK, with Party Politics, you feel like you're contributing to the final result. In Jersey you can only elect a small number of independents who stand for nothing and have vague manifestos which they freely ignore as it suits them.
DeleteLet's not argue the toss about which is the smellier dungheap. They are just the two sides of the same bent coin, or the sharp double edges of the same sword.
ReplyDeleteIt all combines to a massive stitch-up with the heavy bias to the country parishes combining with the small but conservative electorate to produce the likelihood of non-contested elections and defacto appointments.
Elections are important but they remain something of a charade considering the power of the unelected crown appointees and the cartel of Jersey lawyers/officers.
Today none of the local media, not in any way, shape, or form, have mentioned tonights, reform meeting. Local BBC radio were more interested in talking about the taste of strawberries!
ReplyDeleteRob Shipley's JEP column today ("Do we tell the truth, or stick to the stereotypes?" 25/04/2014, p11) is a corker. Team Voice needs to get itself a copy. He says "Did the idiot who once claimed that Jersey was the 'North Korea of the English Channel' really believe what he was saying?". And so he goes on, laying into the critics of Jersey (tm).
ReplyDeleteTo his credit, he takes an equal sized pop at those who think that Jersey "is the best possible of all worlds and that nothing can possibly be wrong in such a world." He even recounts an old joke: "Question: How many establishment States Members does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: None! There is nothing wrong with the lightbulb!"
Kudos to Mr Shipley for actually recognising in print that there is an 'establishment'. There are still some who play the "I don't know what the establishment is, I don't recognise that description" card which is frankly an insult to the intelligence.
Mr Shipley's article is based on his decision NOT to write a freelance article (exposing Jersey's underbelly) for the national press during the Bergerac glory years. One of the most telling sentences is "Better, I thought, to let the sleeping dog lie and allow the outside world to engage with the pleasant fantasies promulgated by Det Sgt Jim and the Bureau des Etrangers".
There you have it, in five words....."let the sleeping dog lie". Don't rock the boat. Don't upset anyone. Don't embarrass anyone. Don't hold anyone to account for their failings. The Jersey Way.
Is the article meant to be a belated mea culpa? With a final paragraph saying that everywhere else in the world is just as bad?
Team Voice, given that you are in touch with the inquiry panel, perhaps you might like to point them in the direction of today's article. Forward them this comment, if you like.
Ultimately, the headline of the article poses the question "Do we tell the truth, or stick to the stereotypes?"
We should tell the truth, Mr Shipley. However unpleasant it is.
The JEP has made a lucrative living by burying the truth. I gave up taking Rob Shipley seriously a long time ago but thanks for letting us know that he's still peddling the same old tripe that is bringing the paper to its knees.
DeleteVFC.
ReplyDeleteDid citizen media take camcorder footage of the reform meeting yesterday?
Unfortunately not.
DeleteThanks for the reminder of the North Korea introductory clip to the old VFC videos.
ReplyDeleteNever failed to make me smile.
Priceless.
And not that far off the mark.
Who can predict what will happen in local politics in the next 6 or 7 months?
ReplyDeleteI predict a major fightback by the forces of nepotism, cronyism and secrecy.
DeleteThey will not go down without blowing everything they have, no matter what the collateral damage..
These forces of evil will probably win because of the inertia of good people and the gullibility and greed of the average JEP reader.
It has happened before and it will probably happen again.
"Advertising/PR is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket" George Orwell.
The pigs are always hungry and in a scary recession you can sell them abuses and exploitation
dressed up as self interest.
We should all be in favour of business and a portion of individual businessmen morals, but Jersey has made the mistake of allowing business and politics to mix without control or oversight and business is driven by raw self interest without morals.
Jersey gets what Jersey votes for within it's skewed and gerrymandered system.
Have all the blogs died since Xmas?
ReplyDeleteHardly any comments, some with none at all for days or are they all on Facebook?
DeleteI think that bloggers and readers still have their fingers on the pulse but are for the moment giving the child abuse inquiry a chance to deliver on it's promises.
There are worrying signs that the CoI will be an engineered sham and a white wash as warned in Ex Health Minister Syvret's write up:
http://freespeechoffshore.nl/stuartsyvretblog/the-publics-inquiry-into-the-public-inquiry-starts-here/
After a 6 year wait (or 4 or 5 decades in some cases) a mere fortnight for witnesses to "register", and scant attention in the media does seem like an attempt to exclude as many as possible. It also appears that some ToR's are already being neglected.
They would be very stupid to think that a sham inquiry would close any issues, but this island is run by some very stupid people.
Anyone else having trouble getting onto Stuart Syvret's Blog?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteStuart's blog and others are coming under major & sustained cyber attack
DeleteThe blog is still being kept accessable for about 75% of the time at http://freespeechoffshore.nl/stuartsyvretblog/
Just because your kids are at private school does not mean they are not on the meat rack.
Is this what Jersey really wants?
Voice, seen the BBC Jersey twitter feed?
ReplyDelete"The Archbishop of Canterbury backs Winchester Bishop, Tim Dakin, over how he handled relations with Jersey after an abuse complaint"
Hopefully BOB HILL will have the audio of Matthew Price interviewing the Archbishop (from yesterday's show) published on his Blog later today.
DeleteI've not heard the full interview but look forward to doing so not least because I believe it was confirmed that Jersey's Dean, Bob Key, has NOT been exonerated over his appalling treatment of an alleged abuse victim, contrary to the propaganda spilled by Philip Bailhache along with the discredited, and disgraced, ITV/CTV.
Question by a reader put on
ReplyDeletehttp://freespeechoffshore.nl/stuartsyvretblog/governance-in-jerseys-hospital/
Does anyone have access past the paywall at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3456100.ece
Does this article still exist and does it still state:
"Governor of the Jersey Home for Boys (Haut de la Garenne) during the 1970s and 1980s was the island's current [now Ex.] Bailiff, Sir Philip Martin Bailhache"