Limpet Gathering: And the story of a Connétable who also became unstuck!

As it is now ten years since I have been writing for La Baguette, I thought it would be a good way to end the year with my first piece, published in June 2011.

When the editor contacted me, I had no idea that I would still be writing articles for the Parish Magazine ten years later, and more than just one per edition, nor than he and his wife would both become very good friends.

I can't find the original email he sent me, but it was on the lines of - I've read your blog, and you seem to be able to write well, would you be interested in writing for La Baguette. The last time I had been involved with a magazine was the Jersey Mensa Magazine "Thinks!" back in the 1980s, when my friend Ken Webb co-opted me to write pieces for it, but that admittedly was much smaller scale - this would be going out to all the households in the Parish!

My blog has on occasion, well more than one occasion, been political, but I knew that the Parish Magazine, so as not to cause division in the Parish, was deliberately a-political. Later I found that was the result of making the mistake of being more political when it began! A Parish Magazine should bring the Parish together, not cause divisions, which I think is a very worthwhile enterprise - after all social media and blogs are a place for politics where opinions are more divided.

What to write? Charles Green ("Gloop"), our maths teacher, also did local history excursions on Saturday mornings and as I later found out, was also part of the thriving Junior Société. One of the first, if not the first, local history bit I attended was a look at the history of St Brelade's Church, so that would be a good place to start! (Nowadays I sometimes meet tourists there and ask - do you want a short history tour? And lots say yes, story plus place makes memories). I also remembered my science on Latin names for limpets - that was Dr John Renouf, who took the Junior Société on geology trails around Jersey. Put those with an anecdote from G.R. Balleine on a former Constable, and I thought I had my story.

I emailed back with it: "Here's the piece, which I've tried to keep light, but informative. Hope it is suitable. If so, it can go in attributable to me. You could lose the first paragraph "There are many things.." although I like it as an "opener" to draw people in. All the facts have been researched; including the 400 limpets statistic in an academic journal, which shows just how many you would need to stay alive! There is a mention of Constables (change to Connetable by all means) but it is very non-political - and gives I think a nice meaty ending to the piece. I wouldn't want to lose that paragraph."

And here was the reply: "Thought I should let you see how I am proposing to present your
article. Please feel free to comment. I have taken the liberty of referring to Constable Pipon as Monsieur rather than Mr...that tradition still remains (at least in St. Brelade) where the Constable is still formally addressed as 'Monsieur le Connetable'"

Ten years on, and we are still chatting and writing for La Baguette. Who would have thought it?

For this reprint, something a bit special. I have obtained on eBay a postcard (see above) which shows the Honorary Police Gallery in St Brelade's Church. The Constable would usually have been there in Church services, although below if a Parish Assembly was taking place. It would no doubt have been very handy for a quiet smoke, or to fall asleep unnoticed in sermons (the pulpit is below). 

The Rector J.A. Balleine, much to the resentment of the Honorary Police, removed it in his restoration of the church, (along with the box pews in the photo) and replaced it with an organ instead. He also built the Church hall which could be used for Parish Assemblies, which function it performed well until the new Parish Hall was established at St Aubin. There would be no more misbehaviour by Constables in Church!

 
Limpet Gathering
And the story of a Connétable who also became unstuck!

There are many things that ordinary people do, that don't make it into the history books. Here is one personal anecdote.

In St Brelade's Bay, as a young boy, I would gather limpets with my sister from the rocks at the end of the bay. The trick is to take a small trowel, and rapidly slice into the rock below the base of the limpet, then it falls off complete. You have to be quick, or it suddenly grips hard, and is impossible to shift.

Ours would be cooked for our cat, Spitfire, but during the Occupation, some Islanders had permission to forage for limpets to supplement their meagre diet. It is estimated that on diet of limpets alone, 400 would be needed daily for enough calories, so they would have been hard pressed to find enough to eat!

The Latin name for a limpet is patella vulgata, which is a description of what it looks like - it means "common kneecap", and if you look at a limpet, it does indeed look something like a kneecap, especially if you had knobbly knees, like I did as a young boy.

Limpets can also be found on the granite walls of St Brelade's Church. Look at the walls by the windows just as you enter, and there they are, the empty shells of limpets from ages past. What tales they could tell!

One story that the limpets might tell dates from 1708.

Before the present Parish Hall was located at St Aubin, and before the Church Hall was built, Parish Assemblies were held within the Church itself.

During one Assembly, the Constable lost his temper, and swore. That was not done in a Church! So one Sunday a shocked congregation heard the Rector, standing in the pulpit, excommunicating the Constable, Monsieur Pipon - "cut off from the Body of Christ as a septic limb". He could no longer attend Parish Assemblies until he had shown public contrition in front of the congregation, because no excommunicated person could enter a church.

I wonder if any Rectors in modern times have felt regret at losing that power over their Constables!

The Outsider

The Outsider

Covid has closed the Inn, there is no room:
A child is born under the shadow of doom;
Refugees, come so very far on a long road,
Seeking only sanctuary and a safe abode;
But the cold wind bites, rain beating down:
Some so desperate that they will drown
Seeking a safe harbour. Outcasts on earth,
So very far and distant the Yuletide mirth
No feast here, no presents, and no home
Long did they travail, long did they roam
In the end, what is left: a makeshift shack
And the end for now of a hazardous track
Across seas, and frozen earth, barbed wire
No respite, no hearth, and warming fire
But here heaven touches earth so near
And the angels sing out: do not fear
A camp in Calais, or Yemen: the place
Where God now shows his loving face.

Edward Le Quesne: Entertainment and Holidays

Edward Le Quesne (1882-1957) was elected a Deputy for St Helier No 2 district in 1925 and held the seat until he stood successfully for the new office of Senator in 1948. This is an extract from a journal he wrote entitled “50 Years of Memories”, written sometime around 1949.

Entertainment and Holidays

A venue for many entertainments was the Tin Shed that stood in the position now occupied by the West Park Pavilion. Originally erected for the holding of a circus, it became a recreation centre at which were held dances, concerts and boxing competitions.

The outer covering was of corrugated iron, and all around inside was a gallery made of wood and supported on wooden pillars. The place was draughty, uncomfortable and definitely unsafe, but it was perhaps the most popular venue of its day, and was often filled to capacity, especially on the occasion of the annual inter-insular boxing competitions and during the period when roller-skating was a popular form of entertainment for both boys and girls.

Everything seemed quiet in those days as compared to those of to-day, and family life was something real and parental authority a reality. The great majority, although not financially rich, were in most cases far more contented and satisfied with a great deal less than at present.

Few took more than the normal holidays, i.e. Christmas, New Year, Easter Day, Good Friday and Whit Monday, and a week or fortnight’s holiday was unknown, excepting to the very few. With no cinemas in existence, people remained at home, the children went early to bed and the parents, when not doing the family chores, sat chatting or reading with the women-folk mending or knitting.

The main roads of St. Helier have changed considerably during the last half century. King Street and Queen Street were in several places only wide enough to allow one vehicle to pass through at a time, and Charing Cross where now is situated York Chambers was also only wide enough for one cart or cab to pass.

Parts of La Motte Street, Colomberie, Bath Street, New Street and Val Plaisant were likewise narrow thoroughfares, and although traffic was a good deal less than to-day, traffic jams were perhaps even more frequent.

In the centre of the town granite setts formed the roadway and the noise as iron-shod wheels rumbled along was almost unbelievable, especially of a night when cabs dashed along from the theatre or concert hall.

Some of the shops in King Street had curious exhibits. I well remember an old tobacconist’s shop that had as an attraction a case (glass) of performing fleas. You gazed on these through a magnifying glass and it was rare to pass the shop without seeing the eyes of some interested person glued to the glass, watching these insects, safe from the fear of having them perform on his own person.

Entry to the shop was a far more dangerous occupation, for most of the performing fleas had presumably been captured amongst the thousand that had a happy hunting ground amongst the tobacco and cigars. Notwithstanding the risk, that shop was the one to patronise for good cigars.

Although in St. Helier the majority normally used English in conversation, many were as fluent in French. Of a Saturday with many country people in town for the day, the Jersey patois could be heard everywhere, and business houses that could converse in the language most used by the average countryman were in a favourable position.

  
Religious services in some of the Noncontormist chapels were held in French, and at the Town Church services were held alternately in the two languages. Both Grove Place Wesleyan Chapel and the Independent Chapel in Halkett Place held all their services in French and attracted large congregations of old Jersey families.

Although Jersey sent many of its sons to sea in the many ships that annually sailed for the cod fisheries of Newfoundland and although many remained as settlers, the great majority of Jersey folk rarely left the Island.

  
A visit to Guernsey or France was considered an event, and a boy was considered lucky who had travelled so far afield. But amongst country folk, quite a few made an annual visit to Lessay Fair, and many an interesting yarn could be told of those visits, for the quiet chapel-going Jerseymen let loose on the continent in those days took, full advantage of a few days’ liberty from his womenfolk and normally respectable surroundings.

But even well into the second decade of this century, the great majority had never left Jersey, and quite late in that second decade I brought from St. Ouen to St. Helier a man who had not been to, St. Helier, for more than twenty years.

Strange to say, this man was a Londoner, who, starting in business in St. Helier as a cycle dealer had emigrated to St. Ouen and remained there experimenting on hybridising fruits, etc., without once leaving his adopted parish. That there was many another I have not the slightest doubt, in fact I am quite certain.

Sign video and dDeaf Support in Jersey

Freedom of Information Request

The Government website says: Sign video is available from 8:30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

What alternative provisions are in place for deaf BSL users should they need to access BSL outside those times, for example, a medical appointment or emergency, a vaccine appointment, or any other engagement with States bodies for which appointments have been made outside of those times?

Response

Sign video is primarily accessed via www.gov.je which links to Customer and Local Services (CLS). CLS is open 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday. CLS Customer Service Advisors connect with Sign Video advisors and the relevant government service, for the three-way interpretation.

Health and Community Services access Sign Video between Monday and Friday (8am -2pm), and on Saturday (8am - 1pm). When the service is not available, where able, lipreading may be required. If this is not possible, conversations may have to take place in writing.

Staff at the Police Visitor Reception Centre can connect to Sign Video advisors during normal opening hours (8am – 8pm daily). Out of hours, any visitor in person can alert staff in the Combined Control Room of their presence from an intercom located outside the building.

Even though the individual may not be able to fully engage in speech communication, CCTV covers the immediate area, and an officer would be deployed to assist.

The States of Jersey Police also provides an emergency text service. The number is 07797 790999.

Further details can be found at https://jersey.police.uk/contact-us/how-to-contactus-if-you-are-deaf,-hard-of-hearing-or-speech-impaired/ .

The email sojp@jersey.pnn.police.uk is monitored 24 hours, 7 days a week.

Hearing loops (a special type of sound system for use by people with hearing aids) are installed in both the Police Visitor Reception Centre and Custody. Custody staff are also able to obtain assistance from a specialist Communication Support Worker.

There are no qualified British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters on island. The Royal Association for Deaf People (RAD) are currently assessing the need in the Island and providing an interim part-time service provision. Discussions are in progress with RAD about out of hours support for BSL users and will engage with the community on how best to achieve this in the interim and subsequently how it will be embedded into a long-term service provision.

Out of Touch: The Marie Antoinette Party

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I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the Alliance Party should be renamed the Marie Antoinette Party. Of course the Queen of France probably never said “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”, roughly translated as "Let them eat cake", but it stuck, and has been quoted down the ages as an exemplifying how totally out of touch the French monarchy was with the starving population.

I am sure that in the Royal Court of King Louis XVI, there were many who would have agreed with the sentiments of the Queen, but that is hardly a shining example of a political party in touch with the population.

Likewise, Jim Callaghan never said "Crisis, what crisis?" - that was a Sun newspaper headline - as he arrived back in the UK from sunny climes to the "winter of discontent" - of cold and strikes, but it perfectly summed up his dismissal of any real crisis.

Now locally, first Susie Pinel, and then John Le Fondre dismissed the housing crisis as a mere "problem". Susie Pinel thinks that because we don't have refugee camps in the Island, we have a "challenge" not a "crisis". Crisis, what crisis? And what a crass comparison!

The government came out recently against high stamp duty on property that is buy to let but failed to push that into the long grass of 2024 when the States voted it in. Expect delays in implementing it.

Rowland Huelin has now said we can't do much about it, or the population problem, until we have good enough statistics which will be on the distant horizon of 2023. He appears to be wholly dismissive of the "anecdotal" evidence by people writing into the Jersey Evening Post - one issue had pages of people writing in about leaving the island because of high cost of living, high rents, and scarce and scarcely affordable "affordable" housing.

Meanwhile, the Alliance head of Policy is Mark Boleat, who is known for his beliefs that Jersey's population can be resolved by a "Population Ponzi Scheme" whereby you solve the demographic of an aging population in the short term by importing younger people, a policy which is mathematically unsustainable in the long term, and who sees Hong Kong as his model of how Jersey could be. "If Jersey was as densely populated as the leafy London borough of Bromley it would have a population of 224,000", he remarked, "Could Jersey sustain these population levels? The answer is clearly yes."

And then just recently Jeremy Macon, John Le Fondre and Lindsay Ash have all made dismissive remarks about the higher numbers of people here using food banks that they are used by quite a lot of people who mismanage their money. No doubt they are concerned unless any of the food banks contain cake!

And Scott Wickenden has told Governors of Haut Vallee School that despite "putting children first", there is no money in the pot, as it has to be used for potholes.

Of course we are repeatedly told that the current Goverment is not the Jersey Alliance, and not all members are members of that party. But either the Alliance is radically different from current government policy, in which case why is the Chief Minister (and member of Alliance) carrying on with it, or else it must be more of the same.

"Please, Sir, can I have some more", said Oliver Twist, holding out his empty bowl. I think in this case, in the 2022 elections, a vote for the Alliance will mean more of the same, and Master Twist will be sent away empty by the new Chief Beadle, who will nonetheless assure the voters that the workhouse is the proper place for putting children first, and for that matter any other people who might use foodbanks or look for affordable rents.

Sources:

During last week’s States sitting, Deputy Jeremy Maçon and Chief Minister John Le Fondré caused controversy by asserting that some people end up using food banks because they ‘do not manage their finances well’.

Mrs Shenton-Stone said she had been ‘horrified’ by the remarks.

‘There’s always a minority who abuse things but the vast majority of people who use the food bank do so because they need to.

‘I think some people need to get in the real world and realise the difficulties that lower-income people suffer,’ she said.

https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2021/12/21/families-genuinely-need-food-bank/

As the Jersey Evening Post reported, treasury minister Susie Pinel was at a Chamber of Commerce lunch. She’s part of the right-wing Jersey Alliance Party. When someone questioned her about the housing crisis, Pinel said:

Having travelled quite a bit, you can see in places like Africa and India a crisis and poverty. We do not have that here. We might have a challenge.

The Jersey Evening Post reported that assistant treasury minister and fellow Jersey Alliance Party politician Lindsay Ash said:

My view is the same. People seem to be using the word ‘’crisis’’ for everything. If England lose the World Cup, they would say that is a crisis. We have a big problem with housing in the Island, I have no doubt about that, but I do not think it is a crisis like in places like Calcutta, where [people are] lying in the street. We have a problem but we are addressing it already by building a substantial number of houses over the next few years

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2021/11/22/jersey-has-a-housing-crisis-that-politicians-claim-doesnt-exist/

Mark Boleat on Population sustainability and inward migration

Jersey’s density of population is not high. 

Generally, economic prosperity and a rising population go hand in hand. Towns and whole communities in economic decline are characterised by falling population, which in turn adds to economic decline in particular through the impact on property prices and therefore on the wealth of the remaining population. Prosperous communities are places where people want to live and are characterised by rising population.

If Jersey was as densely populated as the leafy London borough of Bromley it would have a population of 224,000; if it had Bermuda’s or Malta’s density the population would be 149,000, Gibraltar’s density would give it a population of 464,000 while Singapore’s density would give it a population of 779,000.  Could Jersey sustain these population levels? The answer is clearly yes. There would be significant transitional issues that would need to be managed, and as with other communities that have expanded rapidly the use of reclaimed land would mitigate the impact on existing land use. 

The Omicron Factor

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Arts Centre with reduced staff: "We have been so lucky for so long in this adventure, but have now lost most of our fit, healthy and vaccinated team to isolating. " 

Despite the government bending over backwards for hospitality, the new self-isolation rules (10 days for direct contacts of Omicron cases), intended to keep Omicron cases away from hospitality venues have had the opposite effect. 

People cancelling because they don't want to lose Christmas and New Year, and hospitality venues - like the excellent Art Centre - forced to reduce hours because of the 10 day self-isolation direct contact rule. It's Jersey's version of Pingdemic! Do you even want a lunchtime coffee, leave contact trace details, and  risk 10 days self-isolation as a direct contact?

And as I understand it, genome sequencing to determine if new cases are Omicron is not done locally but by sending sample to the UK to be tested (10% currently to be increased to 20%), which introduces a random element into the equation. If you are one of unlucky direct contacts of an Omicron case, 10 days solitary, if not, PCR test and lateral flows and able to go out and shop, albeit taking care over mixing. Of course Omicron will slip though this net, which is like a ragged hole that would allow a whale to get through it.

We don't of course know how many cases are chosen for sampling, which is more or less what we might expect given the government propensity for secrecy.

Indeed, until recently, we didn't know how many cases of Omicron were over here until the Chief Minister revealed it in the States after questions asked. The communications team's stock response, which makes the government look like a laughing stock, was that because of the small number it would enable identification of individuals. 

That's like saying if a raffle has 1,000 tickets, we won't tell you if there are 5, 10 or 15 winning tickets because the number of winning tickets is small, and it might enable you to identify the number of the winning ticket! This obsession with secrecy, coupled with stock responses which make no rational sense, give the impression of a government on autopilot, fine in open and calm seas, but not so good when storms brew.

20 travel cases recently tested positive for Covid - and this is a steady rise, as numbers in the UK soar. As I explained to someone who had recently arrived, that's only unvaccinated individuals. They had been double jabbed, and were let in with any PCR test or even a lateral flow. On the 4th of January, double vaccinated plus boosters only will not be tested, but until then, you could drive an Omicron horse and cart through the Covid safeguards at the airport. 

Anyone with an eye on the science will have noted that vaccination  - and incidentally even vaccination and booster - does not mean you cannot catch and transmit the virus, but no one in government seems to have taken this seriously, which no doubt is what the Chief Minister calls "a proportional response" and what the rest of us call foolish money savings which will be paid for in terms of infections of Omicron in our community, and potentially another lockdown.

Postscript: 5 pm today!

Ministers have announced that all Direct Contacts of an Omicron positive case will no longer need to isolate. Those currently isolating as a result of the previous policy have been contacted by the Contact Tracing Team and told that it is safe to leave isolation immediately. If you are identified as a Direct Contact, please attend your PCR test when notified by Contact Tracing, and then take Lateral Flow Tests daily for 10 days. This update follows advice from Public Health in consultation with the Scientific Technical Analytical Cell.

Common sense finally prevails!

Virus Roulette

This poem is rather grim, but it attempts to capture the random nature of how the virus works. We can all help mitigate it via different layers of protection - mask wearing, social distancing, lateral flow, vaccines - but there is still a random element which leaves some dead, and some barely touched. There's also a nod to Ecclesiastes and a well known song by the Byrds.

Virus Roulette

Turn the virus barrel, click, click, click
Russian roulette and a random death
Some are fine, others are very sick
Press the trigger, hold your breath

Turn the virus barrel, click, click, click
Government response: strongly advise
As if that would really do the trick
As Omicron numbers rapidly rise

Turn the virus barrel, click, click, click
Third vaccination is our one best shot
Not enough time to be so quick
Already preparing the funeral plot

This is the season of the virus yule
Turn, turn, turn, the barrel rule

Edward Le Quesne: Delicacies

Edward Le Quesne (1882-1957) was elected a Deputy for St Helier No 2 district in 1925 and held the seat until he stood successfully for the new office of Senator in 1948. This is an extract from a journal he wrote entitled “50 Years of Memories”, written sometime around 1949.

Black butter night is still, I am happy to say, a continuing tradition, albeit mainly a heritage one. I remember in the 1980s going to a traditional farm when many farmers still made it. Wraic gathering has also completely gone, but I still remember seeing tractors with trailers on the beach in St Brelade, gathering it up. I never liked Ormers but that may have been the way they were cooked; I always found them rather tough, like one images the soles of shoes would be. Not mentioned is St Brelade's particular custom, on Good Friday, of serving Conger soup as part of a Lent lunch, but that is probably of more recent origin. I've not been able to find when Lent lunches began.

Delicacies

During the winter months black butter often replaced jam to spread on our bread. This was made from apples and the making of it was a real ceremonial occasion in many of the farmhouses. Huge cauldrons, or “ bashins ” as they were locally termed, were filled with peeled apples and cider and placed over a wood fire.

All the family and often many neighbours were called in to stir the contents and this went on throughout the night. The family and guests, when not engaged in stirring the apples sat around singing and spinning yarns and at intervals refreshing themselves with both solid and liquid nourishment. Very often the liquid form predominated, and the early morning witnessed a company returning home, happy and contented but far from steady on their feet.

Huge quantities of this delicacy was made and of a Saturday it could be bought at many a stall in the Markets. Some of it was slightly spiced, some a dark-brown in colour, some intensely black and highly Spiced.

Many families, especially in the country, would have a large tub of salt pork, and would use this pork during the winter months instead of beef. Pieces would be taken from the tub and boiled to make soup, and the meat eaten either hot with vegetables, or cold with bread and pickles.

Another favourite dish was “ Tripe-a-la-mode-de Caen.” Shops existed in the Markets at which tripe could be bought of a Saturday and placed in a pot with vegetables and sent to the bakehouse similarly to the beans.

Other delicacies were sand-eels and ormers, and although both of these are still occasionally available, they are nothing like as popular as in those days. Thousands of ormers used to arrive in French “ Chasse Marées ” from the Roches Douvres and could be bought at from 6d. to 1/- a dozen. Sand-eels were often dried by the hundred and provided a welcome change for the evening meal, whilst many were fried in butter and used as a substitute for meat at the mid-day meal. Fourpence to Sixpence a dozen was the price paid for this delicacy.

 

Another great occasion in the country was the Big Plough or “ Grande Charme.” This was the annual ploughing event and provided an occasion for hard work and entertainment. More co-operation was in existence than appears at present amongst the farming community, for on the occasion of the Big Plough, neighbours not only supplied horses but spent the day themselves in assisting in thework.

The ploughs were drawn by teams of four, six or eight horses, some belonging to the owner of the field being ploughed, the others belonging to the assisting neighbours. Whilst this was going on the women-folk were busy preparing the mid-day meal. This was a sumptuous affair. Huge joints of beef were roasted, and vegetables and puddings provided, and at mid-day the workers came in and ate to their hearts’ content. Again plenty of liquid refreshment was available,.and at various periods during the morning and afternoon the women-folk came to the field with cakes and cider or hot coffee. It was a fine sight to see and much more picturesque than the ploughing by tractor of .to-day.

The gathering of the vraic harvest was also an event, and for this work special buns were provided. These buns called vraic buns were made of flour, butter and. raisins and were taken by the vraickers for use whilst on the beaches gathering the harvest.

Why is Omicron spreading so fast?

Analysis

Speed of Transmisson

Omicron appears to be spreading faster in part because it is more efficient in airborne transmission, meaning that only a relatively short period of exposure is sufficient to catch the virus. Also it appears to evade vaccines as a preventative (especially with just two shots and no booster) even more effectively than Delta, giving it a larger pool of people for potential infection.

It is still unclear if it is less severe, but it does seem so far than even two doses of vaccine can prevent severe infection. Unfortunately, until good statistics of sufficient magnitude are available which differentiate between (a) type of Covid, Omicron or not (b) vaccine status of individuals, we will have no idea as to whether it really is "mild" or just less so among the vaccinated. We also need to know how it effects people with a third factor (c) age, as we know efficacy of vaccines and severity of Covid is very age related. 

Genomic Sequencing and Data Analysis.

For the small numbers involved, it would help if Jersey could track hospitalisations by Covid variant, vaccine status and age, and any underlying medical conditions, and that would help produce a sounder picture of what is happening locally. There is no reason why such information should not be public as it will help people assess their own personal risk, something the goverment is always telling us to do.

Border Controls

The speed of transmission suggests that if it will soon get into Jersey. Vaccinated travellers are not given PCR tests or lateral flow tests on arrival at the airport, and the chances are therefore great that the virus will enter through this gap in detection, especially as we know it can infect vaccinated individuals.

Vaccine Passports

The need for extra boosters, perhaps every six months, mean that vaccine passports must be both electronic or capable of linking to an electronic database (QR codes) so that they can be updated or go out of date, just as travel passports do. No one yet seems to have addressed this issue. But clearly vaccine protection wanes over time, boosters are needed for variants, and a passport that is purely static will effectively be out of date.

Interestingly, the UK government has just announced three jabs - two and booster - are now needed for full vaccination status. That still assumes a static model, and I'd sooner see a date related expire on passports - which could include boosters - as this would address vaccine waning.

Why Vaccine Coverage is not quite as good as the Jersey statistics say

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Someone posted on Facebook: "I personally know of 4 people in the 55-59 age group who are unvaccinated, yet it states that 100 % are !"

Actually the little wavy line just before means "approximately".

But it is likely that vaccine coverage may not be quite as high, especially in the lower bands.

I first saw this with a statistical anomaly with Gibralter, where the coverage was 118%! The reason for this peculiar 118 per cent, was that it included the fully vaccinated Spaniards who travel across its border each day for work.

The Jersey statistics don't go that high - but they do include seasonal workers! This means they are flawed. And the numbers are not forthcoming! 

We have no idea how many seasonal workers have taken up the vaccine, but if they have they will be included in the numbers per band, which means that percentages are higher than it would be because the percentage is number of shots divided by estimate of current (not seasonal) population.

My gut feeling is that there will be less seasonal workers anyway in the older age bands, so it is in the lower age bands that the data is skewed upwards.

FOI Request:

1 Are seasonal workers in Jersey eligible for vaccines in Jersey? If so, what is the eligibility criteria for this?

Seasonal workers are eligible for vaccines in Jersey. Eligibility is the same as for other islanders, determined by JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisations) guidance, MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) regulation and Jersey Public Health policies.

2 If so, and they are not included in Island census figures, is it possible to easily tell many

seasonal workers have been vaccinated? Either figures or estimate?

Following an extensive review of systems, it has been concluded that the information on vaccination status, as requested, is not held in recorded form. To answer the request, the data would need to be extracted from various sources and manipulated, aside from taking more than the prescribed 12.5 hours to do that work, the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require a Scheduled Public Authority to manipulate data in order to provide a response. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

3 If it is relatively easy, how many? Note: the third question is to ensure that excessive time is not spent on this question.

Please see response to question (2).

The La Moye Speed Limits: Schrödinger's speed limit

A reply on my FOI request. Currently, the status of the speed indicators are that you come out of the 20 mph zone just before the Poplars, and if you turn down to La Pulente, by the railway walk. Of course if you come from the Corbiere direction, the turning down to La Pulente is 30 mph, so we have a case of Schrödinger's speed limit!

December 2021

Request

Just before La Moye School, there is a 20 mph zone. Driving past La Moye School, past  Clos Orange, and towards Corbiere, I could not see any sign where the 20 mph zone ends. Are there any plans to put a 30 mph sign on the opposite side of the road, where the 20 mph and sign is marked on the road by Syvret's Garage?

If no sign exists, where legally does the 20 mph zone end?

Response

The Department has reviewed both the extents of the speed limit and location of signage on La Route Orange, adjacent to La Rue de la Sergente. The location of signage will be adjusted including a new 30mph sign opposite ‘Syvret’s Garage’ facing east which will better define the extent of the 20mph zone.

Southern Cross

One from the archive this week, written on 30th March 2007, reflecting on the extraordinary way (too often taken from granted), we can communicate across the globe by email. I have a friend in Australia and it is amazing that what took weeks by mail now takes mere seconds. So this poem is about the passage of emails, as digital bit patterns, traversing the internet until they reach their destination.

Southern Cross

Bit patterns migrate in streaming flow
Leaving behind the Northern lands
Messages from node to node below
Email greetings, friends hold hands
Greater circles, navigating around
Digital knowledge of day to day
Until at length, destination found
Decrypted words to chat this way
Fast as light, a pulse beamed out
Carrying hopes and fear and love
Silently moving, without a shout
In peace it comes, a winged dove
Linkage flies faster than an albatross
From Polar Star to Southern Cross

Edward Le Quesne: Local Food: Production and Mealtimes

Edward Le Quesne (1882-1957) was elected a Deputy for St Helier No 2 district in 1925 and held the seat until he stood successfully for the new office of Senator in 1948. This is an extract from a journal he wrote entitled “50 Years of Memories”, written sometime around 1949.

Local Food: Production and Mealtimes

Agriculture in the early part of this century was entirely different from that of to-day. Large orchards could be seen all over the Island and wheat, oats and rye were grown in large quantities. The apples were mostly used for making cider, and so many were grown that I have seen many a shipload being sent to the mainland to be mixed with English-grown, again to be made into cider.

  
The wheat was ground at the local mills, and most of the farms had ovens in which the flour from the home-grown wheat was converted into delicious home-made bread.

Every farmer again grew vegetables, both for his own use and also for sale in the Markets, for the importation of daily used vegetables was entirely unknown. Again, apart from an occasional load from Binic in Britanny or from Plymouth, all potatoes for winter use were grown on the local farms. To a large extent Jersey was self-contained, as far as food was concerned, and the sight of a Saturday in the Markets was entirely different from that of to-day, for 90% of all goods offered for sale were of local origin, as against the small percentage of local produce ‘ en evidence ’ to-day.

We fed quite differently in the early days of this century. Breakfast generally consisted of a plate of porridge and bread and butter and jam, both butter and jam being local produce. Dinner, at 12 or I o’clock usually started with soup and a plate of either boiled or roasted meat and vegetables.

Tea was generally bread and butter and jam, with occasionally either toasted or fried codfish or the cold conger that had formed the basis of the conger soup we had had for dinner. A slice of bread and jam was usually eaten before bed-time.

  
Many families, in order to save fuel, had their mid-day meal cooked at the nearest bake-house and at mid-day processions could be seen of women carrying home a dish covered with a cloth and containing the meat and potatoes for the family dinner. [The photo is a London scene but Jersey would have seen something similar]

Of a Saturday evening it was usual to take a pot of pork and beans to the bakehouse. These were left in the baker’s oven overnight and fetched of a Sunday morning. and I can think of little more appetising and filling than we partook of at home at those Sunday morning breakfasts.

Darwinian Mutations and Covid Strains

The Myth of Milder Covid

There's a myth that viruses become less deadly over time, the more they mutate. This is unfortunately wishful thinking and shows a complete lack of understanding of Darwinian evolution.

Given any two competing mutations of a virus, there are a number of key factors in which one will become dominant.

One is the speed of spread. If that is the main significant factor, as with the Delta, it will move through a community faster than the original Covid virus, and therefore infect people before the original virus has spread to them.

But another is almost certainly vaccine evasion. If we have two variants, and one is better at evading the vaccine triggered immune response, then it will have a better chance of spreading among the vaccinated community, especially as vaccine protection wanes over time. It will make inroads into a population largely protected by vaccines.

If we have both fast transmission and increased vaccine evasion, that mutation would make inroads into the population where earlier variants did not. This is what we may have with the Omicron variant.

But there is no evolutionary law which says that faster transmission and increased vaccine evasion are linked to a milder strain of the virus. Only a milder strain which was both fast transmitting and very vaccine evasive would drive out other mutations, and there is no sign this is the case. As Covid mutations are random, this could happen, but the fact that mutations are random means that it will not be bound to happen.

There is a myth that the Spanish Flu of 1918-1919 became less lethal. But those who contracted the virus - and survived - developed an immunity to the novel strand of influenza. Those who died, didn't! It wasn't that the virus became less lethal, it was that the surviving population had survived because they had immunity, some genetic, and passed it down to their children.

Currently the jury is out on the Omicron virus. However, the hospitalisations in South Africa among unvaccinated, even youngsters, should give us cause for concern. Reports are coming of "an alarming number of them are children under the age of five-years-old" with Omicron, and cases "COVID pneumonia or severe COVID disease". That's a worry because we do not vaccinate younger children here either.

But only around 36% of South Africans are fully vaccinated. How Omicron behaves in a vaccinated population, we still have little idea. It is likely that, as with all variants of Covid, the risk is age related. With current strains of the virus, someone aged 80 who is fully vaccinated essentially takes on the risk of an unvaccinated person of around 50 – much lower, but still not nothing - as deaths of unvaccinated 50 year olds shows.

References

https://cals.ncsu.edu/applied-ecology/news/a-primer-on-coronavirus-variants-mutation-and-evolution/

An excellent primer on viruses and how they evolve.

https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/denu.2021.48.3.235

Another excellent study on viruses and how they evolve.

https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-readies-hospitals-as-omicron-variant-drives-new-covid-19-wave-/6340912.html

Hospitals in South Africa’s Gauteng province, which contains two of the country’s biggest cities, are packed with people infected with the omicron variant. Doctors say most of the patients haven’t been vaccinated, and an alarming number of them are children under the age of five-years-old.

“There’s been a rather rapid rise in hospital admissions with patients who have COVID, whether they’re presenting with COVID pneumonia or severe COVID disease," Dr. Abdullah said.

"All of the hospitals in Tshwane are seeing an upsurge, and the COVID bed occupancy is increasing 30% to 40% per day, over the last few days,” he said.

Some 36% of South Africans are fully vaccinated and President Ramaphosa on Monday urged citizens to get the shots.

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-southern-africa-pandemics-2a445501cff8d0354fabcf493418365e

Many critical questions about omicron remain unanswered, including whether the virus causes milder or more severe illness and how much it might evade immunity from past COVID-19 illness or vaccines.

What that could mean for public health remains to be seen. Hanekom said early data from South Africa shows that reinfection rates are much higher with omicron than previous variants, suggesting the virus is escaping immunity somewhat. It also shows the virus seems to be infecting younger people, mostly those who are unvaccinated, and most cases in hospitals have been relatively mild.

But Binnicker said things could play out differently in other parts of the world or in different groups of patients. “It’ll be really interesting to see what happens when more infections potentially occur in older adults or those with underlying health conditions,” he said. “What’s the outcome in those patients?”

Rainswept

I wanted to use the form of a rondel to create a mood poem, as here I am, writing at night, the wind and rain battering the windows, and occasionally a glimpse of bare sky as the clouds are blown and swiftly move across the gale swept landscape.

Rainswept

The rain lashes at the window pane
Dark clouds sailing through the night
A Christmas tree indoors full of light
Wind outside turns a weather vane

Gales rattle slates, wind does not wane
The moon flitters by, a crescent light
The rain lashes at the window pane
Dark clouds sailing through the night

The traveller, cloaked against the rain
Passes by the churchyard in the night
Moss stones, graves and barrow wight
But I stay warm, indoors once again
The rain lashes at the window pane

Edward le Quesne: Travel by Sea

Edward Le Quesne (1882-1957) was elected a Deputy for St Helier No 2 district in 1925 and held the seat until he stood successfully for the new office of Senator in 1948. This is an extract from a journal he wrote entitled “50 Years of Memories”, written sometime around 1949.

This time, after a brief look at the first motor car in Jersey, he turns his attention to sea travel. A notable catasrophe was the wreck of the Stella. Stella was a passenger ferry in service with the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) that was wrecked on 30 March 1899 off the Casquets during a crossing from Southampton, to Guernsey. It was going too fast in heavy fog, too fast because of the rivalry between the LSWR and the GWR [Great Western Railway]. It will be seen below that the risks taken had not abated in the 20th century between the wars, despite this lesson!

Travel by Sea

As previously stated, motor cars were unknown in Jersey in the early part of the century, and it was well into the first decade before the first was seen on the roads.

Peter Falla had one on the road in the late nineties [1899].

This was considered a wonderful contraption, and I well remember my father remarking that although motor cars might eventually be used for short journeys, they would never displace the horse for general purposes.

With roads as they were in those days his remarks could be well understood, for pneumatic tyres would not have long stood the wear entailed when travelling along a road of cracked stone. It may well be said that the motor car was the originator of modern roads.

Aeroplanes again were unknown, and travel to and from the mainland and continent was by steamer. Although the modern ships' plying from Jersey to Southampton and Weymouth are larger and more comfortable, the time taken for the journey is, if anything, longer, for in the early years of the century great competition existed as between the two great companies whose ships served the Island.

  
The South Western Railway Co. [London and South Western] and the Great Western Railway Co. were the two most popular, but another company, the Channel Islands Steamship Co., also ran a bi-weekly passenger and cargo service to Plymouth.

Very often the South Western and the Great Western mailboats would leave Guernsey within minutes of one another, and a race then ensued to reach St. Helier first. Great risks were taken by the masters of the ships concerned and courses taken which to-day would be prohibited. Several accidents occurred, and eventually their foolhardy races were discontinued, but it was not till after the second World War, i.e. 1939 to 1945, that the merging of the two rival companies into the British Railways system ended all further competition.

The service to St. Malo and also to Granville by the SS Victoria has never since been equalled as far as the time for the journey is concerned, and fares to-day seem ridiculous when compared to the 7/6 charged for excursions at that time. Other services consisted of a daily service to Carteret and a bi-weekly service to Paimpol, both of these using Gorey as their home port.

 

Albacore

Gorey was a flourishing little port, for, apart from the vessels carrying passengers and cargo, the port was a naval station and a fishery-protection ship was always stationed there. The two I remember were the Albacore and the Raven, and their presence there not only increased the prestige of the port, but added considerably to the well-being of the little shops and public houses of the neighbourhood. Originally, but before the beginning of the century, Gorey was the main port for the extensive oyster fishery.

Covid: Timely Information, and Quick Steps needed

We need sensible steps to balance the economy and freedoms with safety. Mandatory mask wearing when numbers are high is another layer in the Swiss cheese model of protection (see above), vaccines and boosters are another, and while the UK and Guernsey have put this back in place, our government is still dithering when it is clear that the best scientific advice in those jurisdictions is to do so.

We also need enough statistics so we can make informed decisions about risk - different people will make different decisions depending on age, health, etc, but information is key. While the downloadable statistic give useful information, a breakdown between positive cases giving a split between vaccinated and unvaccinated, and by age group, would allow what in statistic terms is to see a baseline. Without that, we cannot see how effective vaccines are proving, or for that matter, how much their efficacy declines with increasing age, which is known from UK studies to be the case. Baselines are an important part of any statistics on Covid, and the ONC in the UK keeps them.

It is also important that government release STAC minutes in a timely manner, which they do not. There is really no excuse for this, as up to date minutes will give us some expert views on the current situation, rather than the 13th September which is really of historic interest. 

This is not about finding the government at fault - unless they decide not to follow STAC advise without good reason - but about getting a scientific overview - and remember that someone like Dr Muscat will be in touch with colleagues in the UK and elsewhere on the latest significant scientific news. The best way to get a balanced opinion (and the media can sometimes be off-kilter) is to get an informed scientific one that is timely.

A How many meetings of STAC have there been between then and now (18 November)?
B When can we expect to see those published online?

Response
A Since 13th September there have been five STAC meetings: 4th, 11th and 25th October, 1st
and 15th November.
B Minutes are published as soon as possible, whilst upholding the safe space for STAC to
debate live issues. The minutes of the meetings in this period are likely to be published by
January 2022

This is too little, too late!

Crisis, what Crisis?

An unashamedly political poem today about Jersey's Government with a glance back to Jim Callaghan and the Winter of Discontent, and the phrase attributed to him: "crisis, what crisis". Politicians hate the word "crisis", and want to talk about issues or problems, but when rents are pricing people out of coming to Jersey - nurses, for example, look at the housing market, and the high cost of living, and tsay away - hospitality workers are not coming back - and the brain drain of local talent continues.  Hosuing is a problem, but then they turn down the chance to set 30% of a new JDC build for affordable housing.

Meanwhile schools are told that it's tough by the Education Minister, but it's a question of priorities, and potholes have their place before extra funding, while budgets slashed to the bone already cause grief - and what about "putting children first?". The so-called Competent Authorities in charge of the pandemic say they follow STAC advice, until it becomes clear from minutes that they don't - their solution is a sub-committee with no minute taking! Secrecy and lies is the order of the day.

Crisis, what Crisis?

Now is the winter of our discontent:
Too few workers: because they went.
And would not return, high rent cost
And a brain drain too: these the lost;
As house prices soar, rents sky high:
Crisis, what crisis? So speaks the lie
As schools struggle to add up sums,
Budgets breaking, disaster comes;
Hope House closed, abandon hope:
Can the Government really cope?
As Covid soars once more, again,
And may still bring Christmas pain;
Mask wearing still not there in law:
As infections rise, they just ignore;
At least we don’t have Peppa pig,
But do our politicians care a fig
About putting children first? No!
I do not believe that it is so;
Not a crisis, but a problem, say
Politicians as they still betray
Our trust, with secrets and lies,
Deaf to poverty’s loudest cries;
Give me your tired, and your poor:
The government will shut the door;
Crisis, what crisis? Wait to next June:
Reckoning not moments too soon.

https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2021/01/27/stacs-concerns-over-border-policy-ignored-minutes-show/

Edward Le Quesne: Parish Roads and Welfare

Edward Le Quesne (1882-1957) was elected a Deputy for St Helier No 2 district in 1925 and held the seat until he stood successfully for the new office of Senator in 1948. This is an extract from a journal he wrote entitled “50 Years of Memories”, written sometime around 1949.

Parish Welfare, which is mentioned here was, until 2007, the system of assistance administered by the Parishes for those who did not have the means to meet basic needs, such as food, housing, heating and clothing. As Edward Le Quesne's memoir shows, it could show a shocking lack of care and compassion for the elderly needing assistance.

This system had its strengths in the smaller Parishes, where people would be known to the Constable who could help them, but also disadvantages, in that it could be the whim of a Parish committee where personal considerations could enter into the equation, with judgements that were biased. Various accounts of that appeared in the JEP when the replacement Income Support Law was mooted and some made very unpleasant reading, rather like the judgmental committee in Priestley's "An Inspector Calls". I've had personal accounts told to me by friends whom I have no reason to doubt.

Moreover, being known could be a disadvantage - I've also known elderly people who didn't apply for Parish welfare because their plight would be made known to all and sundry, especially to people they might meet at Church.  By contrast, Income Support was more confidential, and at "arms length" from the fellow Parishioners you might meet in the shops, especially in small Parishes.

Senator Paul Routier noted that: "The existing benefit systems are often not easy for residents in Jersey to understand, do not always target money to best effect, cause duplication of effort by officials and customers and lead to frustration amongst those trying to get support at difficult times of their lives."

He added: "The Income Support system, unlike the previous welfare system, is human-rights compliant and I know that there are people now being supported who did not feel able to make a claim under the old system. I have evidence from many people, especially pensioners, who continually thank me for the fair way in which the new Income Support system has helped them."

And Deputy Bob Hill noted that Parish Welfare could be "a system where people turn up and ask almost with begging letters in hand for relief."

Parish Roads

At the beginning of the century most of the roads of the Island were Parish roads, and in fact, all roads in his Parish were under the supervision of the Connétable. He was the sole arbiter as to how they were kept, as to when they needed repair and as to their width and possible widening. In the case of a main road situated in his Parish a portion of the cost of the maintenance and repair was borne by the States.

But Parochial roads varied according as to whether the Connétable was progressively-minded or whether he was a man whose main purpose was to keep down the Rates.

It was only in 1940, at a time that I was President of the Labour Departrnent and at the same time in charge of the Main Roads Department, that the States decided to place the maintenance of the whole of the main roads in the care of the Department. The number of Main Roads was greatly increased and the standardisation and general supervision of both repairs and cleaning greatly improved.

This, of course, did not meet with unanimous approval, for it took from the Connétables some of the powers that they previously possessed and prevented them from placing on the roads poor unfortunates who unable, through weakness or old age, to find normal employment, had applied to them for relief. ’

 
Many a time I have witnessed old men cleaning the Parish Roads that common humanity would have suggested had a right, after a lifetime of hard work and poor wages, to a sufficiency for at least a modicum of comfort and ease in the eventide of their life. But that might have meant an increase in the Rates and that could not be tolerated.

During the period 1920 to the beginning of the second World War the resurfacing of the main roads, employed large numbers of men. Previously, the road surfaces were made of a mixture of cracked stones and. gravel bound with water and rolled in with a steam-roller.

The new methods adopted were either concrete placed over the existing surfaces or a mixture of small stone premixed with hot bitumen. Many experiments with different types of tar-surfaced coverings were tried. In some instances the granite setts, principally in St. Helier, were covered with a thick coating of hot tar and fine granite chippings. This, whilst minimising the noise that iron tyred vans and lorries made when over the granite surface, did not result in durable surfaces.

Some of the principal streets of the town had, early in the century, their granite setts replaced by wooden blocks, and these again covered with granite chippings and bitumen lasted till well into the nineteen-fortys.

Covid Watch: New School Rules, Teachers with Covid

New School Rules

There's been some confusion on Social Media about the new school testing arrangements about less PCR tests. Some people have thought it meant less Covid testing, but it does not.

As I understand it, the new rules for schools will still keep children safe but will mean less PCR tests undertaken without compromising safety. That means that schoolchildren identified as direct contacts are enrolled onto a 10 day lateral flow test regime. Should they test positive, or should they start showing symptoms, they will need to take a PCR test. 

So the number of PCR tests falls, but the number of cases testing positive should remain as consistent as if PCR tests were carried out on direct contacts straight away. Lateral flow tests are not quite as good as picking up Covid in the early stages, but a 10 days sequence should prove as effective as a PCR test.

Note another safeguard: if the children are identified as direct contacts outside the school environment, then a PCR test is mandatory as for any adult.

The aim is to stop children going for PCR tests 3 or more times a week.

This has happened, largely because a child is identified as a direct contact multiple times - when a Covid case occurs, what seems to have happened is that a class list has been given, and without checking whether children are already scheduled, they are put on the PCR testing list as a direct contact. 

A similar issue has occurred when children away from school - either with Covid or other illness - have also been put on the PCR testing list, because the class list is a list of those children assigned to a class, not a register of those present.

 
Teachers before the Bells goes

For the Week ending 8 November: 207 pupils 19 teachers

Week ending 15 November: 321 pupils 37 teachers

One of the schools issued this on the 23rd November:

"I am writing to inform you that I have today had to make the difficult decision to arrange for  year 9 students to work from home on Wednesday 24 November 2021. You will be aware of the increase in the number of cases of COVID-19 at the school. The team are currently working on contacting all those who are classed as direct contacts. The decision to close to Year 9 on Wednesday has been made as a direct result of the number of our teaching and support staff that are absent from school for a variety of reasons in relation to COVID-19."

This is something the Government does not seem to be addressing. As can be seen, the number of teachers tested positive with Covid is starting to rise exponentially, as it did back in June. 

Teachers with Covid may be deemed recovered after 10 days, but of course that doesn't mean they are well enough to resume teaching duties - the prevalence of Long Covid symptoms may well preclude that.

It is likely that temporary closures may become more frequent as the term progresses.

Anno Domino

Something of a rambling poem all about old age!

Anno Domino

Now it is the Common Era, not A.D.,
Which was Anno Domini, you see,
But which could also mean old age,
The passing of time, the final stage
Before the end. Bones once strong
Become brittle, balance goes wrong,
And we fall so easily, fragile, break:
Parkinson’s comes to make us shake;
Our eyesight fades, hearing is lost:
Old age, you see, comes with a cost,
And we must pay. But a new name
Would better suit our feeble frame:
Anno Domino, not Domini, because
It comes not singly, with a pause,
But one by one, toppling, as we see:
Dominoes falling, now goes my knee,
And then my back, my hair is gone;
Balance: I totter like a drunken don,
And shaking legs take cautious steps,
As fat replaces muscular biceps;
And I wobble along, an aging wreck,
Along the last journey, the final trek:
These are the voyages of the infirm,
To boldly go, and catch a nasty germ;
Atishoo! And finally we all fall down,
Like Humpty Dumpty, break our crown;
And is there a moral at this poem’s end?
Don’t worry, be happy, go round the bend!