members of the public to make submissions under phase 3 of its work. The Inquiry had set three questions, each of which had a 500
word response/answer limit.
VFC, as readers would expect, made a submission (below) and attempted to answer the questions which did prove a little taxing as they reinforced the realisation that the ordinary folk of Jersey have no realistic chance of cleaning up the rot that has set in. We don't elect the people who run the island (the judiciary/Crown Appointees/Law Offices). We can't hold any of them to account and, as we don't have a Party Political System, we can't change our government.
Although the MSM get a bit of a kicking in the submission it must be said that the JEP has turned itself around in recent times under the new Editor Andy Sibcy. It's reporting of the Child Abuse Committee of Inquiry has been, for the most part, fair, accurate and challenging. The JEP has (rightly) come in for a lot of criticism on this Blog for its past atrocious reporting during Operation Rectangle and related issues but credit has to be given where it is due. Not least for this excellent editorial exposing disgraced former Home Affairs Minister Andrew Lewis.
News items are now being published in the JEP that would never have seen the light of day under its previous Editor/Deputy Editor. Probably one of the most telling points that the JEP is starting to get things right is that I've never heard so many members of "The Establishment Party" attack it so much. Back in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 The Establishment wouldn't have a bad word said about the paper. Sibcy is making his own mark on the paper, and so far, as far as VFC is concerned, it is for the better. That's not to say that I agree with everything it prints (or doesn't) it just means that credit should be (and is) given where it is due.
BBC Radio Jersey has also made an attempt to distance itself from its sordid and ghastly past reporting during the Rectangle era. Its reporting of the COI has also, for the most part, been fair, accurate and challenging. Items are being broadcast, challenging the likes of the Bailhache Brothers, and the Establishment Party, again that would never have seen the light of day under its previous Editor.
ITV/CTV remains under the same management.
So back to VFC's submission to the COI.
"For Jersey to deliver a high quality system of care for children that would set an example to the world:
What would be required?
It could be argued that Jersey has had adequate Child Care policies/provisions and legislation in place all through the decades of horrific treatment, abuse and paedophilia, inflicted on children in the care of the States Of Jersey.
The problem is that those who rule Jersey are unelected and unaccountable. A recent Jersey Evening Post article published a “Christmas Message” from four of our leaders they were: The Dean (Bob Key) unelected, unaccountable who has a seat, and is able to speak/sway votes in our parliament. The Bailiff (William Bailhache) who is Chief Judge, unelected unaccountable, Crown Appointee, Civic Head and unelected speaker of our parliament. The Lieutenant Governor Unelected, unaccountable Crown Appointee who sits in the Island’s parliament and is (as far as I understand his role) supposed to be the eyes and ears for The Crown and ensure good governance and the rule of law in Jersey/Crown Dependencies. Despite being shown/made aware of alleged judicial/political corruption at the highest level he has turned a blind eye, he has, and is, failing in this duty and has no accountability. The Chief Minister (Ian Gorst) the only elected, accountable (at the ballot box) “leader” out of the four leaders.
Some kind of outside (or even inside) accountability would be required in order to make the islands’ children safer. The Inquiry has seen, and heard, evidence from a number of witnesses who have explained that those who are in a position to hold perpetrators to account ignore policy/legislation and instead of dealing with the perpetrator in the correct fashion, more often than not, will be friends with the perpetrator, and in order to avoid any bad publicity or uncomfortable situations will either turn a blind eye, or merely move the perpetrator sideways rather than sack them or report them to the police.
What would be required is for the Jersey authorities to abandon “The Jersey Way” and face up to its sordid and ghastly past and set about cleaning up the politicised and corrupt judicial system. Authorities need to start putting the people/children of Jersey before the reputation of Jersey.
What would need to change?
Jersey needs an independent prosecution service as in the UK. Too much power is given to the (politicised/conflicted) Attorney General who, as the Inquiry has seen/heard, evidence of, has many questions to answer as to which cases are/aren’t prosecuted in the courts. There needs to be affordable legal representation for victims of crime and the Jersey Government/Law Offices’ Department. An ability to bring private prosecutions against those cases the AG refuses to prosecute. As things stand the AG’s decision NOT to prosecute CANNOT be appealed, he has the final say and cannot be held to account for his decision. Jersey needs regular outside INDEPENDENT scrutiny for all its departments and in particular the judiciary. For instance, according to the Home Affairs Minister, the Jersey police force has had NO outside scrutiny/review for SEVEN YEARS. The Inquiry will be aware that (pre-Harper and Power) the Force was accused of complicity in the cover-up of Paedophilia and other such crimes. If the force (or any other public authority) is not regularly, and independently, scrutinized there is potential, and strong possibility/probability that the rot and corruption that Jersey is so infamous for will (if it’s possible) only get worse and send us back to how this all started in the first place.
There needs to be a separation between the legislator and the judiciary. This has been recommended in a number of reviews/reports including Clothier and Carswell. The parliament needs to have an elected/accountable speaker who does not have a conflict of interest.
Jersey needs to be cleaned up but who can clean it up is the sticking point. Constitutionally the UK (as mentioned above) has responsibility for the rule of law and good governance in all Crown Dependencies including Jersey. The UK exercised this power not so long ago when it stepped in at the Turks & Caicos Islands but is abdicating its duty when it comes to Jersey. My personal view is that the current UK government is probably as corrupt as our judiciary (the real power in Jersey) and the Island, or its children, would be no better off if it was to attempt to restore good governance and the rule of law.
There needs to be a cleaned up judicial system that protects whistle-blowers and doesn’t subject them to secret Kangaroo Courts for speaking up for victims of alleged horrible crimes. A judicial system that won’t force gagging orders on those who try to protect their children. A judicial system that will make a criminal out of those who harm our children and not those who try to protect them.
Jersey would benefit from “Mandatory Reporting” which I believe is being considered in the UK. This would make it a criminal offence to turn a blind eye to Child Abuse and will act as a deterrent to those wishing to cover it up and will be a protection/safeguard for children. That said we’d still need a non-corrupt/politicised judiciary.
What part could you play?
The people of Jersey are powerless to play any part of changing the system. We cannot change our government because we don’t have a party political system. We can’t vote out the Attorney General/The Law Offices’ Department or the lieutenant Governor because NONE of them are elected or have any kind of accountability. We have a mainstream media who question nothing and see it as their job just to copy and paste government Press Releases. It has buried damming evidence and alleged corruption of the authorities for years.
The only part that can be played by ordinary citizens is to try and put some kind of pressure on those in charge by reporting their failings on Social Media. Realistically there is nothing that can be done to rid this island of the rot and that is a sad, and frightening, reality because it means children are no safer now (nor will they ever be) than they were in the 40’s/50’s/60’s/70’s/80’s/90’s/noughties."(END)
What part could you play?
The people of Jersey are powerless to play any part of changing the system. We cannot change our government because we don’t have a party political system. We can’t vote out the Attorney General/The Law Offices’ Department or the lieutenant Governor because NONE of them are elected or have any kind of accountability. We have a mainstream media who question nothing and see it as their job just to copy and paste government Press Releases. It has buried damming evidence and alleged corruption of the authorities for years.
The only part that can be played by ordinary citizens is to try and put some kind of pressure on those in charge by reporting their failings on Social Media. Realistically there is nothing that can be done to rid this island of the rot and that is a sad, and frightening, reality because it means children are no safer now (nor will they ever be) than they were in the 40’s/50’s/60’s/70’s/80’s/90’s/noughties."(END)
So we ask readers; what is the answer, how can Jersey be cleaned up? We know what's wrong with the island but we want to know how can it be put right? How do we get out of the problem and into the solution? Can the Child Abuse Committee of Inquiry deliver a report that is capable of cleaning Jersey up? Can it give us a fit for purpose non corrupt/non politicised judicial system? Is that in its remit? How can children/whistle-blowers/VictimsSurvivors and ordinary members of the public be protected against the corruption of this island?
Did you make a submission to the COI? Do you want it published on this Blog? Why not make a submission answering the three questions for publication on here? The COI is no longer accepting submissions so we'd like to hear some of your solutions in cleaning up Jersey and protecting children who, as things stand, are no safer today than they ever were.
I suggest keeping the administration of government and using it as a hub for the satalite parishes. I would end the judiciary and all political/crown/local representation. The people on Jersey are the policy makers and can choose which to prioritise. Full transparency of all information concerning all subjects is a must so the people can choose wisely. Regular monthly voting on subjects with a 2 week window to get ones vote in. Without the majority making the choices, like the present day, corruption is destined to occur. The people are responsible for educating themselves appropriately as to what interests them. Quality of choice depends on well educated "masses". The pyramid system of present was installed in ancient times to control the masses are we mature enough yet as people to shape our destiny responsibly? I say YES!
ReplyDeletePhil Skinner : )
Oh for God's sake give it a rest 19:10. The last thing a community in bad need of the basic protections of civilised values needs is some kind of quasi-populist anarcho-syndicalist Ayn Rand right-wing libertarian bullshit. Isn't it obvious enough already that entrenched local parochial oligarchs have subverted and corrupted the very rule of law in Jersey, without giving the local syndicate families even more power?
DeleteCould 19:10 give it a f*cking rest, please, before they start going on about shape-shifting space-alien lizards, Rothschild, Bilderburg etc, etc? The standard of debate on this blog is usually far higher and I wouldn't be surprised if that diversionary populist crap was the cause of few comments so far.
Question: How can Jersey be cleaned up?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: An independent prosecution service.
That's all that needs to be said.
Well, perhaps one more thing: an elected speaker, providing a true separation of powers.
The judiciary must once and for all be removed from politics. God, it feels so weird typing that. Imagine other people, in other countries, in functioning democracies, having to demand that separation of powers, in the year 2016...
How can Jersey be cleaned up ?
ReplyDeleteCheck the self serving, Mafiosa price list up at the Planning Department and then remove the existing management and system.
Fortunately your average person during their average day keeps well away from them. Recently costed but (refused by the potential client ) was putting inside an empty medium size but not large commercial building, a mezzanine floor to accommodate extra storage of as the roof was high enough makes sense to use the space wisely.
There would have been no changes to the outside of the building. None at all.
UK possibly may have incurred a charge in the region of £370.00 Jersey Planning Mafia £10,000 for permission to look at a drawing and give permission and a further £4,995.00 for the new floor to inspected by planning once installed. Your excellent Deputy Mike Higgins has the paperwork proving that the Jersey Planning department charges are out of control and out of this world.
And as per my previous comment, just what the actual f*ck has this so very important set of issues in your posting got to do with the local planning system and charges? I mean, really?
DeleteI think you may be letting your editorial standards slip VFC. I know there are many regular, committed readers to your site, but they will be put off if your comment section comes to be filled-up with a load diversionary b*ll*cks of the kind that turns the comments sections of Jersey's msm into the stagnant dead-waters they are, of the kind no thinking person want's to bother putting their toe into.
I know, I have a real gripe about diesel prices & government duties on the fuel, why don't I vent my feelings here? (clue, because it's not f*cking relevant.)
Can't criticise because I didn't make a submission. But thing that is needed if kids are to be safer is changing the rules on the appointment of Jurats.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most shocking things to me coming out of this Inquiry was reading the evidence of police officer Anton Cornelissen regarding the disgraceful behaviour of the Jurat John Le Breton in covering up abuse by the Vic College paedophile Jervis-Dykes.
I had always thought this was being exaggerated by Stuart Syvret and Trevor Pitman but now I know how wrong I was. Le Breton should have gone to prison in my opinion and that three Bailiffs really did do nothing about removing him just like Pitman always claimed is a sobering thought.
Sacking and recruitment of Jurats is obviously not safe in the hands of Bailiffs and needs to be done by some kind of appointments commission who will do proper background checks on these people.
I mean come on. How can people like Bailhache who is that bonkers he thinks the 'man in the street' would support his allowing a paedophile like Roger Holland to join the Honouraries can be trusted to oversee Jurats is beyond me.
Have to agree with this observation. Let's be honest though we now know that we cannot trust the likes of the Bailhache brothers, Michael Birt and Dim Tim on just about anything to do with our children, or with regard to justice generally. But to stay on the point do I correctly remember Ian Gorst once conceding to Deputy T Pitman that he was not opposed to bringing in such an Appointments Commission as your poster mentioned?
DeleteHaving got the above of my chest, I offer the following observations which are relevant to the post and (some) of the comments.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me to even entertain thought of "reforming" Jersey's utterly bizarre "Jurat" system is to be fooled into defeat at a first hurdle.
The very nature of your Jurat system is irredeemably unlawful. It is simply not compatible with the already established and widely accepted standards of the administration of justice in Western democracies. No person who is serous about the real protection of children (and other vulnerable people) can countenance the continuance of the Jurat system in any shape or form.
I can state that fact with some confidence, having both followed events in Jersey closely for some years, and having read with amazement, such amazement it sticks in my mind to this day, the words of Sir Geoffrey Nice QC when he lectured on his experiences of having been a 'judge' in the Jersey 'judicial' system.
Don't even dream of 'reforming' the 'Jurat' system. It is fatally unlawful, corrupt, dysfunctional and it has to go.
Simple as that.
I feel the best solution that could happen now in 2016 to start to clean up the mess our Island government is in would be to have Stuart Syvret back in our States as our Chief Minister with extra powers to sanction and even sack ministers. He would be the only man who could do it and I feel he has proved himself by the way he has given his all to the Island particularly the abuse problems and the victims.
ReplyDeleteI have never spoken to him or met him but have followed his career from before he was elected into the States when he used to phone the BBC Sunday morning phone in and frequently got cut off or not answered. He spoke sense and I feel he said things many of the islanders wanted to say but were too scared to say them. I know I was but I’m not now.
I do hope the Child abuse inquiry delivers and can help sort this shambles out once and for all but alas I feel Stuart is going to be proven right again.
'I feel the best solution that could happen now in 2016 to start to clean up the mess our Island government is in would be to have Stuart Syvret back in our States as our Chief Minister with extra powers to sanction and even sack ministers'
ReplyDeleteAnd how do you propose we achieve this ? Stuart has been rejected by the voters the last two occasions he tried to get re-elected. The establishment will do their best to ensure he never gets back in, probably by referring back to his arrest, or health problems, or failure to pay his court costs or whatever other dirt they can dig up on him.
We need to come up with solutions we can actually put in place to stop the rot, not just propose idealist outcomes, however good they might be.
I think it would be safe to say that Stuart has no intention of getting back in to politics and who could blame him after what the Establishment have put him through?
DeleteI would be interested to know if Stuart made a submission to the Enquiry as posted on here by VFC. If not would he let us know if he agrees with VFC's submission and would he answer the three questions set by the Enquiry and publish them on this blog?
Stuart should go back into politics unless he is totally burnt out from it or possibly fears he would not be re-elected after the trashing the Establishment has given his reputation. Otherwise we can't escape the fact that the scum are winning. Stuart, Trev, Shona, Bob, Dan Wimberley all the best and most honest champions gone. Only Mike Higgins and Monty left.
ReplyDeleteI made a big mistake when I was younger.
DeleteThat mistake was to allow myself into being fooled into thinking that Jersey was a democracy. And then allowing myself to be one of the "marks" - one of the suckers - that "legitimated" that fiction by being a participant in it.
I learnt the hard way that just as soon as you stop being a "cosmetic" legitimator of what is, essentially, a mafia operation, and you start to actually flex the democratic muscle you represent on behalf of your constituents, the real "muscle" moves in and crushes the public interest.
Jersey doesn't even have a faintly legitimate policing, prosecution, or judicial system, so it can't even begin yet to be a democracy.
Before this criminal quasi-realm can ever become a democracy one would have to go back and re-win the English civil war. Jersey is a criminal enterprise the God-Father of which is the monarch.
And her and her advisers know it. To this day.
Until the queen is made accountable for the criminal actions of her gangsters here in Jersey (and their associated protectors in London) this place will never approach being a democracy.
If you want an example of monarchy corruption, just consider how - with a supposed "public-inquiry" into Jersey's decades of concealed child-abuse just about to start - child-abuse concealment in which the monarch's express, personal appointees - successive Solicitor Generals, Attorney Generals, Deputy Bailiffs, Bailiffs & Lieutenant Governors - had been fatally instrumental- she chose to appoint William Bailhache as Bailiff.
A more startlingly clear threat - a more shocking act of witness-tampering - short of simple out-right assassination, couldn't have been dreamt-up.
Literally within hours of Baking Bill's appointment as head judge being announced, three vital witnesses to the purported child-abuse "public-inquiry" decided they were absolutely not now going to give evidence. They were already frightened - had already been massively "dissuaded" - from giving evidence about the child-abuse cover-ups and associated corruptions they were aware of; "dissuaded" as had been the crystal-clear intent of the Jersey mafia in the exampletive Crown-empowered oppressions conducted against me and the Police Chief Graham Power.
Against that intimidatory back-ground it was already immensely difficult to get them to even consider giving evidence to the "public-inquiry".
The instant it was made public that the monarch was going to appoint William Bailhache to be Bailiff - her head of the Jersey judiciary and legislature - via her personal "Letters Patent" - against the already startlingly clear evidence of him - and his brother - being corruption and child-abuse concealing criminals - those potential witnesses "Got-The-Message".
One of them even said to me, "if it was only me, Stuart, I might have spoken, but my daughters are [I'm mixing up ages & genders here for risk of identifying the witness] 9 and 11, I can't risk their futures."
Another witness said to me in a fear-filled meeting at night, in a cliff-path car-park, "I can't face fearing for my life like you do. I'm sorry, I just can't".
We live in an environment in which everything that the real world would consider essential parts of the functioning rule-of-law is merely a Potemkin-village - fake - make-believe - and in reality is run by gangsters - via the express, personal power of the monarch.
Until that get's stopped, Jersey will never begin to become a real democracy, as opposed to a Potemkin democracy.
Stuart Syvret
I guess you won't be standing for election again then?
DeleteThis is not the first time that Ex Health Minister Syvret has mentioned that the appointment by the Crown of the equally ghastly Bailhache junior as Bailiff is not only unbelievably stupid and retrogressive ......but is also an act of intimidation of witnesses to the CoI
DeleteThis is (as far as I know) the first time that Ex Health Minister Syvret has affirmed that this appointment HAS dissuaded (multiple) witnesses from giving their evidence to the CoI.
This IS a big deal and it makes the CoI "one sided"/skewed and worse than useless.
Usually Mr.Syvret does not direct his criticisms personally at the "Queen", but at the office that uses (& abuses) her power.
Either criticism is valid. In the 21 century there is no place for "power" without "responsibility" and while the Queen outsources the work, the responsibility remains with Queen Elizabeth II, and the "Crown".
Layers of minions may be personally responsible down the line but the buck stops there, at the office of "The Crown".
Jersey, it's corruption and it's appalling child abuse and cover up has and will continue to soil the good name of the Crown as Jersey is a "Peculiar Possession" of the Crown and hence the Crown appoints the real power in Jersey.
One should not feel too sorry for the poor monarch as her position comes with considerable privilege. In Jersey (and elsewhere) this "privilege" is not mere kudos and social standing, but relates to hard currency and £££ through mechanisms such as the sale of titles -and with it the "ownership" of real things like the St Helier foreshore (the reclamation site!) by certain Jersey Lawyers.
The failure to demand basic standards of responsibility from a monarch (be they sweet old lady or young buck) is bound to be just as disastrous as previous unquestioning trust in institutions such as the Church.
These institutions will not survive if their power is abused.
In Jersey the Bailiff (currently William Bailhache) is THE LAW and even has a veto over what can and can't be discussed by our elected representatives.
Jersey's "democracy" is not a democracy because it is structurally undermined at so many levels. A surprising proportion of the punters are content because it is what they have grown up with and they feel they feel they have a place.
Their future seems bright. But only if they bend to the will of the real power. If the real power (or it's little army of helpers) had designs on your property, or even your person (or your children) then there is probably not much you could do about it in this company-town.
The thing about unbridled entitlement .....is that it knows no bounds.
It turns out that those campaigners long branded as "conspiracy theorists" had grasped reality and that it was the rest of us who were living in an alternative reality.
An alternative reality with the soundtrack and props enthusiastically supplied by the "forth estate" of the Jersey media who should have been holding power to account.
We have more than two years to push for on line and Island wide voting. Most people now, more than ever before want a new breed of government. Lets make it a busy, interesting and exciting two years.
ReplyDelete