AMOS GROUP of CHRISTIANS TOGETHER IN JERSEY
Minutes of meeting on Wed. Sept. 9th at 5.15 at Pastoral Centre.
1. The opening reading came from "Eternal Springs" on hope for the present.
2. ELeQ went to the consultation on migration policy on Tuesday lunch. It was disappointing to learn that the suggestion of a welcome pack for new arrivals when they register for their card is merely a pious hope with little intention of actually doing it. It was good news to learn that our children, who were not Jersey-born but did all their schooling in Jersey, who currently lose their "quallies" by living away for over 10 years, will retain them for life with the new law. Apparently some people are strongly against any sort of card, but we are happy with this minimal card. AW produced a copy of the response of Concern, which confirms that the proposed law will enable an accurate count of Jersey's working population and the means to control it, without setting any targets for the actual level.
3. We are aware of a number of pending items and wonder why they are not yet on the statute e.g.
- a depositor protection law for accounts in Jersey bank accounts up to £50k.
- a review of the licensing law with the aim of reducing harmful levels of alcohol consumption. (and goes nowhere near as far as the recent UK proposal to ban alcohol adverts)
- a strategic plan that has no focus on housing at a reasonable rent but instead delivers high-priced, undersized units.
- implementing a new gambling law after a review a couple of years ago.
- a Sunday trading law and probably others.
4. A call to the Statistics unit says they only collect total wages and total number of workers in each company, thus can only calculate a mean wage, not a median. Work is going on to discover more detail of the distribution of wages within companies.
5. A Child protection conference is being run on 9th Oct. by Hanson Renouf, though the fee is ?175! A letter by Barbara Corbett to the JEP in Aug. set out the need for a no fault approach to divorce. This sensible letter is attached. Lady Oppenheimer also sent in an excellent letter but I currently don't have a copy. We also hope that the States will pass a law agreeing to recognise civil partnerships. Anti-gay rhetoric reveals a bigoted reaction contrary to the image of God we get in Jesus. We are less certain about how to protect the rights of sisters or friends who share a house for a long time when one of them dies. Perhaps it can be done through a will.
6. Ian Le Marquand sent a letter appreciating the input of Barbara Corbett and saying that he favours the Scottish system (based on mediation, I believe).rather than our present top heavy Royal Court based system. Perhaps he can move us this way.
7. AW suggested that we write to the Associations page of the JEP to raise our profile. .
8. J.O.W.G. now has a base at the Town Hall, with an opening ceremony on Fri. 18th Sept. for official guests and members. We shall be open for primary heads and their PSHE teachers on Tues.22nd and Wed 23rd sept. from 3.30 to 5.00. We have 2 applicants so far for the post of Centre Manager for 3 hours /week. We hope an appointment can be made soon. The New Internationalist are offering a catalogue of diaries, books and calendars + Amnesty items at 35% discount, so sales of these items may be a function of the JOWC.
9.. We are glad that the sex offenders register is going to be extended to Jersey, though it is important that there are clear guidelines to limit the disclosure of the information
10. Dates of next Amos meetings Wed. Oct. 7th, Nov. 4th, Dec. 2nd at 5.15 at Pastoral Centre
Ed Le Quesne 10 / 9 / 09
Minutes of meeting on Wed. Sept. 9th at 5.15 at Pastoral Centre.
1. The opening reading came from "Eternal Springs" on hope for the present.
2. ELeQ went to the consultation on migration policy on Tuesday lunch. It was disappointing to learn that the suggestion of a welcome pack for new arrivals when they register for their card is merely a pious hope with little intention of actually doing it. It was good news to learn that our children, who were not Jersey-born but did all their schooling in Jersey, who currently lose their "quallies" by living away for over 10 years, will retain them for life with the new law. Apparently some people are strongly against any sort of card, but we are happy with this minimal card. AW produced a copy of the response of Concern, which confirms that the proposed law will enable an accurate count of Jersey's working population and the means to control it, without setting any targets for the actual level.
3. We are aware of a number of pending items and wonder why they are not yet on the statute e.g.
- a depositor protection law for accounts in Jersey bank accounts up to £50k.
- a review of the licensing law with the aim of reducing harmful levels of alcohol consumption. (and goes nowhere near as far as the recent UK proposal to ban alcohol adverts)
- a strategic plan that has no focus on housing at a reasonable rent but instead delivers high-priced, undersized units.
- implementing a new gambling law after a review a couple of years ago.
- a Sunday trading law and probably others.
4. A call to the Statistics unit says they only collect total wages and total number of workers in each company, thus can only calculate a mean wage, not a median. Work is going on to discover more detail of the distribution of wages within companies.
5. A Child protection conference is being run on 9th Oct. by Hanson Renouf, though the fee is ?175! A letter by Barbara Corbett to the JEP in Aug. set out the need for a no fault approach to divorce. This sensible letter is attached. Lady Oppenheimer also sent in an excellent letter but I currently don't have a copy. We also hope that the States will pass a law agreeing to recognise civil partnerships. Anti-gay rhetoric reveals a bigoted reaction contrary to the image of God we get in Jesus. We are less certain about how to protect the rights of sisters or friends who share a house for a long time when one of them dies. Perhaps it can be done through a will.
6. Ian Le Marquand sent a letter appreciating the input of Barbara Corbett and saying that he favours the Scottish system (based on mediation, I believe).rather than our present top heavy Royal Court based system. Perhaps he can move us this way.
7. AW suggested that we write to the Associations page of the JEP to raise our profile. .
8. J.O.W.G. now has a base at the Town Hall, with an opening ceremony on Fri. 18th Sept. for official guests and members. We shall be open for primary heads and their PSHE teachers on Tues.22nd and Wed 23rd sept. from 3.30 to 5.00. We have 2 applicants so far for the post of Centre Manager for 3 hours /week. We hope an appointment can be made soon. The New Internationalist are offering a catalogue of diaries, books and calendars + Amnesty items at 35% discount, so sales of these items may be a function of the JOWC.
9.. We are glad that the sex offenders register is going to be extended to Jersey, though it is important that there are clear guidelines to limit the disclosure of the information
10. Dates of next Amos meetings Wed. Oct. 7th, Nov. 4th, Dec. 2nd at 5.15 at Pastoral Centre
Ed Le Quesne 10 / 9 / 09
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2 comments:
The statistical unit may only collect totals, but both the social security and ITIS returns are filed person by person by the employing businesses. The information exist within the States already to do the calculations for employees.
I've wondered that myself. I think why they don't want to supply a median for States employees is because (a) it would be giving two different measures for public and private sectors (b) it would highlight the abysmal lack of data collection they have done. Actually, all the private sector information - or most of it - should now be potentially available via ITIS, and all they need to do is strip off the employee identifications.
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