Assisted dying discussion - Jersey 18 November 2021

 

Dr Nigel Minihane (above)

NB this video is missing the initial minute of recording

Silvan Luley of Dignitas (below)

A Q & A session followed but is not shown here.

Jersey Farming Conference 11 November 2021 - COVID concerns

 

I attended the Jersey Farming Conference today 11 November 2021 and wore a face mask.

I was the only person there who did wear a mask for this all-day event which ran from 9.00 am to 3.45pm. Presumably all attendees received similar emails a few days before the conference date that  the event was to run “adhering to Public Health guidelines on events and gatherings.”

This further stressed that attendees were “strongly advised to wear face coverings” and increase their lateral flow testing.

 Several speakers at the conference had arrived from the UK especially for this event, which was also attended by ministers Senator Farnham, Deputies Morel and Guida (who all spoke) besides other States members who sat among the audience and generally circulated.

 The seating provision at this conference was very closely spaced (as my video indicates) and I thought (from memory) there were only 80 tickets available and others wanting to attend should do so “on-line.”

 

I have no idea if the farming community habitually ignores safety precautions in their working life, but it did seem extraordinary that I was the only person present in any capacity who was masked.

An organizer even explained to me that a box of 50 masks had been made available at the entrance for anybody who wanted one, but this had “disappeared” by the end of the day.

 

During the course of the day’s presentations I attempted to ask a question from the floor about the lack of masks being worn but was told that questions were only being allowed on-line.

 I raised it again with several speakers and an organizer and was told that the “strong advice” was only a recommendation and could not be enforced.

 

It is a pity that this instructive and important conference was allowed to proceed as described here whereas “COVID” supposedly remains as a very real and dangerous threat to our well-being.

 

Sixty years of building and Architects in Jersey. Public meeting to sort out St Helier - 9 November 2021

 

The Association of Jersey Architects is celebrating 60 years of their building design works this week.

I must say that I don’t think they have much to celebrate and the booklet they have produced indicates a somewhat “ordinary” level of achievement.

It is significant I think that the most innovative and smallest project – La Fregate Cafe completed in 1996 – is likely to be demolished soon.

Of course, there are some buildings of merit shown in the printed brochure but for the most part they are safe structures designed to fill spaces. They do not deserve the highest accolade of “architecture” and do not add much of quality to the built environment for the whole population.

At the St Helier Town Hall presentation and “discussion” today it fell to a member of the public audience to point out that “designing for disability” was not featured at all.

In fact, the lift access to the room had not been enabled and the printed brochure included some obscure illustrations and very small font sizes were generally used. Inevitably too, no effort was made to engage a signer and much of the presentation was difficult to follow.

 For a profession that claims expertise in “design” such omissions and failures have been and remain far too evident in the works of the membership throughout the 60 years from 1961.

 The discussion was more like a junior school project than a serious examination of the very major problems facing St Helier and the whole Island. The interactions between the 12 Parishes were ignored. It was as though St Helier is a unique Island with problems that need to be addressed in isolation. The proposals put forward for discussion by the panel were generally banal and undemanding raising virtually no matters that are likely to be addressed by or relevant to architects.

 Most of the proposals have already been discussed to death over many decades and I have linked to those that I managed to video record. I have not attempted to record or present any of the panel discussion and the proposals might appear here in the wrong order of sequence but the final question about a “single” suggestion to improve St Helier does not feature here.

 I don’t want to be too unkind to Jersey’s designers – whosoever they might be – but for an Island that presents such an abundance of “natural beauty” I think that the prospect of another 60 years of building and extension of a built environment, either within the boundaries of St Helier or beyond, needs to be based upon different and better standards.