Contradictions and resolutions

Nobody, Socrates believed, knowingly does what is wrong:  they always think that what they are doing is right.

I have been examining one particular part of Graham Power's Affidavit, in which he tells of how Wendy Kinnard, was, in his opinion, subjected to a verbal attack:

15. Further indications of an gulf between the Chief Minister and his associates, on one hand, and the force, supported by the then Home Affairs Minister, Senator Wendy Kinnard, on the other, emerged the day on which it was decided that Senator Kinnard was no longer able to maintain political oversight of the Historic Abuse Enquiry. This was because a few days previously she had made a witness statement which created a conflict of interest. At the time of writing I do not have access to my diary and notebooks and cannot be sure of the exact date. A meeting was arranged to discuss how this would be managed. The meeting was attended by me, Senator Kinnard, The Chief Executive and the then Chief Minister. The Chief Minister entered the room and immediately began a verbal attack on the historic abuse enquiry claiming that it was causing damaging publicity for the island. Senator Kinnard, who was the Minister to whom I was actually accountable, attempted to defend the enquiry but she was effectively shouted down.

16. I knew that the views being expressed by the Chief Minister were not the views of the Home Affairs Minister. She had been regularly briefed on the enquiry by members of the force and by senior advisors appointed by the Association of Chief Police Officers and had expressed her strong support for the conduct of the investigation. The Chief Minister said that he was "under pressure to suspend both the Chief and the Deputy Chief". He did not say where the pressure was coming from but he said this in a way which gave the impression that he was not hostile to that pressure. The heat of the exchanges rose and the Chief Minister spoke to Senator Kinnard in a way which I found offensive and I saw that she was clearly becoming upset. She was the only woman present and I was her only friend in the room. I intervened forcefully and told the Chief Minister that from my management experience, I considered that he was behaving in a way which, in a workplace, could be classed as bullying and lead to a claim or constructive dismissal.

In Frank Walker's comments to Channel Television, he makes the following statement:
 
I did not shout at Wendy Kinnard. At the meeting GP has referred to I, acting upon the wishes of, and reflecting concerns held by, the entire COM, asked her to confirm, given the conflict she had revealed, if she felt she was in a position to continue to act as HA Minister. That was a very important question that had to be asked and I did so in a calm and proper manner. I and others in the meeting were shocked at GP's vehement reaction which was in no way justified by the question I asked or the manner in which I asked it.

How is the historian to reconcile these two apparently conflicting statements? One way, which I have noted on other blogs, is to take Frank Walker's statement as a lie. But I don't think it is necessary to do that. For a start, let's just look at the exact words each participant gives.

Graham Power says of Wendy Kinnard that "she was effectively shouted down", while Frank Walker says that "I did not shout at Wendy Kinnard". There is a world of difference in that single word "effectively". It is quite possible to "effectively shout" a person down by simply continuing to speak, even "in a calm and proper manner", but not allowing them to get a word in edgeways to make their own case, and continually interrupting any attempts by them to speak "in a calm and proper manner". That, I would consider to be "effectively shouting down" someone, and it  simply may mean no more than preventing the other person from speaking. If one looks as instances of the phrase, that is what it means, not actually physically shouting. So Frank Walker's denial, while on the face of it contradictory, is only superficially so.

But what of the other accusation?

I intervened forcefully and told the Chief Minister that from my management experience, I considered that he was behaving in a way which, in a workplace, could be classed as bullying and lead to a claim or constructive dismissal.

and the contradiction:

That was a very important question that had to be asked and I did so in a calm and proper manner. I and others in the meeting were shocked at GP's vehement reaction which was in no way justified by the question I asked or the manner in which I asked it.

Here we have, I think, a difference of perspective. From his own perspective, Frank Walker acted - as he saw it, in a calm and proper manner, but to a relative outsider, who had not seen how he behaved - like Graham Power, this could well be construed as "bullying" - especially given how we may understand "effectively shouted down".

So what actually occurred, and was Graham Power correct in his assessment, or Frank Walker in his? We have no verbatim transcript of this meeting, or even better, an audio recording with all the nuances of expression. So we must look elsewhere, and for examples of private behaviour, rather than public behaviour; this is sensible, because people may behave differently in the public arena.

We have, unfortunately, only one real example of Frank Walker's unguarded behaviour, which came in the well-known Newsnight interview of 2008, where he was filmed retorting that Stuart Syvret was out to "shaft Jersey internationally". The unedited version ran:

Syvret: "Frank, we're talking about dead children."
Walker: "Yes Stuart, exactly, so you shouldn't be politicising it. You should be throwing your support behind the police and behind every effort to find out."
Syvret: "I have. I've made every effort."
Walker: "No, you're trying to shaft Jersey internationally."

Despite the fact that he had used language unbecoming the dignity of his office, no real apology was offered to the public for this remark, which seems to indicate that Frank Walker did not think it as more than the kind of rough and ready remark a politician might make; politicians have been known for bruising remarks to other politicians. But this kind of tone, to a relative outsider, like Graham Power, or indeed any ordinary member of the public, might well come across as something which in a workplace could be "classed as bullying".

So there is a resolution between Graham Power saying in an Affidavit that Frank Walker behaved in a way which could be classed as bullying, and Frank Walker denying that - simply because it might well have been so much part of the way in which he behaved in private - as we can see in at least one example where he was accidentally overheard - that he was not aware of the way he behaved, or how his manner might appear to others who were not used to it - as coming across as bullying. In a like manner, people who customarily punctuate their language with swearing, are also often completely oblivious to the reaction it might give to people who are not used to that kind of language.

The real question is how Wendy Kinnard perceived this. Did she get upset, as Graham Power noted, or was she used to this as part of Frank Walker's style? It is notable that Mr Walker's statement does not address the issue of whether she became upset, and a third party clarification by Wendy Kinnard would certainly help to put the record straight.

Even if she did become upset, Frank Walker may not have been aware that it was his remarks or delivery which caused it, because from his own perspective he did not see it as anything outside his normal manner of behaviour. But the fact that an outsider, Graham Power, saw it differently, and is prepared to state as such in a document made under oath, suggests that Frank Walker may not be the best judge of his own behaviour.


Links
http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_jerseynews/displayarticle.asp?id=483280
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=43188

 

Catholic Secrets

This information is for Catholics only, and even Dan Brown has not disclosed it!

It must not be divulged to non-Catholics. The less they know about the rituals and code words, the better off they are.

AMEN: The only part of a prayer that everyone knows.

BULLETIN: Your receipt for attending Mass.

CHOIR: A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the Parish to lip-sync.

HOLY WATER: A liquid whose chemical formula is H2OLY.

HYMN: A song of praise usually sung in a key three octaves higher than that of the congregation's range.

RECESSIONAL HYMN: The last song at Mass often sung a little more quietly, since most of the people have already left.

INCENSE: Holy Smoke.

JESUITS: An order of priests known for their colleges with good basketball teams.

JONAH: The original 'Jaws' story.

JUSTICE: When kids have kids of their own.

KYRIE ELEISON: The only Greek words that most Catholics can recognize besides gyros and baklava. (for you non-Catholics it means Lord have mercy)

MAGI: The most famous trio to attend a baby shower.

PEW: A medieval torture device still found in Catholic churches.

PROCESSION: The ceremonial formation at the beginning of Mass consisting of altar servers, the celebrant, and late parishioners looking for seats.

RECESSIONAL: The ceremonial procession at the conclusion of Mass led by parishioners trying to beat the crowd to the parking lot.

RELICS: People who have been going to Mass for so long, they actually know when to sit, kneel, and stand.

USHERS: The only people in the parish who don't know the seating capacity of a pew.

Valentine Memories

Valentine Memories
 
A Valentine, along the Canterbury trails,
Where Chaucer's courtly love prevails;
The martyr forgotten, and in his place,
Comes a maiden, finely dressed in lace;
And there are so many romantic fictions,
Predicated by emotions, not convictions;
Yet behind all the cynicism, all the cards,
All the commercial toys to show regards,
There is an inner heart, a different view:
And we knew this joy, where I loved you;
The rose, both a sign and a scent so sweet,
Of life together, of how we would meet,
And I still recall your smile, your embrace;
Then to the Bistro Soleil, our favourite place,
To enjoy best of food, shared lover's plate,
And forget, for a little time, impending fate;
That tragic day, the phone call broke my heart,
And my world shattered, broke apart;
And you were gone, I wept, a last amen:
I held you in my arms, kissed, once again;
My lovely Valentine, taken from my sight,
Until I come to join you in that darkest night.

To Infinity and Beyond: A Review

Consider an n-dimensional hypercube, and connect each pair of vertices to obtain a complete graph on 2n vertices. Then colour each of the edges of this graph using only the colours red and black. What is the smallest value of n for which every possible such colouring must necessarily contain a single-coloured complete sub-graph with 4 vertices which lie in a plane?

I watched the Horizon programme last night on infinity, which began very promisingly when it was on the subject of large numbers and mathematics, but then took a speculative turn for the worse, when it began to make all kind of assertions about an infinite universe, infinite parallel universes, identical versions of people, and so on, without giving anything really in the way of hard science.

The mathematics was pretty good. After a brief digression with so-called "large numbers", which involved a googolplex and Graham's number (which was only vaguely stated as a boundary solution to a problem), we were treated to a good illustration of Hillbert's paradoxical "infinite hotel", and what it showed about infinity - and the dangers of just treating infinity like any other number, although it stopped there, just on the verge of the branch of mathematics known as analysis was; it might have mentioned that kind of mathematics was developed for avoid paradoxes with infinity. And as might have been expected, we also had Cantor on infinity defined by counting by matching one set against another, and different infinities, which are now part of any mathematical syllabus.

A set of elements can be defined as infinite if the set has a seemingly paradoxical quality: a subset of elements in an infinite set can be matched up, one-to-one, to all of the elements in a set

It would have been nice to hear about the continuum hypothesis (which after all is related to different infinities), and back in the 1980s, I remember a Horizon on the unsolved problems of mathematics which did just that. But now we are 2010, and programmes are dumbed down to what a character in one of Gregory Benford's novels called a public 'with the attention span of a commercial'.

Professor Gregory Benford's book Cosm, which is a good adventure story with cutting edge physics does explore exactly what parallel universes might be like, and how the physics of this works. This is the publisher's blurb, which gives some idea of the story.

Of all the things one expects to get from slapping heavy nuclei together in a high-energy accelerator one would not expect a football-sized particle, yet that is exactly the result Prof Alica Butterworth got when she started hurling uranium nuclei together at close to light speeds: well, that and a wrecked collider. Amid the wreckage her colleagues do not realise what the 'football' may be, so she was able to discretely remove it to her own university lab. There she finds that the object may hold the secret to the Universe's creation. However physicists from the collider are hot on her trail. Who will unravel the mystery first?

Benford uses hard edge cutting physics; he is an active professor of physics himself. But instead of that, there was a lot of talk, mostly made interesting (or so the programme makers must have thought) by bizarre lighting, a sinister face (Steven Berkoff ) looming in black and white, and intoning in a sepulchral voice (suitably jazzed up by some kind of voice modulator). I don't know who puts these programmes together, but they seem to assume people have the attention span of a pickled newt.

Yet Armand Leroi on Channel 4 ("Aristotle's Lagoon") or BBC4's "Chemistry a Volatile History" show that science can be presented without dumbing down. But instead of a physics of Benford calibre, we got a someone telling us that ""I think the universe is infinite on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I think it's finite the rest of the week. I'm having a really hard time making my mind up."

There were periodic diversions to a monkey in front of a typewriter, supposedly typing what people had just said, while a voiceover repeated it. This was an allusion to the statistical paradox - if infinitely many monkeys are set before typewriters, with infinite lifespans and infinite time, the statistical paradox goes, they will sooner or later produce Shakespeare's plays.

But the programme, while starting well, lost its way when it began to explore the physics without any physics, and I'd sooner recommend Benford's Cosm to anyone who really wants to explore the infinite.

'". Well, the Cosm isn't just a footprint it's the real thing, a direct quantum gravity artifact sitting still in the lab, big enough to put your hands on. We're taking fundamental physics back to a human scale!"' (Gregory Benford, Cosm p253)

'To peer through the quick stubble of mathematics and see the wonders lurking behind was to momentarily live in the infinite, beyond the press of the ordinary world where everyone else dwelled in ignorance.' (Cosm, p333 )

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert's_paradox_of_the_Grand_Hotel
http://www.amazon.co.uk/COSM-Gregory-Benford/dp/1857236270/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265895945&sr=1-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham's_number

The Classics that Time Forgot

I was reflecting on the "Classic Serial" which used to be the staple of Sunday afternoons around tea-time. During the early eighties, this underwent something of a revival, when the Doctor Who team of Barry Letts as Producer and Terrance Dicks as Script Editor moved onto the show. They demonstrated that they were as capable as taking on "classics" as science fiction, and during their tenure, some very watchable serials were produced.

There were the odd "duff" serials. "Alice in Wonderland" was over reliant on poor quality CGI (an overreliance on which was one of Barry Lett's few failings), and really did not work well. The Tom Baker Sherlock Holmes was solid, but not inspiring; Tom Baker was never as watchable as Holmes as Jeremy Brett, or even Peter Cushing. Terence Rigby was a dull Watson.

One of my favourites, but sadly not yet out on DVD was "Goodbye Mr Chips". With Roy Marsden as the schoolteacher, Mr Chipping, this was a superb production, and one to rival Robert Donat's film portrayal. The ITV version with Martin Clunes was also good, but not as good as this four part serial.

The Pickwick Papers starred Nigel Stock as Mr Pickwick, with Clive Swift providing wonderful comic support as Mr Tupman. The other supporting roles were also excellent with Patrick Malahide, Colin Douglas and Milton Johns all playing part of Mr Pickwick's entourage. With 12 episodes, this somewhat rambling narrative never lost the viewer's interest, and can be seen as the literary equivalent of a soap opera, with comedy, drama and tragedy all interwoven. Phil Daniels as Sam Weller steals the show. Carl Davis provided music. A classy classic.

Timothy Dalton, once James Bond, and most recently President Rassilon in Doctor Who, starred as Mr Rochester in this superb production, with Zelah Clarke providing good support as Jane Eyre (1983). At ten episodes, this was still a tight and strong narrative, and allowed room for the characters to breath, in a way that just does not happen in any of the film or mini-series versions. This is available on DVD, and I would recommend it. It received a BAFTA.

"Beau Geste" was a good example of what can be achieved on a low budget! Having seen the story spoofed (wonderfully in Carry On, Follow that Camel), the original story still has some power, with Benedict Taylor as the erstwhile Beau Geste, Anthony Calf in the lesser role as Digby, with a young Jonathon Morris (later to achieve fame in "Bread") as John. John Forgeham does a good turn as the sadistic Sergeant. The story begins with the blazing remains of a Fort in the desert, where all the soldiers of the French Foreign Legion are dead. The patrol who encounter this try to make sense of the mystery, and it is only in the flashbacks that we learn of the tragic tale of a missing jewel, and the Geste brothers.

When Barry Letts gave up producing, Terrance Dicks took over as producer, bringing a touch of the modern to the classic serial, with a sparkling production of ""Vanity Fair", and an excellent "Bratt Farrar". There were still some old stalwarts, like David Copperfield, where Simon Callow as Mr Micawber stole scenes.

But probably the best production that I can remember under his tenure was the "The Diary of Anne Frank", which still has not been bettered by later productions. Emrys James starred as Otto Frank, with a young Katharine Schlesinger bringing an adolescent vitality to the part of Anne that has never been equalled. It is, unfortunately, not available on DVD, although I really think it deserves to be.

Perhaps it is time for the BBC to mine their back catalogue of stories, and release a few more of these to DVD!

Ten Commandments

"It seems obvious that our country would be better off if we followed the Ten Commandments." (Ann Widdecombe)

I watched Moses and the Law, part of Channel 4's ongoing series The Bible: A History, with Ann Widdecombe last night.

The more I watched, the more I became incredulous at both the style of presentation, and this obviously clever woman who was simply not prepared to countenance anything that she disagreed with, or even listen to opposing points of view. She simply waited until they had given their replies to her questions, and then restated her own position. I suppose that is why she is a politician, and not a philosopher, because it was the kind of dialogue you might expect her to give with an encounter with Jeremy Paxman, but it did not sit well with this kind of programme.

There were a number of encounters in which she did not always come off best - with a Jewish scholar, an Old Testament scholar, and people like Stephen Fry. On all these occasions, her solution was to supplement the conversation with a "direct to camera" monologue in which she stated how wrong they were.

"We've departed from the law of Moses," , she said, and stated categorically that Moses had received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and written the whole first five books of the Bible. When the Old Testament scholar explained that this didn't quite fit with archaeology, because there was no single trace of the numbers involved in either Egyptian records, or the archaeology of the promised land around Jericho, Ann Widdecombe does not attempt to answer this, but simply states: "Well I have to say that smacks to me of 'Let's disregard the whole of the Old Testament because it talks about God" . She never even gets as far as letting the Old Testament scholar point out the three differing versions of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21 and Exodus 34, or explaining why they are different.

She comments: "The Ten Commandments have been massively important is shaping British society and law - 'Thou shalt not steal', 'Thou shalt not kill', 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour' - these things are very, very central to our law but to our society as well."

Of course British society and the shape of its Christianity have been massively shaped by Henry VIII's split with Rome, and his patent disregard for the commandment about adultery. His example has been cheerfully followed by aristocrats and monarchs down the ages - one has only to name Charles II, Edward VII, or even our own Prince Charles - as examples. Somehow there always appears to be an exclusion for the upper classes, which I am sure she would be the first to condemn, but it does make her history lesson just a little suspect. As Joy Davidman, in "Smoke on the Mountain" shrewdly observes:

In the feudal days, a half-tamed nobility took whom it wanted when it wanted-and the Church, though insisting that marriage was indissoluble, perforce discovered all manner of loopholes by which a marriage could be declared void.

When it came to "Thou Shalt Not Kill", I thought, given the immediacy of the Chilcot enquiry, she might turn her attention to the vexed question of warfare, or even given her attribution of the commandments to the "shaping of society" to the time a few hundred years ago where people could be hanged for stealing a sheep; a case perhaps of one commandment trumping another. As she had voted for war in Iraq, this might have been interesting, and we may even have had a glimpse of just war theory, as to how "Thou Shalt Not Murder" can be used to let in all kinds of nasty practices, such as the Israelites slaughter of the indigenous peoples of their "promised land".

Alas, she turned her guns on the far easier target of euthanasia, although even there she offered little in the way of ethical discourse. Unlike Rowan Williams, who has made a very good case against legalising "mercy killing", all she did was to restate and state again and again that the commandment said "Thou shalt not kill", and that should be the final word on the matter, and it was not obeying the commandment that was letting in the floodgates for legalised murder.

Some of the examples she gave in support of her case for the Ten Commandments were quite bizarre. She took a puritan preacher of the 17th century who had taken a fire as a judgement from God on the sinful practices of his town and presented him as someone who brought his community back to godly, puritan ways. This is disturbing. By colluding in this kind of thinking, how far is she from those people who saw the fire at York Minister as a judgement on the appointment of David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham? Or, closer to today, how far is this thinking from Pat Robertson, the USA TV Evangelist who notoriously said that the destruction on Haiti was a result of a pact with the devil?

When she encounters Stephen Fry, he points out that the Ten Commandments cannot be that wonderful, because they somehow omitted to condemn slavery, and left that justifiably both within Judaism and Christianity. She never really answers this criticism, but just goes on to press him with the question "Don't you think they are good precepts for living", and Fry counters by saying that virtually all of them are moral truisms, and found in philosophers like Socrates, Aristotle, or in Buddhism. She just ignore this and goes on repeating her question until the usually affable Fry finally snaps, because she simply won't listen to the criticisms he is stating mildly, and tears into her saying they are responsible for centuries of suffering and persecution.

Fry might have added that the commandment against "covetousness" mentioned not "coveting your neighbours wife" but not "coveting your neighbours husband" because women were simply chattels, property, and hence enter the commandments alongside other property. To say that this is somehow time bound, part of the culture of the day, begs the question: how do you judge what can be discarded and can is not? Ann Widdecombe never really addresses this question, because it would expose a fatal weakness in her position that the commandments are for all time.

Curiously, while concentrating on other commandments, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor any likeness of anything"  gets very little mention. If she had been watching Diarmaid MacCulloch's excellent nuanced account of "A History of Christianity", she would have seen the Reformers such as Zwingli and Calvin use this to justify the destruction of all the statues so beloved of her own Catholic faith, along with wall paintings, and stained glass windows". They took this commandment very seriously. Again if she wishes to sideline this, because of her own Church tradition, she should explain how the Puritans, in her opinion, got it wrong.

Instead she comments "perhaps we could do with a bit more Puritanism", and never even comes to terms with the severity of this kind of Puritanism, that quite happily went on a rampage of destruction, and even tried to abolish Christmas. She does acknowledge that all is not sweetness and light, that "nowadays Puritan is a dirty word", but by just looking at its strengths and never at its failings, she never really explains to the viewer as Diarmaid MacCulloch does, why it became a byword for a detestable killjoy Christianity.

Joy Davidman, in her "Smoke on the Mountain" also discusses the Ten Commandments but her presentation is in startling contrast to Ann Widdecombe's fanatical diatribe. One of the comments that Davidman - a Christian and a Jew - makes in her interpretation of the second commandment is something that is particularly pertinent to Christians, and one wishes Ann Widdecombe would reflect on it:

There can hardly be a more evil way of taking God's name in vain than this way of presuming to speak in it. For here is spiritual pride, the ultimate sin, in action-the sin of believing in one's own righteousness. The true prophet says humbly, "To me, a sinful man, God spoke." But the scribes and Pharisees declare, "When we speak, God agrees." They feel no need of a special revelation, for they are always, in their own view, infallible. It is this self-righteousness of the pious that most breeds atheism, by inspiring all decent ordinary men with loathing of the enormous lie.

Links:
http://members.cox.net/deleyd/religion/tencommandments.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smoke-Mountain-Interpretation-Ten-Commandments/dp/066424680X/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265622030&sr=1-22

The Desert Call

The Desert Call
 
I walk the desert sand by nights
Bleak, so desolate and wild
Watching where the scorpion fights
Existence here is Darwin's child
 
The sun so scorching all the day;
An empty desert, filled with dread
A spectre haunts the sand-strewn way
Life hanging on by slimmest thread
 
The refugees their sorrow share
Fleeing from the war zone's bane
Crying with unceasing prayer,
Children hungry and in pain
 
Where is hope in such distress?
Come all nations, hear their call
Starving in the wilderness
Now do not overlook this all
 
A portion gifted at the shrine
Such gladness ours shall be
Brothers and sisters, face divine
Calling us over land and sea
 
See, O see now, costing dear
The poverty that cannot hide
That we may bring some little cheer
And pray with eyes so opened wide

Lies and Lawyers

Just been reading the Veritas report regard Mr John Day. Readers will recall that various allegations were made against him during Dr Moyano's trial, and as he was not called as a witness by either side, those allegations were allowed to stand; a matter with which even the judge expressed surprise.

If Mr Day had appeared in Court, it would, of course, be his word against Dr Moyano and the lawyer making the accusations on her behalf. Where the Veritas report is so much better is that the authors have access to background checks, they seek, time and time again, to verify from external and uncontestable sources what the truth of the matter was.

Example 1:

Dr Moyano recollected that after leaving the operating theatre she telephoned Mr Day again because she was not happy with his advice. He does not remember receiving this call and the hospital phone log does not show any calls to his mobile or consulting rooms at that time.

Example 2:

It was suggested at the trial that Mr Day left the hospital to see patients in his private consulting rooms eight to ten minutes drive from the hospital. Mr Day's private Tuesday afternoon clinic ran from 2.30pm, but he had patients booked from noon that day. Mr Day told both us and police that he had phoned his secretary during the morning list to cancel these appointments. His mobile phone records and the phone records of the hospital show that a short call using the hospital phone was made to his private rooms at 12.02pm and a shorter one on his mobile at 12.10pm. His private clinic diary for 17 October shows that the appointments of patients booked in before 2.30pm were cancelled. The first of these patients has written to confirm that she recalls arriving for her noon appointment and being told by the receptionist that it had been cancelled, with the receptionist apologising that she had not been able to contact her before she left to come to the clinic. This fits with Mr Day's mobile phone call to his secretary at 12.02pm.

They note that "the only evidence that Mr Day wanted to leave early comes from Dr Moyano and is contradicted by the stronger evidence that Mr Day cancelled his pre-clinic appointments and remained in the day surgery unit until Mrs Rourke was in theatre."

Example 3:

Was Mr Day speaking constantly on his mobile phone while he was in the operating theatre? This criticism is based on comments in Dr Moyano's statement. Other people in the operating theatre made no mention of this in their statements and no one could remember this behaviour. Mr Day's mobile phone records for 17 October show that the only calls he made on it that day before leaving the hospital were one to his home at 12.05 pm lasting less than two minutes, one to his private rooms at 12.10pm referred to in section 7, which lasted for 10 seconds and one at 12.33pm lasting 23 seconds which was unrelated to the events of the day.

It seems to us that others present on the day would have noticed if Mr Day's phone was constantly ringing. They have no such memories. The only calls Mr Day made from his mobile that morning were during a 10-minute period between patients. The weight of evidence is against the allegation that Mr Day was constantly on his mobile phone.

Would the Court case regarding Dr Moyano have been adversely effected had these checks been part of the record? It is impossible to say, but it is very clear that the allegations made in the Court case against Mr Day were based upon one individual's recollection - Dr Moyano - and for whatever reason or motive, these recollections were massively incorrect. 

I'm not going to say she was lying, because the memory can play tricks, especially when stressed, and the work of Elizabeth Loftus on False Memory Syndrome demonstrates conclusively that a vague recall (perhaps mixed with other memories) can harden into certainty by going over the memory again and again, something which she would certainly been asked to do. But clearly allegations were made which it was possible to check on - phone records, appointment diaries etc - and it was extremely lax for them to be left standing unchallenged in Court.

It was not for the Dr Moyano's defence to check on the veracity of the statements. Acting on her behalf, it was quite proper for them to take what she said at face value. But the prosecution - Crown Advocate Howard Sharp - clearly failed to investigate these claims.

In summing up, he asked four questions

Did Dr Moyano owe Mrs Rourke a duty of care? Did she breach that duty of care and expose Mrs Rourke to risk of death? Was that breach a cause of death? And was Dr Moyano's conduct so bad in all circumstances that it amounted to a criminal act?

The fifth question was left unsaid: Was the mitigation by Dr Moyano's lawyer that Mr Day failed to provide proper supervision and support justified, or was it her memory at fault?

The question not asked, or even raised by Advocate Sharp, meant that the allegations against Mr Day were unchallenged, and therefore presumed to be true. It would be extremely odd if this mitigation argued for by the defense was not in the minds of the jury when they left to deliberate.

Perhaps Advocate Sharp would now like to explain why he did not challenge the evidence, or even perhaps call Mr Day?

Rites of Spring

Rites of Spring
 
It is cold, wet, drizzle, sometimes sleet, and we make our way along the cliff path towards the little cottage. Even before we reach there, the door opens, and the old woman greets us, welcoming us inside. "Be seated," she tells us, and brings us each a warm cup of sweet tea, and we sit back in the chairs, in front of the warmth of the fire, blazing brightly. The room is dark and cosy, lit by the flickering flame of candles, placed on the window ledges around us. The window rattles with the sound of hail, small pellets of ice harshly battering against the glass.
 
She takes a larger red candle, inscribed with a large gold circle, inside which are three interlocking eclipses. This is placed on the table, and she takes a taper and lights it. She asks why we have come.
 
My mother speaks. She explains why we have come, of how the frost could destroy the crops, lay barren the earth, and how winter still holds the land in an icy grip, even though the time of spring is upon us. I remain silent, I am an observer, not a speaker, the dutiful daughter. My time has not yet come, but it is near. I am the maiden, the promise of new beginnings.
 
This woman is a weather worker, it is an ancient art, mostly lost, and she tells us of her path. "This is not lightly done, for rain and sun here could mean blizzards and snow elsewhere. There is a balance, and it takes wisdom to see the path, and find the way. Your daughter will help us find the way."
 
She moves the candle in front of me, and asks me to tell her what I can see. My time has come. I look into the flame, yellow, flickering, smoky.
 
I see to the east, the storm clouds, and the swell of dark waves beneath the moonless sky. Images flicker into my mind. A mansion stands on the hill, and music comes from within, and it is ablaze with light, and the sound of partying. Over the hill, a small house, an old couple clutching each other for warmth, as their fire dies, the wooden embers a dull glow. Birds fly outside, seeking in vain for water beneath a frozen pond. The world is covered in a canopy of white, and it is a cold and silent land, as quiet as a grave. The candle burns, a cold blue flame, with no heat.
 
A voice cries out "In a cold and loveless world we have kept the love to ourselves".
 
I see to the south, the dry lands. Planes are landing, and food is being loaded, and flown away into the distant sky while children watch with hunger in their bellies. Elsewhere fires burn fiercely, fanned by strong winds, and there is no water. The streams have run dry, the crops are failing, the cattle are dying. The candle burns with a red fire, hot and scorching, and my face is seared with heat.
 
A voice cries out "In a hungry and despairing world, we have failed to share our bread"
 
I see to the west, and the earth is in convulsions, the planet screaming in pain. Poorly constructed houses have fallen apart, roads collapsed inwards. Amidst the wreckage of the buildings are the moans of the injured and the dying, and limbs askew of the dead. A rain falls, a black rain of ashes, and there is much weeping. The candle burns with a purple flame, lighting the path for rescuers, and in mourning for those who have died.
 
A voice cries out "In a dark and disfigured world, we have not held out the light of life".
 
I see to the north, the northern lights. The church is beneath the blazing colours, the ancient stones lit by a curtain of lights, and inside all is ablaze with light. I am inside, and I look down the aisle, and a hundred small candles light the path towards a blazing cross of candles. The people sing of sorrow and of joy, of suffering and the refiners fire, and of how they must pass through the flames. They have been waiting for a long time, and now their time is near. They leave in silence, departing in peace, and their task has just begun. The candle shines with glory, and burns with a white flame, calm and gentle.
 
A voice cries out: "This is the moment to speak, to act, to change, to hope, and wrestle for wholeness and the light of justice and freedom. Kindle in us the fire of love."
 
And I return, and it is over. There is only the silence, and my mother holding my hand firmly in hers, and I know what I must tell the old woman, that we must each take up our appointed task. And she nods, and takes up a handful of dust from an earthen bowl, and faces to the east, and blows softly, until it leaves her hand, falling to the west. The rites of spring have begun, and we must depart.
 
Dawn is breaking, and the ice upon the path is thawing, as the wind changes slowly from east to west, and the sun rises. Ahead is the dolmen, the ancient stones that are our past, our present, and our future. The past is behind us. The present moment is complete. And we vanish down the stone passage, into the darkness, to rest beneath the sacred earth until the future calls us forth once more.

Imbolc

'Imbolc, when the ewes are milked at spring's beginning'. (The Tochmarc Emire)

Ronald Hutton, in his ground breaking "Stations of the Sun", tells us that this celebration, taking place on 1st or 2nd February, marked the start of spring. It is mentioned in the Irish texts, but he places this caution about what exactly it entailed:

"The festival must be pre-Christian in origin, but there is absolutely no direct testimony as to its early nature, or concerning any rites which might have been employed then. There is, in fact, no sign that any of the medieval Irish writers who referred to it preserved a memory of them, and some evidence that they no longer understood the meaning of the name itself."(1)

He notes that the cult of Brigid also arose in Ireland, and is also associated with this time as "St Bride's Day", and has so overwhelmed the original festival that it is unclear what it ever entailed. Regarding Brigid, he says that:

"The Irish feast of Imbolc, rededicated to St Brigid, was kept with the same rite all over Ireland, and also in Man and the Hebrides; but not anywhere on the British mainland. There its role was taken by the universal Christian holy day of Candlemas."(3)

The goddess Brigid, and the saint of the same name St Brigid, are intermingled, and it is difficult to separate fact from fiction:

"What is by no means clear is whether there was one goddess, or a triple one, or several, and whether there was in addition a real Christian woman of the same name with whom the deity became conflated."(1)

The story of the saint is given by Bonnie Blackburn in "The Oxford Companion to the Christian Year". She notes the legendary aspects of the story:

"Brigid (Brigit, Bridget, Bride, in modern Irish Bríd, formerly Brighid) of Ireland (d. c.525), abbess of Kildare. Brigid is one of the many saints of whose lives legend and folklore have far more to say than history. Having become a nun at an early age, she founded the monastery of Kildare (meaning 'Church of the Oak') for both sexes and ran it with hospitable (one might say housewifely) compassion, changing her bath-water into beer for the benefit of unexpected visitors, multiplying butter, and producing milk three times a day from miraculously obliging cows (her emblem is a cow). Her name means 'the exalted one', akin to the British tribal name Brigantes and the Welsh brenin, 'king'. A twelfth-century martyrology calls her ard-ogh Erenn, 'the high maid of Ireland'; legend represents her as a rich man's daughter, so supremely self-confident as to give away his wealth to beggars without his consent. She was also a friend of learning, for in her previous life she had been the Celtic goddess of art and wisdom whom Julius Caesar equated with Minerva." (4)

The Anglo-Saxon festivals of February, and the start of spring, Bede as involving the making and eating of with sweet cakes, but little more.

The Christian festival of candlemas, is to do with the story of Jesus being taken to the Temple, and of the purification of Mary and Bonnie Blackburn explains that the date has in fact "slipped backwards".

In accordance with Mosaic law Mary came to the Temple forty days (inclusively reckoned) after bearing Jesus both to be purified and to present him, as a male firstborn, to the Lord ( Luke 2:22 ff.). The commemoration began c.350 at Jerusalem, where it took place on 14 February, the fortieth day of Epiphany, combining Christ's Nativity and Baptism as still in Armenia; in 542, after the end of a plague, the emperor Justinian proclaimed it for 2 February, the fortieth day of the separate Christmas, in honour of the Christ child's encounter with Simeon and Anna. This remains its significance in the East; but when it spread to the West it was understood as the Purification of the Virgin and was enriched by Pope Sergius I ( 687-701) with a solemn procession.(5)

This is one Christian celebration which may be on the same day as the Irish one., but is clearly quite different in purpose and form. As Hutton notes:

"The Christian celebration was concerned with purification and lights, not with cakes. The Christian feast has, therefore, no demonstrable links with ancient northern European practices. "(2)

Instead the focus was on "images of the appearance of divine light in the darkness of human sin, of renewal and rebirth of light in the dark time of the year, and of the new light of heaven manifested to an old world."(2).

The candles would be carried in procession on the feast, but unlike today's services, the parishioner brought the candle!

"Every parishioner was obliged to bring and carry one, and to offer it to the priest to be blessed, paying a penny for the service. The benediction was accomplished by placing each candle before the high altar, sprinkling it with holy water, perfuming it with incense, and pronouncing the blessing over it. Part of the latter stated that once the sanctified candle was lit 'the devil may flee away in prayer and trembling'. What happened to the consecrated objects next seems to have varied according to local custom or to individual wish. They were carried round the church again after mass, and then some seem to have been burned before a statue of the Virgin, and others taken home to be lit in times of storm or sickness, or in the hands of the dying."(2)

(1) Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Ronald Hutton, 1996 p134ff
(2) Hutton, Op Cit, p140
(3) Hutton Op Cit, p411
(4) The Oxford Companion to the Year, Bonnie Blackburn, p61
(5) Blackburn Op Cit, p62

Recommended Book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stations-Sun-History-Ritual-Britain/dp/0192854488/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265139005&sr=8-1

Media Bias

""I eventually had to go down to the cellar..."
"That's the display department."
"...with a torch"
"The lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"Well, you found the notice, didn't you?"
"Yes. The plans were on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard""

(Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

Heard a snatch of "Talkback" on Sunday. I though Deputy Tracy Valois was a little disingenuous when she said that "Citizen Media" can be biased, while the accredited media has to present a balanced viewpoint.

While that is certainly true of the BBC under the terms of its charter, it cannot be said to be the same of newspapers. They may report facts, but how they select facts, and the way in which they present them is often partisan, and balance is not a requirement.

Should she be naive enough to think otherwise, I suggest she follows the election coverage in the U.K., which usually leads up to some papers putting statements in bold big print on their front pages "Vote Labour" or "Vote Conservative". Under Tony Blair, part of the campaign to win against John Major involved getting Rupert Murdoch, and the Murdoch newspapers to support the Labour Party.

This has always been the case, and the Jersey Evening Post is no exception to the rule. It has its own biases, and while it needs to be careful over factual reporting, it can decide how to present that. The criticism of Lenny Harper is a case in point - the Appeal Court judgement criticising his failure to return pocket books was on the front page, while his reply - when he stated that there were no pocket books, and they could check with Scotland Yard - was tucked away on the bottom of an inside page with a much smaller headline. It reminded me of the locked filing cabinet in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"; it was there, but effectively in the cellar. Incidentally, it does not appear that they did check with Scotland Yard, an omission which is another way in which bias shows.

Unlike "Citizen Media", I do not see conspiracies around every corner. The BBC, for example, has been so emasculated by the Hutton Report and its aftermath that they have to follow massively strict rules on balance, and take great care in sources. There was a lot of rumpus on the blogs that they would not accept Lenny Harper's guest posting until they had it confirmed by him. Now there are lots of complaints that people are posting comments on the JEP and using the identity of those same people who were so keen to criticise the BBC. So it seems that checking on sources does matter after all, especially when you are on the receiving end of a kind of identity theft.

With regard to the JEP, some of their journalism, like their typesetting, is just plain sloppy - hence the lack of follow up. They chase the headlines, and Lenny's reply would probably have not have sold as many papers in the judgement of the editor. Sometimes articles end mid sentence, sometimes the weather is listed on page x, but is on page y. There is a variety of bias. Sometimes Ben Queree is extremely critical of all the States members, over time, everyone, including Daniel Wimberley or Geoff Southern has been praised. Letters columns are notorious, as Chesterton observed, for an editorial like and dislike, but all kinds of letters do get published. Yet the strictures about length are sometimes patently forgotten, most notably for a politician getting their voice heard. Sean Power's victory over Philip Ozouf was given a massive amount of coverage, probably because it involved drink, and the average man in the pub would clearly be pleased with the result, but it was hardly a serious matter, anymore than the froth on a pint.

The final, and best word on political bias goes to "Yes Minister". I still think that this should be recommended viewing for all politicians, especially those who, like Sir Humphrey, forget that any microphone could be a live one! But here is Yes Minister on newspaper bias:

Hacker: Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers: the Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by people who actually do run the country; the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; the Financial Times is read by people who own the country; The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.

Sir Humphrey: Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?
Bernard: Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits.

Coming Spring

As Imbolc, or Candlemas is approaching, I thought I'd try my hand at a slightly different (and more pagan) version of a well known carol!

Coming Spring

Now the green blade rises, from the buried grain,
East brings the cold winds, and the freezing rain
Love lives again, with feathered touch unseen
Opening the east, comes time to spring up green.

In funeral pyre now burning, and beyond all pain
South brings the fires, ends where death has slain
Ashes scatter on the wind, incense sweet and clean
Opening the south, after firestorm, spring up green

Now the green blade rises, from the buried grain,
West brings the snowfall, and then thaws to rain
Love lives again, with pure water bubbling clean
Opening the west, herbs now spring up green.

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
North brings forth rich soil, winter's gods are slain
Salt brings its flavour, light of the world now seen
Opening the north, like wheat that springs up green.

Jersey Disaster Appeal

Islanders are being encouraged to help victims of the Haiti earthquake by supporting a local appeal. The Bailiff, Michael Birt, announced the launch of the 'Jersey Disaster Appeal' ..Announcing the appeal, the Bailiff said "What has happened in Haiti is clearly a human tragedy on a massive scale and as a fellow island community, Jersey will be keen to show its support to those who so desperately need emergency supplies, be it in the form of essential medicine, clean drinking water, food or shelter. "I hope that by establishing a public disaster appeal fund, Islanders will feel better able to make their contribution count, in the knowledge that the funds raised will collectively be put to work to achieve the highest possible benefit for the people of Haiti in their hour of need."

Where this may be useful is in fund raising events, which can be channeled though the "Disaster Appeal Fund". I can see that a local fund would be useful, although Oxfam and Christian Aid also have local branches, and I don't really see why we need another fund for channeling donations.

But apart from that, I cannot understand the sentence "will feel better able to make their contribution count".

Does it mean that we, as an Island, can say - look how well we did, didn't we do well? I've given directly to the Red Cross, and I can't say that giving locally would make me feel any better, or that it would count any more.  But perhaps I'm in a minority, perhaps most people like to know there is some official Jersey fund.

But what I'd like to know is how the fund will be channeled to give help to Haiti.

 

The Red Cross, Oxfam, Christian Aid, and other relief organisations have their own infrastructure for ensuring that aid gets to where it needs to go (and doesn't end up in the hands of somewhat dubious governments). I've read a few accounts of the Jersey Disaster Appeal, and all it says is that has been set up, and how to donate, but it doesn't answer that question, which strikes me as remiss in an appeal.

If you know the answers, please comment on this post! In the meantime, try and donate - either via Jersey charities, the disaster fund or otherwise - to help Haiti.

Links
http://www.gov.je/BailiffsChambers/JerseyDisasterAppeal.htm

Distorting History

LENNY Harper's conduct as head of the historical abuse inquiry was branded 'disgraceful' by appeal judges yesterday. In dismissing the applications by two child abusers to have their convictions and sentences reviewed, the court also accused the Island's former deputy police chief of 'wilful misconduct'. In delivering the court's judgment, Clare Montgomery QC criticised Mr Harper for his conduct regarding day books relating to the investigation of Claude James Donnelly and Gordon Claude Wateridge. Mr Harper had been accused of stealing the books from Jersey by Donelly's and Wateridge's defence, Advocate Mike Preston, and not returning them when requested to do so. Donnelly (69) is serving 15 years in jail after being convicted in June of five counts of rape, 13 counts of indecent assault and one count of procuring an act of gross indecency. Wateridge (78) was convicted in August of 11 counts of indecent assault and one count of common assault. Miss Montgomery, who was sitting with fellow appeal judges Dame Heather Steel, president of the court, and Michael Jones QC, said: 'The conduct of Mr Harper regarding the day books is regarded as disgraceful. We are also prepared to assume that Mr Harper's contacts with the press were the product of wilful misconduct on his part. But we are satisfied that fair trials took place and that the publicity did not have an effect on the process.'(1)

The "day books", as Mr Harper explained before, and has explained recently, did not exist, despite the criticism of him for not giving them up. Quite how he could give up something that he never had, that never existed, is remarkable! What is even more remarkable is how the Court of Appeal could be so ill informed. Historians trying to piece together the saga of Haut de La Garenne - if they take as a primary source the Court of Appeal summing up, or the JEP report of it - will be presenting an unverified and potentially distorted version of history. Lenny Harper, in his own words, gives quite a different picture:

One late evening as I was heading out of the country I was told that a note had been pushed through my door telling me to contact Strathclyde Police. I did so to find out that I was wanted at court in Jersey the next day. Perhaps I could just beam myself up there? I had no idea what it was about. Eventually I managed to get hold of a Crown Officer in Edinburgh who dealt with applications and requests from foreign jurisdictions. He explained that the AG wanted me to produce some day books. I explained to him there were none. He told me that there was no witness summons of any kind issued and that it was up to me to return to Jersey or not. He told me they would be willing to facilitate my appearance at court in Scotland if I preferred to do it that way. I said I would be happy to do that. (2)

Why were there no day books kept? This was part of the review by Scotland Yard of the procedures followed, in which instructions were given not to give day books, but to keep policy books. These were reviewed by the ACPO Homicide team, who said they were "kept properly".

There was also a bizarre series of e mails between myself and the AG during which I explained that I had not kept day books on the instructions of Scotland Yard. All my decisions were in the policy books.(2)

It would, I feel, be instructive and worthwhile for a journalist to try to track down those emails, especially since the appeal process is now ended, and one assumes that matters, even ones on the periphery, are no longer sub judice. The result of this exchange resulted in what appears to have been a very bizarre request by the Attorney-General, again an allegation which should be checked out by responsible journalists:

Eventually, after I had reminded the AG that Scotland Yard had corroborated what I had said in a statement and had also told the enquiry team that at none of the meetings had I ever used such a book, he made the pathetic request for me to hand over the retirement cards I had been given by my colleagues, "in case there was anything relevant to the case in them." After removing officers' names I sent him copies.(2)

Lenny Harper also offered to testify and answer any questions in a Court in the UK, hence under oath, which certainly gives a lot of credence to the authenticity of his reply.

Incidentally, my offer to testify and answer any questions in a court in the UK was forwarded to Jersey. I have never even had an acknowledgement. Instead the lie has been peddled that I refused to return and defied an imaginary court order to hand over imaginary books. (2)

How was it that the Appeal Court were not aware of this? Did his emails get somehow lost in the process of transition when the Attorney-General was made Deputy Bailiff, and the Solicitor General was made Attorney-General? It seems quite clear that no thorough checks were made, and the pronouncements of the Appeal Court regarding pocket books were made on the basis of faulty intelligence they received, or failed to receive, and somewhere along the way the chain of command failed, resulting in a headlined criticism which turns out to be based on a mirage. I do not blame the Appeal Court, because after all they have to rely on information given to them, but it does highlight how easy it is to make judgements that distort history.

Regarding the media contacts with the press, an early statement by Lenny Harper, which was judged authentic by BBC Radio Jersey only after they had quite properly vetted its authenticity (as any responsible reporter should), gave a quite different, and again verifiable picture. Lenny wrote:

They only have to look at the BBC News website for the 31st July 2008, to see that I was saying that in view of the contradictory evidence from the experts in respect of the evidence of the age of the bones, unless things changed there would be no homicide enquiry. Even clearer, the Sunday Times on 10th May 2009 made it plain that I was actively discouraging their journalist from believing the more lurid headlines.(3)

Now given the way in which some of the media certainly overplayed the "house of horrors", linking it in to Dutch paedophile rings, bodies uncovered, six more bodies feared buried, etc, it is not surprising that some criticism was made of Lenny Harper by the Appeal judge, although the criticism should have been largely directed at the media. And yet the appeal failed, a new history, it seems to be is being written.

This new history takes the form of saying that "but now we know the truth about Haut de La Garenne", which is usually taken as almost implying that nothing happened, that it was a complete distortion, a fabrication of lies, and can now quietly be forgotten.

But the conviction of Wateridge, and the failure of his appeal, shows that despite many allegations not being deem strong enough for conviction, there is at least some very strong legal evidence for abuse taking place at Haut de La Garenne:

A former carer at a Jersey children's home was found guilty today of indecently assaulting teenagers in the 1970s. Gordon Wateridge, 78, was convicted of eight charges of indecent assault and one charge of assault following a trial at Jersey royal court. He was the first person to be charged in connection with the Haut de la Garenne abuse investigation.(4)

Clearly, the staff were not properly monitored, and neither, it appears, were the children there. Another child was able to abuse younger children when he was at the home, and this was not picked up on at all. Again, this resulted in a conviction - solid evidence that the home was not a well-run happy place:

A man has been sentenced to two years' probation for sexually abusing two boys at the Haut de la Garenne children's home on the island. Michael Aubin, 46, of Southampton, admitted two counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency on two boys under 10 in the 1970s when he was 14.(5)

There are also anecdotal reports of physical abuse taking place during the 1970s, such as this reported by an anonymous individual to the BBC:

There were two dreadful places for me - school and home. I spent two brief periods at Haut de la Garenne, and thought it was going to be a relief for me. But it wasn't. It felt unsafe. At Haut de la Garenne, physical abuse was a regular occurrence. It was common currency to be hit about the head. The local hospital, where I received attention on more than one occasion, never reported anything untoward to the local police or the equivalent of social services. The local police, and in particular the local 'honorary' police, ever keen to ensure that these matters were resolved behind closed doors, never raised an alarm. Everything that could be done by those in authority to normalise a terrible situation was done, and more than once I was given a thick ear for trying to stand up and make complaints about actions that today would be described as assault.(6)

That is physical abuse, not sexual abuse, and physical abuse was commonplace in many island schools. In the 1970, Victoria College, for example, still used the cane to punish boys, and teachers were not above using a wooden ruler to sharply clip boys around the ear for inattention. So we must place this anecdote in the context of its time.

Nonetheless, the extent to which this was carried out - receiving attention at the hospital - suggests that the perpetrators were carried away, and no one wanted to look into the matter, which again in the 1960s and early 1970s culture, is perfectly possible. For an orphan, or child in care, with places such as Haut de La Garenne still almost under Victorian standards of discipline, and harsh physical punishments, life was probably extremely wretched and unhappy.

So it is just as much as distortion of history to say that "we now know that nothing happened" as to say that there were, as one newspaper put it, six bodies feared buried. The anecdotal evidence, such as that mentioned, also indicates a harsh regime, not that far removed from the Victorian workhouse, and certainly there are many lessons to be learned from that. The two convictions which have taken place, shows that there was indeed sexual abuse also taking place. Other evidence may not be good enough to secure a conviction, but the very fact that two cases have been proven, should not cause us to dismiss them so casually or overconfidently.

Let it not be supposed by the enemies of 'the system,' that, during the period of his solitary incarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise, the pleasure of society, or the advantages of religious consolation. As for exercise, it was nice cold weather, and he was allowed to perform his ablutions every morning under the pump, in a stone yard, in the presence of Mr. Bumble, who prevented his catching cold, and caused a tingling sensation to pervade his frame, by repeated applications of the cane. (Oliver Twist, 7)

Links
(1) http://www.thisisjersey.com/2010/01/22/harper-acted-disgracefully/
(2) http://stuartsyvret.blogspot.com/2009/09/lenny-harpers-guest-posting.html
(3) http://voiceforchildren.blogspot.com/2010/01/humility-to-bitter-end.html
(4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/20/jersey-carer-convicted-abuse
(5) http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/23/111914/first-man-sentenced-for-haut-de-la-garenne-sex-abuse.htm
(6) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7267267.stm
(7) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/730/730.txt

Final Frontier

Final Frontier

To boldly go where no one has gone before
My beloved, all hailing frequencies ended
And gone now, behind time's closing door

Immortality, always refused in Star Trek lore
My beloved, never fully comprehended
To boldly go where no one has gone before

Now in eclipse, I cannot see you any more
But glimpse only a shadow, a life ended
And gone now, behind time's closing door

Space, the final frontier, wonders to adore
I see you on a path, all things apprehended
To boldly go where no one has gone before

I would walk with you upon an alien shore
Yet now all our time together is expended
And gone now, behind time's closing door

One day we'll be on that Enterprise and soar
Seek other worlds, and that will be splendid
To boldly go where no one has gone before
And gone now, behind time's closing door

Durrell and Membership Fees

DURRELL is making up to 14 staff redundant as part of a major cost-cutting review to claw back £600,000. The trust will also reduce the number of endangered species in its care and scale down on its overseas projects. But this may not be enough to save the Trinity wildlife park, which could still face a deficit of £400,000 even with the cost-cutting measures. Durrell says that the global economic downturn has caused a drop in charitable support and a decline in visitors. The trust made cutbacks last year, but with an even bigger deficit predicted for 2010, chief executive Paul Masterton said that more had to be done, including cutting ten per cent of the workforce.(1)

I was looking at their prices, and the entrance prices (2) are as follows:

Adult: £12.90
Child (4-16 years): £9.40
Student 17-22 years £10.50

For annual membership, the costs are as follows:

Individual - £40
Member & Guest - £65
Family - £100
Student - £23
Senior Citizen - £23

While the individual may have £40 to spare, the high cost of family membership may well be putting families off. Families are often more strapped for cash than individuals.

I wonder if actually reducing the family membership might get more families to apply, and make up the difference that way. The other side of the coin is that while an annual member can visit any number of times in the year, families are more likely to make frequent visits of lesser duration, rather than having screaming kids along with them. They are more likely to spend at the cafe, or on the shop on the way out, the more often they visit - there is a knock on effect, which means that, on average, someone with an annual membership will probably spend more because they come more often.

It is interesting that Dartmoor Zoological Park may well have seen this as the way to go. In 2009, they introduced a new range of lower pricing, to get more people to take out annual membership.

As of 1st April 2009, we are instigating a major review of membership pricing and introducing an exciting new offer for DZP members. From April 1st Annual Family Membership will be reduced from £105 to £80 and the cost of Child Membership will be dropped from £25 to £10. In addition, at DZP 'child' will mean under five, so now your four-year-old goes for free!(3)

Bristol Zoo, on the other hand, has membership that is very much on a par with Durrell, but has also affiliated itself with other zoos. Whether or not this would effect Jersey is another matter, because travel to English zoos is not probably that common, but some kind of partnership scheme - perhaps with St Malo's Aquarium (the large one outside the city centre) might be beneficial to encourage French visitors to Jersey, and more Jersey take up on local membership. After all, St Malo is not too expensive for a day trip foot passenger.

Free entry to selected other UK zoos and safari parks, including; Colchester Zoo; Chester Zoo; Edinburgh Zoo; Marwell Zoological Park and Woburn Safari Park . If you want to visit another zoo in the scheme, please
remember to take your welcome or renewal letter with you. (4)

One adult £48.00
Joint (two adults) £77.00
One child (3-15) £19.00
One disabled child £14.50

Another note is the concessions that are available, which are much more inclusive that Jersey, in that concessions are made to the disabled and senior citizens, again a group who might find costs prohibitive.

Concessions are available to disabled visitors, senior citizens, young people aged 15 - 18 years inclusive and students in higher education with NUS or ISIC card.(4)

Lastly, and on another note altogether, a YMCA in America is looking to encourage annual membership in the economic downturn - for those who do not want to declare income, there are the standard rates, but for poorer members of the community, there is a means tested sliding scale. Perhaps Durrell could learn from that?

Have you cancelled your gym membership to cut back in the down economy? Here is some good news: the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA is offering a new income-based membership fee structure in response to the current economic conditions facing many individuals and families in the greater Bridgeport communities.

Through Membership For All, the YMCA hopes to continue to be accessible and affordable to all community members, particularly those who now find themselves having to make tough choices based on personal finances. The program uses a sliding scale rate structure based on gross annual household income so that all people are able to have access to the YMCA, regardless of income.

Proof of income is required at the time of enrollment and all personal information will remain confidential.(5)

I do hope that Durrell (or Jersey Zoo, for those of us with old memories) will survive, but I also hope they look at ways in which they might market their membership in more flexible ways, and attract more people to visit.

At some point, just increasing entry fees and annual memberships reaches a tipping point with supply and demand, and increased fees leads to reduced membership, which necessitates raising fees to generate the same income. Durrell will be just pricing itself out of the market.

It is a vicious spiral, and I hope they can look at alternatives which will increase membership, because while members won't pay every time they visit, they'll certainly browse the shop, and may well buy something for themselves or presents.

It gets people to the shop, if nothing else, and in addition, begins to educate them into the need to support Durrell. If they don't even go there, they won't be in a position for that to happen.

A last comment, which I forgot, is that Durrell were proposing to have a restaurant just on the border of the Zoo to generate extra income without people needing to come in. That seemed like a good idea to me; I hope it has not been shelved.

Links
(1)
http://www.thisisjersey.com/2010/01/19/durrell-axes-14-jobs-in-cost-cutting-move/
(2) www.durrell.org
(3) http://www.dartmoorzoologicalpark.co.uk/
(4) http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/visiting/membership
(5) http://www.cccymca.org/archives/2158

Why Jersey Needs Gift Aid

I have said before, and I shall say it again, because it is the most imperative social truth of our age, that about one-third of the world is rich and two-thirds of the world is poor. By this I mean something very simple. In North America, in most of Europe, in Australia and New Zealand, and now in the Soviet Union, the great majority of the population get enough to eat and don't die before their time. That is what "riches" means, in a world whose harshness those of us born lucky don't willing admit.

In the rest of the world the opposite is true. The great majority of the population don't get enough to eat; and, from the time they are born, their chances of life are less than half of ours, These are crude words, but we are talking about crude things, toil, hunger, death. For most of our brother men, this is the social condition.

It is different from our social condition. That is one reason why there is a direct call upon our magnanimity. If we do not show it now, then both our hopes and souls have shriveled. It may be a longish time fore men at large are much concerned with hopes and souls again.

-C.P. Snow

Gift Aid, not to be confused with Live Aid or Band Aid, is a mechanism whereby the charity can claim extra money from the government when taxpayers make a donation.

It is extremely simple for the individual to do, and was introduced as part of a drive to encourage people to give to charities.

An example of how it works will suffice. If I am a taxpayer in the U.K., I can go online to the Red Cross site, and make a donation of £10. I then fill in my name, address, postcode , and tick a box to say that I am a taxpayer and want the donation to be Gift Aid. That is all that is needed. The Red Cross can then reclaim £2.50 from the tax authorities. It is as simple as that.

In Jersey, there are two mechanisms for charities to benefit from the taxpayer giving. One is the covenant scheme, whereby the person donating agrees to give a sum over more than four years. The other, which is an adjustment to that, allows for a single lump sum payment to be made over £100. These limitations restrict the amount which can be claimed back.

In addition, there is paperwork required, forms to be filled in.

Now the U.K. scheme can involve paperwork, but it also allows for an online declaration to be made. It encourages giving by anyone, and the humblest gift - the widow's mite - can also be a gift aid payment to the charity, only provided the widow pays tax. The declaration can be in writing, on paper, electronically on the internet, or by email, fax, mobile phone or text message. This is a 21st century scheme!

But the U.K. scheme is even better. Once a declaration has been made to a particular charity, it stands - a future gift does not require more forms to be filled in. The charity has the information on file, and does not need an extra form - again a contrast to Jersey.

One extra advantage - a gift aid declaration can be made verbally and recorded as long as the charity sends a written confirmation to the donor. This means that events such as Children in Need can take information from phone pledges in the U.K. and ask the donors if they want to gift aid the donation.

Sponsorship forms can have a single Gift Aid declaration at the top of the form, and a tick box to say the sponsors want to gift aid the funds. The full name and address of the sponsor are all extra that is required, with the sum pledged and collected.

The Jersey Law Commission Report on the Jersey Law of Charities recommended introducing Gift Aid in Jersey in November 2006. A revised report was produced in March 2009. It had the same recommendation.

At present, some Jersey charities have to go cap in hand to the States for grants, but with gift aid, they could much more easily become self-supporting.

Just consider how many events take place which raise money on sponsorship forms, how many donations are made in lieu of flowers when someone dies, how much the children in need, or the recent Red Cross fund raising could raise!

Isn't it time to change?

If you live in Jersey would like to support a campaign to introduce Gift Aid in Jersey, please join the Facebook group

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=255188056438

Let's Introduce Gift Aid to Jersey

Shoreline

http://user.itl.net/~whitsco/Zephyrusprop1.pdf

 

This linked PDF, from "Save our Shoreline" is the exact PDF of the first proposition which differs from that which the States will now be debating on Tuesday.

 

Save Our Shoreline
www.jerseyinperil.com

 

 

 

The Moon Opposes Pluto

NewsScope for January 18, 2010
by Michael Wolfstar
 
Haiti's Earthquake
 
Haiti's horoscope (January 1, 1804; Gonaives, Haiti; noon) reflects the long and difficult history of the country, as well as the current devastation. The Capricorn Sun attended by six other placements in Capricorn shows the tendency for strong, patriarchal government. But with a Mars-Chiron conjunction squaring Saturn, the government has often been ruled by corrupt dictators supported by a brutal and oppressive military.
 
At the moment of the 7.0 earthquake (January 12, 2010; 21:53 UTC), transiting Saturn and Pluto were squaring each other while aligned with Haiti's Mars-Chiron square Saturn. If we think of the transiting Saturn-Pluto square as a crisis of authority (as described here last week), we can see how this incident left Haiti without a functioning central government.
 
Natally, the Moon opposes Pluto in the Virgo-Pisces polarity, which describes a population that has been victimized politically, socially and economically. Challenging transit and/or progressions to planets in the Virgo-Pisces axis often lead to disaster. In Haiti's case, the progressed Moon and Pluto were conjunct in Pisces while being squared by progressed Mars. Here we have the indications for violence and chaos that could have been seen beforehand had any astrologers been tracking Haiti's national horoscope.
 
I came across this recently. I find the notion that the natural disaster was somehow "in the stars" and could have been "seen beforehand had any astrologers been tracking Haiti's national horoscope" is a good demonstration of why I don't give much credence to astrology. One might as well say that any disaster could be foreseen by astrologers and people evacuated beforehand! It just doesn't happen.

"Haiti's horoscope reflects ...the current devastation". If someone had said that before I might pay more attention. Retrospective predictions really aren't much good.
 
Astrology is not the only offender. Even with the technology, and computer models, there is still so much chaos and randomness in weather patterns that weather forecasters either make incorrect predictions, or fudge the forecast ("wintry showers", "occasional rain", "risk of thunder" etc) which are almost impossible to pin down.

I have no gripe about the incorrect forecasts, because it is not an exact science. What I would like to see, however, is an explanation in scientific terms of why the forecast went wrong, and only rarely (the Michael Fish Hurricane) do we get that. Mostly what we get is much the same as in astrology - a retrospective explanation of why the weather happened the way it did, which is, of course, 100% accurate.

I'd like to see the forecasters being more open about the deficiencies in their models, and if astrologers ever want me to take that seriously, I'd like to see them making more definite predictions, and explaining where their models are deficient, and saying how they are improving the models to make better predictions. My prediction: the forecasters might, the astrologers will not.

Haiti Earthquake Appeal

A number of the U.K. based charities allow reclaiming money from tax if you are a tax payer. In other words, the donation is treated as tax free, so not part of your taxable income, and the tax that you have paid on that income (if you pay tax) can by claimed back by the charity.

I have been investigating, and a similar situation applies to a degree in Jersey, though not to the same extent. Any donations in the U.K. can be claimed for; in Jersey, only donations over £100.

Ed Le Quesne noted the following:

Oxfam are a charity recognised by the Comptroller of Income tax.  I pay a monthly standing order under covenant to the Jersey Oxfam group treasurer and he claims back an extra 25% each year.    Similarly with Christian Aid in Jersey..   If you pay to the local group, they can claim back tax and then send the lot off to Christian Aid in London.

I should imagine that Red Cross, Jersey group, have similarly got themselves recognised locally.   You would have to ask their local fundraiser, Sara Clews 720547.

Christian Aid have launched an appeal for Haiti.  Our local treasurer is Martin Dryden, Mont Ube House, La Blinerie, St Clement JE2  

For donations over £100 made to Christian Aid through him a lump sum donation form would add 25%.

Ed Le Quesne


CHRISTIAN AID LAUNCH EMERGENCY £1M HAITI EARTHQUAKE APPEAL

Christian Aid has launched a £1m emergency appeal for victims of the Haiti earthquake. Thousands of people are already feared dead and many more are believed to be critically injured. Countless are thought to be homeless.

The quake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck 15km southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince just before 5pm local time yesterday, and was shortly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5.
 
Launching the appeal, Dame Anne Owers, Chair of Christian Aid, said: 'I visited Haiti in recent months with Christian Aid and was deeply concerned about the level of poverty there. It is one of the poorest places on earth.
 
'This latest disaster is going to cause untold suffering and hardship, particularly in communities with very little to fall back on. There is an urgent need for emergency supplies, including food, shelter and medicine.
 
'In the longer term, rebuilding is going to require massive international assistance. I appeal to people and to governments to give what they can.'

Nick Guttman, head of Christian Aid's humanitarian division, said today: 'The situation in Haiti is very, very serious due to the strength and shallowness of the earthquake and its proximity to the capital Port-au-Prince.

'Most of the buildings and infrastructure in Haiti are very fragile.  Many people have been killed by falling debris and there are still many more trapped under the rubble, in desperate need of assistance.

'Hundreds of offices, hotels, houses and shops have collapsed, the presidential palace lies in ruins, and many churches have also been completely destroyed.

'The Christian Aid office itself has also collapsed and three people, including Christian Aid staff, had to be rescued from the rubble. Thankfully they are safe but communications to the country are very difficult since the city is without electricity and the telephone network has broken down.

'The absolutely critical humanitarian needs now are obviously search and rescue, much of which is initially being carried out by local people and organisations, shelter, clean water and medical assistance.'
 
Christian Aid's Caribbean Regional Manager Judith Turbyne said the Christian Aid building was relatively robust but was still destroyed. Loss of life in poorer communities is expected to be very high.
 
'One of the key issues in Haiti is the weak state and the lack of resources at the state's disposal,' she said.
 
'There will be a national response, but it is unlikely to be sufficient.  There will be a huge need for a concerted response on behalf of the relatively large aid community in Haiti.'
 
Christian Aid partner organisations in Haiti, Veterimed and Koral, are very experienced in emergency response work, and will be working round the clock to meet the urgent humanitarian needs.
 
Ignore this bit and give locally as above.#

Those wishing to donate on on-line should go to www.christianaid.org.uk/haiti-appeal
 
Notes To Editors:

1) Christian Aid works in some of the world's poorest communities in nearly 50 countries. We act where the need is greatest, regardless of religion, helping people build the life they deserve.

2) Christian Aid has a vision – an end to poverty.  Our new drive, Poverty Over, explains what we believe needs to be done – and can be done – to make that vision a reality.  Details at www.christianaid.org.uk
 
Andrew Hogg
News Editor/Campaigns Editor

No bus, snow Bus!

Schools in Jersey closed early yesterday, around 2.20 pm, as the snow and hail began to fall, so that the children would have time to get the school buses and get home safely. By 4.15 pm, the school buses had still not left as the bus inspectors were deciding - dithering might be a more appropriate word - on whether the buses should go or not, if the routes were safe enough. By this time, of course, the road surfaces had deteriorated still further, and the public bus service had been mostly cancelled completely.

The comments pages on the JEP have a lively correspondence on the buses not running (1).

One person writes:

We've just returned from Scandinavia, where it was up to a meter depth of snow, average temps down to minus 13 C, where it would be a joke to close schools, with parents not thinking twice about their children some as young as six walking or to ski to school, without worrying about their little darlings if they fall over, why? because like most sensible countries Norway is not caught up with the Exaggerated madness which ravages Britain called "Health and Safety"! Up there busses, trains and airports run as normal, people go to work by car as normal, as winter tyres are law, from Nov to March whether it snows or not. Before anyone says it, I can assure you Scandinavia hates winter, but they just get on with it, without any whining, and all that real winter hardly gets a mention in the media, don't believe it, then visit it, its stunning and an education that other countries could learn from.

Another writer takes a different tack, commenting on why snow chains were impractical for these sudden bursts of bad weather, as opposed to the thick and long standing levels of snow in Scandinavia.

In defence of Connex. If we had 6″ of snow on the ground I would expect them to fit snow chains and supply a service. As it is we have roads with 2″ in some places and 0″ in others. A fully laden Bus, approx 15 /20 tonnes running on snow chains with no snow would be an ideal way of smashing up the road surfaces. 15 / 20 tonnes of bus + 40 odd souls sliding downhill on ice into a bus queue does not sound too good either.

But another writer notes the difference between the older JMT buses which were narrower, and puts this down as part of the reason, although they also mention the snow chains impacting on the road surfaces.

Some interesting comments here. Connex can't run the buses on snow or ice for three reasons. The buses are too wide for a lot of the roads, they know that if the driver has to take evasive action, (usually to avoid a non professional car driver), the left side of the bus is gonna be ripped open risking passenger injury. Chains WILL damage the roads and they can't maintain a schedule anyway because the roads will be full of stuck vehicles. The gritters get stuck for the same reason.

A bus driver writes, and gives us an "inside view" on why the bus drivers refuse to drive:

Now are you sitting down, I'm about to defend Connex, or rather the bus drivers. We are good, but not supermen, the laws of physics still apply. During this week, I have refused to take a bus along part of a route until it was gritted. A 6 3/4 ton toboggan is not a fun ride! Why? Because I'm selfish, I'd rather you explain to your boss why you are late or can't get in, than me explain to a Coroner why you are dead don't think commuters blame the bus drivers for one moment, but many of them are a little vexed with the individuals who run Connex!

It doesn't explain why the JMT was running bus services in 1987, when I remember catching one from La Moye pub - they sensibly wouldn't go round Corbiere or down to St Brelade's Bay, but they did tackle St Aubin's hill. But perhaps buses were smaller then, and the bus drivers more used to driving in slippery conditions, or alternatively (which may be more likely) were prepared to take more risks.

But new snow tyres are suggested rather than snow chains:

How can anyone blame you for protecting yourself and your passengers? Your bosses should be thankful to you for being so wise. Furthermore, for the safety of all, Connex should invest in some new-generation snow tyres before even asking their drivers to take the buses out on hazardous roads.

Granted, your 'no-snow-roads-ruined-by-chains' scenario holds up but, I find it hard to see how anyone can really defend a company (Connex) which fails to invest in a few sets of winter tyres…New-generation snow/winter tyres don't have studs, therefore, do not cause any damage whatsoever to road surfaces…

Logistically, short bursts of bad weather do not make this feasible, as this writer comments. It would be worth knowing if Connex had snow chains and snow tyres in case of more prolonged and settled periods of snow, though.

Yes, snow tyres are good, but very "expensive". These tyres are also unsuitable and experience rapid wear when used on roads in normal conditions, and to say the least, the ride is uncomfortable. They can not be fitted in 15 minutes by the driver on the side of the road. In advance of inclement weather the wheels have to be removed by mechanics and the snow tyres fitted by tyre fitters. When the weather improves the process is reversed. From our recent experiences they would have been on and off at least 3 times in a fortnight.

So let's look at snow tyres in more detail. In some places, such as parts of Canada, they are required by law:

If you are driving in the winter remember Snow Tyres are now Law in Quebec! (2)

Remembering the writer who spoke of the Scandinavian countries, Norway has this policy in place, which is instructive because it shows there is an extra indirect tax on snow tyres because of their impact on the road surface:

Snow chains or winter tyres are advised during the winter (however, most urban areas now levy a toll on vehicles with studded tyres)(3)

Here in Luxembourg, we are required to have winter tyres, which makes driving in snow a great deal safer (4)

In Sweden there is next to no gritting either-there would be no point since it is too cold and snows too often. Instead people have the appropriate tyres and learn how to drive on compacted snow. As individuals we do not purchase a set of wheels with winter tyres because it is not cost-effective compared to the amount of use we'd get out of them in the UK. This is exactly the same type of cost-benefit analysis that councils have to perform when they decide how many gritters to buy and maintain etc.(4)

Modern winter tyres are not just designed for snow, however. The technology has improved:

Winter tyres are, in fact, designed not just for snow and ice but for any type of cold weather. Winter tyres have especially designed treads to move larger amounts of water than regular tyres, as well as coping with mud and snow, maintaining adhesion long after ordinary tyres lose grip. The softer rubber compound used in cold weather tyres provides excellent grip when the temperature falls below 0 degrees, moulding more easily to cold road surfaces and providing better braking in snow and ice. (5)

In fact, as Wikipedia mentions, winter tyres are actually softer rather than harder, so have less impact on road surfaces. It also mentions the possibility of studs, but notes that is never for heavier vehicles - like buses.

Mud and Snow, (or M+S, or M&S), is a classification for specific winter tires designed to provide improved performance under low temperature conditions, compared to all-season tires. The tread compound is usually softer than that used in tires for summer conditions, thus providing better grip on ice and snow, but wears more quickly at higher temperatures. Tires may have well above average numbers of sipes in the tread pattern to grip the ice.

Some winter tires may be designed to accept the installation of metal studs for additional traction on icy roads. The studs also roughen the ice, thus providing better friction between the ice and the soft rubber in winter tires. Use of studs is regulated in most countries, and even prohibited in some locales due to the increased road wear caused by studs. Typically, studs are never used on heavier vehicles.(6)

But I think, that despite the gripes about health and safety, that the bus driver has a point. One comment on another site in the UK puts this well from a UK bus driver:

The impression I am getting from a few posters here is that they consider that, once it becomes too dangerous for them to drive their own car due to snow and/or ice, it is perfectly acceptable to expect somebody else to drive them (and up to 80 other people) to where they want to be.

Now, I know that public transport should be available to all at all times and it is, if we're being honest, a trifle laughable that it grinds to a halt in inclement weather. I don't want to get into the whys and wherefores, or the Elf'n'Safety aspect but I would like to put across the bus driver's point of view.

It is a huge responsibility, and one that is rarely acknowledged in my opinion, to carry a bus load of passengers about safely and without incident. As a driver, you am responsible for the life of everybody on that bus and as one poster has already said, those passengers will be someone's mum, dad, son, daughter etc. Not only that, but you are also responsible for ensuring that you do not injure anybody not on the bus (if you see what I mean). When the roads are clear and the weather is fine, you can accept that responsibility and, by and large, that responsibility is totally within your control.

Add thick snow and sheet ice (as we have here) into the equation and the control that you exert over the situation diminishes rapidly. A full single decker (ie 49 seats) will weigh in total around eighteen tonnes and that is a lot of vehicle to keep on the straight and narrow. As another poster has said, once a bus starts to slide on ice all you can do hold on to the steering wheel and hope for the best. It is a terrifying experience and one that, once you have had you will not want to repeat ever again.(7)

In conclusion,

A) I think that Connex are certainly right to cancel bus services, except for those on the flat - to Gorey and to St Aubin, but they need to do more to educate the public on why they are doing this - the sheer physics of the situation. It should not be up to bus drivers to defend what is a very sensible policy. Some necessary PR from the bus company, or Transport and Technical Services is required.

B) It would also be worth knowing if they have contingencies such as snow chains or winter tyres for prolonged snow for at least a skeleton bus service.

C) Moreover, with school buses, to get children on buses, then off buses to wait again, and have over an hour between schools closing and buses leaving is simply not acceptable. The schools should have closed earlier before the snow settled, the buses departed promptly before the conditions got worse. I have spoken to people who have young children catching school buses who have been somewhat traumatised by the experience. There seems to have been in some cases certainly - rather like the Eurotunnel fiasco - no responsible adults taking charge and providing reassurance and information, which is what was needed in a crisis.

D) One really good point, for those with internet access, is the rolling display which shows disrupted services, or whether they are running on time at the www.mybus.je which seems to be updated very promptly. I checked this morning, and knew at once that school buses and public services were running normally.

E) This could be improved further. A fixed "emergency" page, available via WAP on mobile phones, would be an even better improvement, as many phones can access mobile web pages (such as those excellent ones providing weather, tide times on Jersey Insight) and would enable the commuter on the move to instantly find out what is happening. After all, if Jersey Insight can provide such as WAP enabled service, it should be simple, and not too costly for Connex to do so.

Lastly, I cannot resist this anecdote posted by one commenter on the JEP website, which evokes a bit of wry humour from yesteryear.

I went to The Beeches, or De La Salle College, in the 60s and I can not recall anytime when we missed school through adverse weather. I can recall when we had snow and ice,in the mid 60s, some scallywag put water in the locks of one of the class rooms, so that when it froze, the teachers couldn't open the building for a while. Then of course there were the inevitable snow ball fights on the playground. Somehow I think the J.M.T. always managed to get us to school….not always popular in those days, as I am sure we would have preferred to have stayed at home.(1)

Links
(1) http://www.thisisjersey.com/2010/01/05/heavy-snow-expected/
(2) http://wikitravel.org/en/Mont-Tremblant
(3) http://www.worldtravelguide.net/country/208/internal_travel/Europe/Norway.html
(4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/22/travel-disruption-live-blog
(5) http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/winter-tyres.asp?gclid=CMzu_NT5oJ8CFYQU4wodlQ-YYw
(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire
(7) http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/?f=2&t=81615