The Train May Be Late

This sort of came to be as I was writing it. Perhaps a hint of "Sapphire and Steel" creeping in - the one with the soldier and the deserted railway platform.

The Train May Be Late

Waiting at the station, it is late
And no sign as yet of the train
As if the twisted threads of fate
Whispered: all is now in vain

An empty platform, I am alone
Bare benches, and a dim light
Time of trial of flesh and bone
Shadows gathering in sight

Flowers bloom, and war is near
Going to the front, leaving soon
So begins the symphony of fear
The final casting of the rune

Long time parting in despair
A lonely soldier and his prayer

1974 - 50 Years Ago - April Part 2

1974 - 50 Years Ago - April Part 2


18—The Royal Court dismissed- the action brought by Allied Publishing Co. Ltd. against Channel Television Ltd. for the alleged broadcasting of defamatory remarks. In dismissing the action, the Bailiff, Sir Robert Le Masurier who sat with Jurats R. F. Le Brocq and H. H. Le Quesne, awarded costs to the defendants.

19.——The non-appearance of an. accused person led to the Deputy Bailiff calling for a “ much more formal " system of remands from the Police Court to the Royal Court today. He said that the mechanics of the act of remanding should be reviewed to include conditions preventing a person on remand: leaving the Island without the permission or the police or Court authorities. ’

20.—An application by the Bower pig-farming family for planning permission for a new piggery on Rue Motier, St. Mary, has been turned down by the Island Development Committee.

21.——Two rescues were carried out by the Fire Service with their Zodiac inshore rescue craft. The first of these was when two men were brought off La Rocco Tower in St. Ouen’s Bay. Later three schoolboys were lifted from Green Island.

22—Two boatloads of French children arrived in the Harbour this morning heralding the annual series of two day education trips for 5,000 young pupils. The children will arrive in blocks of 500 over the next ten days, and they are brought over to the Island under the organization of the Comité d'Acceuil, and the French Ministry of Education.

23.—Deputy Norman Le Brocq wants to introduce the “ dole ” to Jersey to replace the present system of parish relief—a method of unemployment benefit which he thinks is “ degrading and outdated ". In a long list of amendments to the Draft Social Security (Jersey) Law which he lodged at the States today, the Deputy asks that benefits at the same rate as sickness benefit be given to people who are unemployed, provided that the recipient meets some fairly stringent conditions.'

23.—Sea and air arrivals last month totalled 42,287, an increase of 7,974 (23 per cent) on the comparative month last year.

25.—-The Housing Department have threatened to tow away all derelict vehicles left on housing estates. And to prove that they mean business they will be swooping on one estate “ next week or the week after ” to carry out their threat.

26.—Last night it rained to the relief of Island growers and Waterworks Company manager Mr. Rodney Clarke. But it was terribly little and we need an awful lot more.” said Mr. Clarke who last week warned that a water shortage could lead to an increase in water rates.

27.—-The Royal Square was a hive of activity with the opening events of the Spring Festival coinciding with the opening of Youth Week. The Variety Club’s open-air market started at 10 am. and raised £2,250 towards their Le Geyt Farm home for handicapped children. In the afternoon, as the market continued, the opening of Youth Week became the centre of attraction.

29.—A work-to-rule by 19 British Rail freight drivers ended after talks with management that lasted; all day. An overtime ban. was called at 1.0 pm today in support of the men’s pursuit at a separate Channel Islands wage agreement, but BR’s assistant Jersey agent. Mr. Bernard Wagood said that the men had agreed to resume nomal work while negotiations continued.

30.—Powerful opposition to the Fort Regent Development Committee's plans for the Fort emerged with Senator Cyril Le Marquand’s two major Committees lining up to resist the rotunda development. Both the Finance and Economics and Policy Advisory committees lodged recommendations.

James and John: Book of the Week

I listened to this gripping and appalling "Book of the Week" on Radio 4. 

The only judge who comes out of this with any credit was the magistrate, Hensleigh Wedgwood, who had committed the three men to trial (he had no option under the law), who subsequently wrote to the Home Secretary, Lord John Russell, arguing for the commutation of the death sentences, stating:

"It is the only crime where there is no injury done to any individual and in consequence it requires a very small expense to commit it in so private a manner and to take such precautions as shall render conviction impossible. It is also the only capital crime that is committed by rich men but owing to the circumstances I have mentioned they are never convicted."

Although Wedgwood was a deeply religious man he did not concur with the then prevailing view of society that sodomy committed between humans should be a capital offence.

James and John: Book of the Week

Read by Simon Russell Beale. Historian and MP Chris Bryant’s book takes us to the early 19th Century, when despite great political and social change and reform, British attitudes to homosexuality were more antagonistic than ever, and in 1835 two consenting adults, James Pratt and John Smith, became the last men in Britain to be hanged for sodomy. They were working class men whose poverty and lack of privacy led directly to their discovery and arrest and, despite a desperate campaign to save them, resulted in one of the great legal injustices of the time.

Episode 1 - The Move to London
Simon Russell Beale reads historian and MP Chris Bryant’s story of James Pratt and John Smith, two consenting adults who became the last men in Britain to be hanged for sodomy

Episode 2 - An Assignation
Today, amidst pervasive antipathy towards homosexuality, James and John meet.

Episode 3 - The Offence
It’s 1835, and, trapped by poverty and lack of privacy, James Pratt and John Smith have borrowed a rented room and risked everything.

Episode 4 - The Trial
The moment they were caught together James Pratt and John Smith’s lives changed. They were immediately arrested, and now, in Newgate, the bleakest of prisons, they await trial.

Episode 5 - The Final Pleas
There was little chance of reprieve, but one last desperate hope remained. James's wife, Elizabeth, began collecting names for a petition, in the hope of appealing to the King.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/james-and-john-9781526644978/

From award-winning historian and Sunday Times bestselling author Chris Bryant MP, James and John tells the story of what it meant to be gay in early 19th-century Britain through the lens of a landmark trial.

They had nothing to expect from the mercy of the crown; their doom was sealed; no plea could be urged in extenuation of their crime, and they well knew that for them there was no hope in this world.

When Charles Dickens wrote these tragic lines he was penning fact, not fiction. He had visited the condemned cells at the infamous prison at Newgate, where seventeen men who had been sentenced to death were awaiting news of their pleas for mercy. Two men stood out: James Pratt and John Smith, who had been convicted of homosexuality. Theirs was 'an unnatural offence', a crime so unmentionable it was never named. That was why they alone despaired and, as the turnkey told Dickens, why they alone were 'dead men'.

The 1830s ushered in great change in Britain. In a few short years the government swept away slavery, rotten boroughs, child labour, bribery and corruption in elections, the ban on trades unions and civil marriage. They also curtailed the 'bloody code' that treated 200 petty crimes as capital offences. Some thought the death penalty itself was wrong. There had not been a hanging at Newgate for two years; hundreds were reprieved. Yet when the King met with his 'hanging' Cabinet, they decided to reprieve all bar James and John. When the two men were led to the gallows, the crowd hissed and shouted.

In this masterful work of history, Chris Bryant delves deep into the public archives, scouring poor law records, workhouse registers, prisoner calendars and private correspondence to recreate the lives of two men whose names are known to history – but whose story has been lost, until now.

Emmaus

Emmaus

Walking along that long and lonely road
The way of despondency, path to despair
With no place of refuge, no place of abode
Only left with uncertainty, grief and fear

Walking along that long and lonely road
Refugees, with no place of safety left
Our footsteps falter, our pace slowed
Past life destroyed, gone, now bereft

Walking along that long and lonely road
Until a stranger joined us, began to talk
Retold our story, lightened a heavy load
Until we saw journeys end to our walk

After that Emmaus road, sheltered inside
Broke bread and opened our eyes wide

1974 - 50 Years Ago - April Part 1

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1974 - 50 Years Ago - April Part 1



1.———British Airways today reported " sensational " increases in the number of passengers carried on their winter flights to and from the Channel Islands. At the same time the airline announced that they will not be operating Jets to Jersey until July. An April date was originally forecast..



2.—-—The new Consul de France in Jersey will be M. Michel Moreux, at present Consul in Ethiopia. He was Vice-Consul in Jersey from 1945 to 1947. He replaces M. Louis Pannier, who leaves the Island next month on his promotion to the rank of Consul-Général in Brazil.



3.——A £3,5000 physiotherapy unit, which is making life much easier for those giving and receiving treatment at Mont a l’A'bbé School was officially opened. by Education Committee president Senator Reg Jeune.



4.—-Dissatisfaction with the. appearance of the swimming pool roof at Fort Regent, and with the deteriorating condition of the Forts main dome, has left the project’s roofing contractors with a 137,000 sq. ft. headache. The roof of the pool has changed colour so dramatically since its opening in March. 1971, that concern is being felt for the Fort’s brilliant-white covering, which has fast become a landmark in and around St. Heller, and already the main roof show signs that its looks have faded in the few months since its completion.



5.—Petrol coupons issued earlier this year should be retained, said the Defence Committee in a statement issued this morning. But provided that consumption can continue to be limited to 90 per cent of last year’s, petrol rationing is unlikely.



6.-—A 60-year-old woman was viciously attacked by an unknown man at her home in Victoria Crescent, Upper Midvale Road. A search net the area was begun immediately but the attacker was not found. Investigations are continuing. '



8.——An average pay increase of 32 per cent for all civil servants, excluding those in the very top bracket. was announced by the Establishment Committee. The total additional cost will be over £400,000 this year as the increase is backdated to January 1.



9.——The latest cost of living figures for Jersey released today show that prices have risen by a staggering 7.8 per cent in the past three months and by 17.7 per cent over the past year.



10.—One or Jersey’s oldest building firms, Mark Army Ltd of Columbus Street, St. Helier, has merged with an English construction company. It was announced today that following months of negotiations John E. Witshier and Co. Ltd. have acquired a 75 per cent shareholding in the local. company.



11.——Both St. Helier Harbours’ £60,000 Scotch derrick cranes are out of action—one because of the dredging near the New North Quay and the other because of a faulty gearbox. ‘



13. The number of unemployed in the Island continues to run higher than a year ago. This morning 138 people were registered with the Social Security Department’s Employment Exchange—44 more than in the middle of April last year.



17.-Jersey’s new lifeboat is to be named the Thomas James King, as a tribute to the retired coxswain of that name who still lives in the Island. Capt. Ron Taylor. honorary secretary of the local branch or the RNLI, said today that the institution’s executive committee in London had approved the branch recommendation that the new vessel—expected in Jersey Later in the year—be named after Mr. King.

Pharmacy Waiting: Some Proposals for Improvements

Bailiwick Express noted the issues with the waiting at the hospital pharmacy

"When one politician joined the lengthy hospital pharmacy queue last week, she was confronted with a scene she described as “chaos”… someone crying and begging for help, staff being abused, individuals being turned away empty-handed."

The Government website attempts to address these issues but it raises other issues:

https://blog.gov.je/2023/10/24/hospital-pharmacy-questions-answered/

"Why not open 2 hatches (one for drop off, one for collection)?: When we have capacity, we aim to have two pharmacy assistants at the hatches; we have listened to patients comments."

Why is there not capacity when queues are endemic? Surely that needs extra staff as a matter of urgency.

There are two waiting areas that are now fitted with pharmacy screens which notifies patients when their medicine is ready at the counter for them. The waiting rooms can be found outside of Pharmacy and a larger more comfortable are in the Outpatients waiting room, approx. 15m away.

The problem is that when a prescription is ready one has to go to the queue.

There are several ways in which matters can be improved. 

Firstly, matters could be improved at times when the queue is long by opening two hatches, which would mean two people could be seen at once. Supermarkets do this all the time. When someone at a counter notes that a single counter is not enough, they press a button and someone goes to another counter, and immediately halves the queue and waiting times. One the queue is manageable a hatch can be closed again.

Second, the screens should function more like those in Customers and Local Services. When someone is available to see a client, the screen indicates that, and they go to the person behind the desk which is free to see them. They can see their place in the queue but when it is their time, they do not then have to join a queue. Obviously if someone doesn't come in that slot, they get shifted down, but as they know they are going to be seen, most people stay around sitting. Sitting in this way is surely of major importance in a hospital setting where some people may be unable to stand for any length of time. Currently the system tells the patient - their prescription is now ready - please join the queue which completely nullifies the "larger more comfortable" waiting area for sitting.

Thirdly, especially for repeat prescriptions when these are necessary, Boots the Chemist operates a system whereby a text is sent saying the prescription is ready. This could be charged to the patient but would be low cost rather that the proposed solution of going away and ringing to see if the prescription is ready. Not only does that clog up the hospital switchboards, the cost of waiting on the telephone to the patient (who again joins a queue) is vastly more inefficient than a text based system

An interesting study - "Studying the Efficiency of Waiting Time in Outpatient Pharmacy" (2020) also makes some other recommendations. It notes the following issues with a pharmacy they studied:

"First, the pharmacy serves all outpatient clinics and the average waiting time for the patients is between 90 to 120 minutes. Second, prescriptions are written manually by doctors which might cause some difficulties to the pharmacists. The number of medicines prescribed is between 1500 to 1800 per day. Third, the size and layout of the pharmacy does not contribute to the number of prescriptions being prepared and the number of patients. Finally, a whole pharmacy storage is dedicated to the unclaimed prescriptions."

And it also quotes the World Health Organization (WHO) which said: “The extent to which healthcare services provided to individuals and patient populations improve desired health outcomes. In order to achieve this, health care must be safe, effective, timely, efficient, equitable and people-centered.”

They suggest the following improvements, based on logistical and statistical studies:

"Results showed that by proposing automated waiting system with automated prescriptions, where doctors can send prescriptions over an online system; this will enhance communication between doctor and pharmacist, save time and effort, as well as will increase the efficiency of the service"

They also note that dispensing prescriptions can be eased by two windows by using "patient categorization, where not all types of patients are served from the same window. By categorizing each type of patient in a need base, for example, special needs and low immunity patients require more time since the pharmacists needs to explain thoroughly the prescription, so they will have special privacy window, and the refill patient service should be by itself since its fast and they can request the refill over phone and/or online. This as well will reduce the unclaimed prescriptions due to the short waiting time, and since most of the unclaimed prescriptions were due to the long waiting time."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016120301321

Weather Lore

Weather Lore

March in like a lion, out like a lamb, they say:
But I am not so sure, looking out across the bay;
I remember the winds, the rain, the howling gale,
At start of March, only a brave skipper set sail;
And now at the end, the fierce breakers rolling in:
A stormy coast reminding me of Jamaica Inn;
Between the tides, the smugglers ply their trade,
But in this weather, by the warm fireside stayed,
Quaffing their pints of ale, singing songs of the sea,
While boats remain safe moored at the quay;
March is ending with the same incessant rain,
And Easter Saturday is empty grief and pain;
The sun dimmed, and the light has gone out:
The tidal currents foaming with self-doubt;
Darkness visible, the lamps going out again:
War threatens once more the world of men;
March’s own god, Mars, the bringer of war,
Echoes in the rain, the gales, the tidal roar;
The shadows grow long, and longer still:
In a war torn world, where to find goodwill?
Amidst refugees, a world turned on its head:
Only destruction, fear, hate are not dead;
And yet, the empty altar, bare, and alone,
Crosses carved into hard, uncaring stone,
The cold damp earth, the sodden grave,
Are not the final word. Be brave, be brave!
Hope lies in patience, waits in darkness now,
And as sun dawns, makes her rainbow vow.