JERSEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - A Political Party by any other name?

 

JERSEY CHAMBER of COMMERCE  - A Political Party by any other name?

 

According to the Chamber’s own website it was founded in 1768 by Jersey merchants who were

“not satisfied with their representation by the ruling elite in the States.”

 Then as now it is a very political organization that is regularly consulted by government and it  lobbies for reform over a wide range of activities.

It claims now to represent a diverse community but its Executive Council is dominated by persons from a very limited range of business backgrounds.

 They would fit in well with any Tory Party in the UK context but here in Jersey they exist as a “business” promoting organization claiming  over 250 years of “influencing change for the good.”

 They claim a membership of nearly 600 “business” organizations employing 30,000 but what those many thousands of employees actually think is presumably not within the organization’s TOR to determine.

Like most people I have seen the C of C logo many times on the wall of the Royal Square building (donated to the Chamber in 1821) and have not really considered what it represents now or when it was first designed.

Whether it shows a pagan goddess or female slave with a barrel of Newfoundland cod and a box of smuggled tea is not of much importance today. But it is significant in an historical context for Jersey and something that the Chamber might usefully re-consider today.

Is it still an appropriate image for the Chamber?

 Does the image have any political significance today?

 The general public too might like to consider what the political or other roles of the Chamber of Commerce are - or should be - in the 21^st century?

Should it be consulted so regularly and widely by government?

Is it behaving like a political party without the democratic constraints that a party system imposes and which many think that Jersey desperately needs.

Especially since “business” is represented by many other organizations too in Jersey.

 We should not forget that just 12 months after the Chamber was formed in 1768 the so called “Corn Riots” overthrew the rotten Jersey Royal Court on 28 September 1769  - now called “Jersey Reform Day” - to initiate long term democratic and judicial changes by direct action of the people.

 Of course many of the merchants who formed the Chamber then were also exploiting the general public through arbitrary impositions and manipulations of “corn prices.”

But then as now, the Chamber was not formed to speak for the general public interest.

It still speaks for business

and claims to

 “promote trade and build on the prosperity of the Island.”

 But  that may be just a fanciful PR claim in this Island where the demands of COVID 19, BREXIT and CLIMATE CHANGE are much more important .

 

The Holocaust memorial in Jersey - and how we remember or forget

The Holocaust is remembered across the world on "Memorial Day".

This year  it will take place on Wednesday 27 January in Jersey but due to the restrictions of Covid 19 will be a simple event  and not open to the general public to participate.

The short video below shows the grave in Jersey of "Frank" Le Villio who might have been one of only two known British survivors of the Belsen Concentration camp complex. 

He was born in Jersey but died in Nottingham during 1946  and was re-buried in Jersey recently.

In my view Jersey has failed to recognise since 1945 the importance of the Liberation from Occupation during WW2.

We should all be much more pro-active in promoting human rights and related international standards to eliminate discrimination and injustice in all forms. 

Most of all, our government should take a much more active role and create a human rights and international standards Ministry or Special Unit with adequate funding for publishing information and promoting the elimination of ignorance.

Perhaps such a committment can be announced on 27 January 2021 at the Holocaust Memorial ceremony.

The tragedy of Norman Le Brocq

Nowadays we have almost unlimited opportunities to insult each other via the Internet.

Norman Le Brocq was not so much a target by electronic means but he experienced a great deal of mud-slinging - actual or otherwise - during his long political career. And the media of the day - notably the JEP - was ever ready to discredit him and his political aspirations - and those of his supporters - for decades. 

Yet when world leaders such as Donald Trump are now actually banned by Facebook and Twitter because of the general rubbish and personal attacks that they publish then we know that something has gone seriously wrong with our modern concepts of "free speech" and "expression."

Norman is well known now for his anti-Nazi activities during the Occupation but the Jersey establishment very soon disowned him and his vews during the post Liberation election processes.

Although Norman was a very placid man and his family background was hardly ever discussed except that he was orphaned and had attended Victoria College as a scholarship student - there was a secret that has strangely never been fully explained.

He was the victim of a family tragedy in 1934 when his parents and 2 young sisters were found dead - by a servant or maid -  in their Rouge Bouillon house from gas poisoning.

The court hearing concluded that this was a double suicide - by the parents - and double murder of the children.

The family appeared to be reasonably well-off and the father - Stanley Albert aged just 37 - had been a fruit grower at St Peter and ran a couple of florists shops in St Helier.

Norman aged 11 had survived because he was sleeping in another room and the tragedy took place in a bedroom where the father normally slept alone.

Since Norman became such an important part of Jersey's post-war political development I am surprised that his tragic family legacy is so little known or discussed. Especially since Norman's own left-wing political awareness was so untypical in this very conservative and small community.

It also provokes me to wonder how political critics can be so cruel to candidates or those who express "different" points of view without any understanding of their personal circumstances.

Below I have posted Norman's Jersey Democratic Movement (JDM) re-election manifesto - I think for the elections of c 1982.

It was a modest proposal which could well be appropriate for the approaching elections in 2022.

Yet there would be plenty of people insulting him or anybody else who tries to present such views even today - the moreso if they do so in the name of a "political party."

It seems to be just another aspect of the "Jersey Way" and is encouraged by the "wonderful anonymity" and or remoteness of the NET.