Jersey Holocaust Day 2020 - and Human Rights

On 27 January 2020 the annual Jersey Holocaust Memorial remembered that Auschwitz camp was "liberated" 75 years ago.
It is also 75 years ago that Jersey was "liberated" from Occupation
Below are video recordings of the two main speakers at the 2020 Holocaust Memorial ;
Jersey Bailiff Tim Le Cocq and Dean of Jersey Mike Keirle.

Bailiff Tim Le Cocq (above)

Dean of Jersey Mike Keirle (above



Later this year, after the official "Liberation 75" celebrations on and around 9 May, I am organising a Human Rights Conference/Seminar on 27 and 28 May (tentative dates) at the Jersey Institute of Law (Highlands College).
This is still being planned but it is proposed that expert Human Rights lawyers and academics  - some of whom spoke in Jersey 25 years ago at my "Liberation 50" Human Rights series - will return to give a progress report on world-wide achievements and Human Rights failings.

The  public will enjoy free entry to the conference and will be encouraged to discuss Human Rights issues.
Local experts will also be speaking at this conference to ensure that the discussions are relevant to residents of the Channel Islands.

Of course I cannot organise and fund this project on my own.
I need sponsors and active helpers and volunteers to make this a successful event.

Today about 100 people attended the Holocaust Memorial Day event.
Jersey has a population of  over 106,000
I think that Human Rights needs a much higher profile and better public understanding.
It is a matter that affects us 365 days per annum - so a couple of hours on one day per year is not enough. We must build on the Holocaust Memorial and Liberation Day celebrations to embrace human rights standards in Jersey.
If you agree - please make contact with me on 01534 862929 or PM me Mike Dun on Facebook
or email mikedunjersey(@)gmail.com

Blue Monday and Wednesday - The Fury at Sand Street car park continued....

I posted about the problems with paying for car parking at Sand Street - St Helier on "Blue Monday" when I was threatened with a parking ticket for stopping to ask for guidance.

That parking ticket arrived in the post on "Blue Wednesday" so I have updated my blog to include the latest information.

For clarity all the events here were taking place and recorded on Monday and Wednesday - I refer to "yesterday" a couple of times in error....
and on Monday the 2 Parking Control Officers supposedly posted to give help to the public were standing alongside the entrance - not in a car as my voice-over suggests in error. I was in the car but got out to speak with them.

I must now waste everybody's time by challenging the £100 parking ticket by email and shall be attaching this Blog to that

PART ONE - MONDAY

PART TWO - WEDNESDAY

I hope that there will not be a part three....

Liberation 75 and Human Rights in Jersey 2020 - Disability Discrimination and Gill Curtis MBE

I bumped into Gill Curtis today.
That's not unusual because I see her and hear her words all the time - although she died in 2008.

Gill was of course an artist with vision who worked for the Jersey Pottery for years - but I knew her mostly because of her campaigning for equality and how she saw the unfairnesses of discrimination - most especially from the perspective of disability.
Sadly, I have no recording of her speaking although I would expect the BBC or CTV to have something in their archives but I am provoked by her memory into action whenever I encounter "poor design."

So today I encountered some aspects of poor design that she would have campaigned against - yet they are still commonplace today.

Many people will dismiss these observations as trivial but I try to remind people that we all start life as helpless babies needing everything to be done for us and many of us experience vulnerability again - personally or otherwise - as we make this curious journey towards mortality.

Gill helped me with the Liberation 50 Human Rights seminars 25 years ago and its so sad that she is not here today to help organise something similar for Liberation 75.
Maybe this will provoke others to volunteer.

Here follows a few words about Gill Curtis and her major work in Jersey which sadly remains unfinished.

Anybody who would like to record a video interview or wants more information about a possible Liberation 75 Human Rights Project can contact me Mike Dun by PM on Facebook or tel Jersey 862929

Population Control in Jersey and other games....

Every few years the States - now known as "government of Jersey" in some quarters dusts off the "population control" game aka "the obstacles to immigrants" challenge.

There is an urgency to this game now because that other seasonal game - the "10 Years Island Plan" - has also to be designed and sold to the ever gullible public PDQ. Some call it the "Decimation Game".

For those interested in Jersey's post Occupation political history I have scanned a couple of images and post them below.
These are from previous attempts - 1979 and 1995/6 - to devise "population and immigration" policies for Jersey and of course they failed miserably.

What I find especially interesting is that I made submissions in both 1979 and 1995 and I am still wasting my time and energies in trying to influence the decision making process - or even  ( I must be deluded) to influence the outcomes.

What is also interesting is to note how few others have stayed the course but a few very significant names are still evident in 2019!

I note that John Young (now President of the Environment aka Planning Department) was in 1996 the COE of that organisation (although it has changed its name and address since then) and John has been knocking Alderney into a different shape too.
Also I note that Mark Boleat chaired the 1995/6  Working Party and he has been Knighted ( I do not know what for)  and as Sir Mark Boleat has just been appointed to head up Andium Homes.
It may or may not be relevant that he was one of Charlie's Chums at Westminster.

Who else might have survived the ravages of time I know not but it is the old ideas legacy  that concern me mostly.
Of course my political aims and objectives remain remarkably similar to those I gained from my mother's breast ( it was acceptable in those enlightened Socialist days) - whereas I fear that those now entrusted with producing the latest population and immigration policies are also still entrenched in their old discrimination based solutions.

Alas, I include the latest crop of "planners" too because they have a traditional reliance upon creating zones for anything that does not move and a belief that all land must have some sort of "farming" use priority even when there are no farmers to work it or realistic crops to produce. Thus "call it green" is their mantra and there is no more to be said or done....

So to cut a long diatribe short - we are inevitably going to come up with similarly flawed policies and plans - if they can be agreed at all.
If you can try to look at the 1979 and 1996 Reports - they are almost as funny as the Beano Yearbook - so ideal Xmas reading.

Does St Helier have a "character" in 2019?

Following the workshop on 25 October 2019 - I went an a search around St Helier trying to identify if St Helier has a "character".

I presume that the Willie Miller organised discussion was more about current appearance than past history but I find it difficult to separate these matters.

My first video below arose from an entirely chance encounter with Mick Millar whose family were the founders of  John Terry Ltd in the mid 19th century.
The original John Terry was from Yorkshire and he built up one of the major agricultural merchant's businesses in St Helier which survived into the 1970s.
Mick Millar kindly showed me around his building which has long diversified into other uses but retains so many traditional features. It describes - with Mick Millar's help - precisely what I want to say and much more.

There were many such businesses in St Helier and this is the central theme of my observation that growing potatoes, tomatoes and flowers etc was not solely a countryside activity. It was integrally linked to the merchants in St Helier and the buildings of the town were inevitably an integral part too.
Thus there were  many dozens of  granite merchants' stores and they were critical ingredients of the character of St Helier and the commercial and social life of the whole Island.

Through the merchants' activities the agriculture of the country was brought into the town.
Unlike today where agriculture is a country matter, in the past it was an essential part of the whole of Island life.
The merchants were active all the year round. They employed workers who lived in St Helier, drank in the pubs and spent their wages in local shops. There was no agriculture / town divide as exists today. Working clothes were not banned in workers pubs. To a large extent the merchants buildings and their activities created the "character" of St Helier.

This no longer exists today.
St Helier has no unifying purpose now. No traditional merchants stores survive providing their traditional purpose. Some have been "converted" into other commercial uses and a few serve as facades only to banking or finance sector activities. There is a curious need for the "planners" to preserve the illusion of the historic and traditional uses and the John Terry buildings will it seems follow suit soon. Some traditional features only will survive when it is inevitably  redeveloped.

Meanwhile Jersey still retains a diminishing "agri" sector which still sets the "character" standard for the country parishes of brown cows in green fields and potato growing.
Although there is a desperate shortage of land for building houses across the Island - the agri lobby resists the release of any land for this purpose. Yet it is also evident that many landowners would be pleased to develop some land and the agri sector faces a doubtful future.
At the same time the "planners" insist on cramming  housing accommodation into St Helier or other "built-up areas" and maintain an obsession with creating "zones" so that housing and commercial or entertainment activities are kept apart - and often sterile - whilst the Finance Sector (now the major source of wealth for the Island) has some special status that demands isolation and an architectural banality all of its own. It has not become an integral part of St Helier and its "character" - on the contrary its activities are largely remote and secret and it shows.

My second video looks at some of these aspects of St Helier where "character" has become the servant of the motor vehicle.
It is appropriate that the sound on my recording is almost inaudible due to the overbearing "traffic noise" and I make no attempt to remedy this

Audrey Murphy Chief Inspector at Jersey Care Commission speaking on 16 October 2019

Audrey Murphy is a former social worker who was appointed as Chief Inspector of the Jersey Care Commission effective from 2 September 2019. Her salary is not known.

This video of her speaking at the Jersey Disability Partnership meeting was recorded on  16 October 2019.

The sound quality is very poor.
The Disability Partnership provided no sound system.
It is especially difficult  to hear some of the questions asked by the audience.

If anybody knows how to add sub-titles or captions to this video please make yourself known.

Contact Mike Dun by PM if you have any queries or want to record a video on disability or other matters.

St Helier Jersey - Urban Character workshop - Willie Miller consultant - 25 October 2019

If you have difficulty sleeping this blog might help.
Planners and designers are especially boring talking about their work and here is a video extract from the discussion on St Helier Jersey's future in conjunction with the latest Island Plan now being produced.

This video extract lasts about 34 minutes in total.

It was taken from the second part of the "urban character" discussion  open to the general public. It lasted about 2 hours.
The first part was with civil servants and States Members the same day .

Willie Miller Urban Design from Glasgow have visited Jersey before (eg 2005) and seem to specialise in organising such events.

I asked to video record the proceedings and this was agreed but some members of the public did not want to appear.
I offered to supply paper bags to put on their heads but this was declined. So this shortened recording of the proceedings does not include images of the 18 or so public participants.
Hopefully it might be of some interest to the 106,000 residents of Jersey who did not attend the discussions - but I doubt it.

The discussion was based upon the premise that St Helier has an "urban character" at all  but this was not really discussed . It was one of several unsubstantiated "givens" such as the inevitability of population growth in Jersey over the next 10 years or so and the presumption that new housing stock will have to be built and that a major part will have to be built in St Helier.

There was no analysis of the economic drivers that might give rise to further population growth or decline.
It seems that past growth is accepted as inevitable in the future too although the likely further decline of tourism and agriculture was not discussed nor how much land in other parishes might thereby become available for development or other uses.

There was no discussion of Brexit or Climate Change or the Finance Sector.
There was no mention of the 360 or so International Conventions, Treaties or Obligations that Jersey has signed up to according to the current Island Plan nor how these might relate to St Helier or the whole Island over the next 10 years.

This is especially odd since discriminatory policies already apply to the enjoyment of housing accommodation and employment and it is currently proposed to introduce even more restrictive regulations to discourage immigration and restrict population growth. This "hostile environment" policy appears to be embraced for the future without challenge.

Although Jersey currently has 20,000 residents who are required to apply for "settled status" as nationals of EU countries only 7,000 have to date done so. According to the law those who do not apply before the end of 2020 will be liable to deportation.

Such factors can have a substantial impact on the "character" of St Helier and the whole Island.
It seems that many of the issues that relate to the future planning of Jersey remain unresolved or researched just as they were 10 years ago. 
This workshop might appear to be based upon superficial economic and population predictions that have not been adequately researched or challenged.