Advent Hopes

Advent Hopes

The darkest days come, the longest night
Yet on a clear night, the stars shine out
The planets adorn the heavens so bright
And their songs bring hope to doubt

Poor shepherds, on the hillside with sheep
Scraping a living, for their families at home
Beneath the stars, their silent vigil keep
Watchful eyes upon where sheep roam

Cold is the night, huddling by a warming fire
Telling tales of old, a famous shepherd boy
Lifting the spirits, hearing hope’s desire
And their words bring so near that joy

This is a lesson true to hold fast and wait
And find the path to be made straight

Traffic: The Big Snarl Up

Traffic: The Big Snarl Up
Jersey Topic 1965

Where are the multi-storey car parks
What steps are being taken to fight the traffic chaos
Will we have parking meters soon
Who is taking the problem seriously

A topical point: it is said of St. Helier that the only way to find a parking space is to be born on it. Anyone who has known the frustration of driving in.o St Helier and attempting to park a car—legally or illegally—will know how true this is. But what is being done ? `Statistically, the problem is so frightening that one look at the figures is enough to make you push them in a drawer, lock it and forget all about them.

But the facts are these: car ownership by 1980 on present trends will be about 27,600 cars —an increase of 46 % on today's figure. And take a look at these figures. In the fifteen years from. 1948 to 1963 the number of commercial vehicles has risen by 23 %, public transport vehicles by 46 % and private cars by 182 %.

Car ownership today is less than three people per car, equivalent to the density of the United States and compared to 11 persons per car in the United Kingdom. Clearly Jersey in general and St. Helier, a town designed for the horse and trap, in particular have a vast problem of traffic and car parking to cope with.

The writing was on the wall in 1962 when the Island Development Plan was presented to the States. This stated categorically: "The Town, as the centre of the economic and social life of the Island is the focal point of almost all traffic movement. Probably half of the total 20,000 vehicles are based within the Town and the remainder are drawn as to a magnet into its narrow crowded streets. Congestion is acute, especially in and around the central shopping area . . . within the next decade or less, conditions will become intolerable".

A report presented to the States on October 13th last year, prepared by a traffic expert, Mr. J. D. W. Jeffrey, T.D., M.I.C.E., M. Inst.H.E., said: "It is obvious that if the streets are to be cleared of parked vehicles more off-street parking is vital . . . a figure of at least 3,000 spaces should be the target".

These words seem to be lost on the States who, whenever traffic is debated, bury their heads in the sand and try to ignore the problem.

Parking in St. Helier is the problem of the Constable of St. Helier. He and his Town Hall staff have been doing a Canute every year fully realising that they would eventually be swamped by traffic chaos. At the moment St. Helier has sixteen wardens. This is to be increased to 20 with an additional six on temporary for the summer. They will be operating throughout the day, in the evening, and on Sundays. Their brief? To keep traffic flowing. They will be equipped with radio controlled jeeps which can keep in constant touch with the Town Hall to race to trouble spots.

TOPIC is full of admiration for these efforts in easing the problem. But these are only temporary measures and will eventually be ineffective against the rising tide of car popula-tion. There is only one answer to easing the traffic and parking problem and that is the provision of multi-storey car parks in carefully sited positions.

Car parking comes under the Defence Committee, led by Senator Ralph Vibert. And no one could be more concerned about the problem than he is. His Committee presented a report to the House in September last year, which said : "It is obvious that further car parking space is required near the centre of town. The Committee has been awaiting a decision of the States in respect of the tunnel but now considers that the need is so urgent that car parking plans should proceed irrespective of this decision."

The report recommended that multi-storey car parks should be built at Snow Hill and the Cattle Market at a cost of £342,000. The Committee were told to go and interest private enterprise. This they have done and shortly they will be presenting their plans to the States for approval. Rightly Senator Vibert could not tell TOPIC what these plans were but he gave a good clue when, during Fort Regent debate, he said that private companies would only be interested in coming to Jersey if they could handle all the car parking sites in St. Helier.

It is to be hoped that when the matter comes before the States they will not delay what is a vital decision to wait for any more traffic reports or surveys. For one doesn't need an expert to see just what St. Helier will be like in five years time if the States continue to dither over this matter.

When traffic is next discussed those members of the States who do not think the problem is serious should take heed of the words of the Jeffrey report : . . I feel much of the traffic regulation in St. Helier has been ,dealt with very much on an ad hoc basic . . . traffic management is now a very important subject and in the U.K. it is the responsibility of the engineers working in close co-operation with the police. I am of the opinion that very careful consideration must be given as a matter of urgency to the reorganisation of the present system of traffic management on the lines of the modern methods in use in the U.K."

TOPIC concludes : Jersey motorists get their motoring very cheaply indeed. They must be prepared to pay to park their cars either in car parks or in the streets—for it is certain that parking meters must come to St. Helier if multi-storey car parks are built otherwise people will still park on the streets. The only alternative is a complete ban on all street parking. Whilst recognising that the provision of two multi-storey car parks will be a considerable improvement it will not be the answer to the traffic problem of the seventies. What is needed is a Traffic Engineering Department to plan for the future and make sure that we never get as far behind as we are now

1 Multi-storey car parks can help the problem of traffic chaos. They have been promised for a long time. Will we ever get them?

2 Car ownership in Jersey is as high as in the United States. By 1980 conditions will be chaotic unless there is proper planning.

  
3 Traffic wardens in their jeep set out to keep traffic moving in St. Helier.

4 The Snow Hill bus site—it has been proposed to turn this former bus station into a multi-storey car park.

The Nazi Ideology and Capture of the Minds of Children

I think one of the most chilling images of the recent "House Through Time" was the look at the German teacher in Primary Schools. The reading primers had originally no Nozi propaganda or imagery in the early 1930s. By the late 1930s, they were full of it.

I suppose I have always wondered when seeing the Hitler Youth at rallies how they could have been sucked into this pernicious ideology. Images of teenagers saluting in rallies are widespread, but I had never before seen pages of a children's book before. Of course, we tend to see the war and its symbolism in black and white, which distances it from us. The book, however, unlike film clips and photographs is there with swastikas against vivid red flags. One of the first words they had to learn in the new regime, as David Olusoga told us, was "Heil". As in "Heil Hitler". 

It is I suppose logical that if you want to capture a State, you start with the youngest hearts and minds, and inculcate them in your ideology. 

You also go after the academics and professionals. A doctor living in the block in Berlin left to go to America because, being Jewish, he lost his job. As David said:

"For Herbert Rosenfeld, a Jewish doctor living in Pfalzburger Strasse, it means the loss of his livelihood. His contract is abruptly terminated as a result of new policies preventing Jews from working in the professions. He is stripped of his job as a dermatologist because he is 'not of Aryan descent."

But those who were Jewish sympathisers who stood up for their rights were also in a perilous situation. Poke their head above the parapet, and they would be taken away. 

An ideology cannot stand contradiction, and we can see how the beliefs taken on by the young fed into the wider picture. The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union  to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. 

It was those young people who now became the ambassadors for the regime, set on burning any books which were viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors among others. The initial books burned were those of Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky, but came to include very many authors, including Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, writers in French and English, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology. 

Dissenting voices were silenced, and where those opinions lived on in books, they were destroyed. As the Nazi ideology spread, the police, far from preventing scapegoating and threats against those who stood out, were also suborned to take action against those people.

Could it happen again? Certainly. Perhaps not in the same way, but the same signs would be visible. The demonising of critics of an ideology, the promotion of it to young children, the silencing of dissenting voices, the removal of books from libraries. Subjects of debate become taboo. These would all be warning signs, as would the fear that to speak out would be dangerous, and it would be better to just keep silent and not speak out. We should not assume that just because we have freedoms now, we will keep them.

“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it."(John Stuart Mill)

"If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better. "(George Orwell)

References:

A clip of the schoolbooks from the BBC website

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jwkhb1

Who pays the Ferryman

Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong—but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong! Heaven save us from poltroons who fear to make a choice. Let us stand up and be counted." (The Right Honourable John Joseph Bonforte)

A political poem for a change today. This is a comment on the fiasco which is the Jersey indecision over a Ferry operator, where the Minister says "we have to delay and make sure we get in right", while holiday makers cannot make bookings after March, food importers and exporters cannot plan ahead, and I suspect they are trying hard to find a way of going with the preferred operator, which has been known since the chief officer of the department let the cat out of the bag months ago.

Who pays the Ferryman

Who pays the Ferryman? It is not I
Said the Minister, with a great sigh
Legality, finances, and don’t forget
It all takes time, and so not just yet
The words of nonsense tumble out
A decision reached without a doubt
He said: We have got to get this right
Began in January, now an end in sight?
Holidaymakers cannot book, chaos here
But I will soon sort it, he says, never fear
We will reset the clock, and start again
Retreating to his departmental den
He has my confidence, Chief Minister said
So that makes two! His career is dead
Nearly eleven months and still no choice
Until he decides, and says Rejoice, Rejoice!
Like Thatcher at the Falklands, but I say
He’s more like General Galtieri with delay
So let us sum up, the case to debunk
I think his ship is well and truly sunk

Dennis Ryan: Constable of St Helier

Top Level Viewpoint:

Dennis Ryan: Constable of St Helier [1961-1968]
Jersey Topic 1965

You know when you have been talking at length with him that he belongs to a progressive school. He is conscious of the past, but doesn't worship it. If he thinks an old established system is inefficient he has no qualms about burying it once he has found a better one to replace it. Equally so he will not destroy something that is efficient because it is old. He is modern and topical.

He has the same practical attitude about the honorary system in Jersey. Because he belongs to it does not mean that he blindly supports it. "If I found that public safety was being threatened or there were glaring inefficiencies in police work because of the honorary system I would be the first to call for its abolition". He added: "I have said many times publicly that provided the honorary police realise their limitations they can continue to serve Jersey well. It is when they try and go outside of their field that trouble starts". He is a strong supporter of the system on social grounds. "The system does encourage people to play an active part in community. To lose this would be a great pity".

Dennis Ryan is a businessman of no mean ability. As chairman of a building business, the largest garage network in the Channel Islands and a hotel group, he needs to organise himself properly to carry out these duties. Add to this his work as Constable of St. Helier and a member of the States and you have a picture of a man who must use every minute of the day.

Ideas run from him like a gushing tap. Always he is probing, twisting, debating—you can see his mind working when you talk to him. He admits to having a tape recorder in his car so that when he thinks of something as he is driving, the idea is not lost in a mass of everyday detail but recorded. He keeps a notebook by his bed for the same reason. He is a man who requires very little sleep and who often starts work at 4 a.m. "I have never been a night worker" he says. "But after a few hours sleep I find I can start work again and work best early in the morning".

He makes all-important policy decisions in the early hours. I asked him if all this work was really necessary. Did he think differently now about work after his recent thrombosis, which laid him up for six weeks? "Yes, that did shake me up" he admits. "I had time to stop and think about things and I now take things a lot easier." His illness also made him very aware of the number of friends he has that he didn't know about. His admittance to hospital caused great concern amongst his parishioners and he was very touched by the numbers of get-well messages he received.

He was also amused by a number of people who insisted that he took things easier and then worked them-selves up into a fine lather in front of him about the parking problem. What did he think was the biggest problem facing Jersey? His reply came quick and to the point: "Undeniably over-population. I think the time has come for us to tackle this problem seriously. The population is rising faster than any of us realise. I would like to see a commission appointed to investigate the control of immigration should be done as quickly as possible."

When he took over as Constable of St. the image of the office had slipped to a very low level. Evidence of the drastic shake-up that was to follow has the Ryan stamp all over it. The office of Constable was given a new dignity.

The Town Hall staff knew that here was about business methods and was going to put them into practice. Was it difficult doing this? "No biggest problem was to modernise the organisation and in this the Town Clerk's great experience has been the vital factor.

The staff had no plan to work to. They were thinking along out-dated lines and I wanted them to be up-to-date in their way of thinking but to be planning for it is the future we are concerned with.

He will perhaps be best remembered attempts to lighten the burden of people in distress and for the aged. He was prominent in scrapping the term “Poor Law” and substituting "Public Assistance". St Helier House, that marvellous old people's institution was his brainchild. Did this, in fact, represent his political leanings? He says. "Undoubtedly. I am left of centre and this came from my own home background".

Family life means a great deal to him. He has six children, three by his first marriage, which was dissolved and he married his second wife, Maisie, in 1954. She is a woman whom he describes as "my greatest asset”.

His originality can also be painful, how to solve the problem of cars speeding on the drive to his lovely home at St. John, he put notices up but no one took any notice. So he built a hump across the drive at the entrance to his courtyard. Speeding guests now knock at his door rubbing their heads as they bump the ceiling of their cars. “It stops them speeding" he says with a smile.

Repeating the Past

Mass deportations, the removal of citizenship even from people born in the country. A generational sweep up of a community, targeting those marked out and vilified as an existential threat. Is history about to repeat itself? Not exactly, but there are parallels, and there is a gathering storm.

Repeating the Past

The clear blue sky, then a storm cloud
Darkening skies threaten the worse
First the rallies, and cheering crowd
And for the outsider comes a curse

Night darkens, and dim the lamps
The rulers decide, and take a stand
Round them all up, place in camps
For we have to protect our land

Now the hurricane unleashes force
The stranger, the alien, blown away
Mass deportations take their course
Oblivion is waiting, so they say

We have been along this bad road before
Taken by a leader whose followers adore

The Swimming Pool Boom and the Men Behind It

For a few years in the 1970s, we had a subscription to the St Brelade's Bay pool (as mentioned below) and before our dinner around 6.30, around 5.45 when the guests were heading to the dining room, we would cycle down and have the pool virtually to ourselves, and see how many laps we could do, or how far we could swim underwater. On busy summer occasions it was also nice, as the small stall there sold ice cream scoops in cones, and hot chocolate. Both delicious after a swim! My friend Nigel Miles' father David Miles was chief accountant at the Seymour Group, so we'd also have occasions when we could use that pool too, and David Seymour (now just retiring from the group), and a friend at school, was often also there. In those days, it wasn't covered in, but it still had incredibly high diving boards. I think I managed one of the slightly higher ones - I went to see the view from the top one, but slunk back down, like Mr Bean does when he goes to a high diving board! Friends of my parents (who we also knew from school), such as the Stilwels has - like the article mentioned - also had swimming pools installed. It was very much a way of showing you had arrived!

The Swimming Pool Boom and the Men Behind It
Jersey Topic 1965

There has been a quiet boom taking place in Jersey during the last five years. It has affected the way of life of residents and tourists alike and has gone on unnoticed and unhindered. It is a swimming pool boom. Five years ago a swimming pool was considered a luxury by hoteliers apd residents. Now it is reaching the stage that if you haven't a pool at the bottom of your garden you are definitely out of fashion.

There are now in Jersey about 60 pools of various shapes and sizes and it is estimated that in another five years there will be 250. Orders for next winter are pouring in to the two firms who specialise in swimming pool construction in Jersey—Channel Island Contracting Co. Ltd. (Gilliam Seahorse Pools) and Landfield Ltd.

The Gilliam 'piece de resistance'—the St. Brelades Bay Hotel pool.

The boom is part of our new and affluent society. Wealthy residents coming to Jersey and buying a home soon discover that the vagaries of the Jersey tidal system make swimming in the sea time-wasting—and it is, of course, very cold: Also the pool sets off the house and adds greatly to its market value. Hotels find that the fact that they have a pool gives them a distinct edge over those that don't, as well as providing an air of luxury for their guests at a comparatively small outlay. And let's be honest, we all like luxury.

Amongst the island's top star hotels the St. Brelades Bay was the first to see the need to provide a swimming pool for their guests. Many people regarded it as amazing that a hotel on the edge of such a magnificent beach should see it necessary to install a swimming pool. But it proved an instant success both for residents of the hotel and island people who are able to join a club on an annual subscription, which entitles them to use the pool and the fine night club attached to the hotel. Other hotels have followed suit. Not only the big ones, but the smaller ones too.

Work continues on the Merton Hotel swimming pool

Today, the hotel without a pool is a neck behind in the race to offer the best amenities. Certainly the biggest swimming pool to be built this winter was the Merton Hotel pool. This was swimming pool construction on a vast scale—the largest private enterprise pool believed to have been built in the British Isles. The pool is built to A.S.A. specifications, is of international size and has diving towers 10 metres high. The diving tank is fifteen feet deep and at the other end is a children's pool. From end to end the pool measures 204 feet.

Why did the Merton Hotel, a highly successful establishment with full bookings every year from May to October see the need to put in a pool of this vast size ? Mr. Robin Seymour, joint managing director of Seymours Ltd., said "In these days of increasing competition from the Continent and indeed within Jersey itself it is only sensible to keep moving forward. We regard the provision of a swimming pool as being another amenity to offer our guests. It is an added attraction and it keeps us up in the race".

He added : "The reason for making it so big was that when we were planning the pool we saw that to cater for over 600 people we needed a pool almost of inter-national size. We felt we might just as well spend the extra money and in fact make it international. It will now be possible for us to hold international events at the Merton".

  

The Merton swimming pool is one of the thirty being built this winter by Channel Island Contracting Co. Ltd. Man behind the company—and indeed the main figure in the Jersey swimming pool boom—is Mr. Michael Lee, an energetic 36-year-old Hampshire man. He came to Jersey in 1960 with William F. Rees & Co. engaged on Sewerage Board work. He saw the great future for swimming pools in the island and in 1962 formed his own company with a partner to specialise in swimming pool construction. He linked with Gilliam Pools of Purley, who provide all the filtration equipment for his pools, and in his first year he built ten pools; his staff was about a dozen. Last year he built twenty. This year thirty are on the go. Next year it will be fifty. And his staff has risen to nearly 100.

The company offer a complete service to the pool buyer. This includes a basic design for the pool from his design team, the construction and final landscaping and, most important, servicing and upkeep of filtration equipment. For this the company has a fleet of three radio controlled vans in constant touch with head office so that they can dash to a pool immediately anything goes wrong. Says Mr. Lee: "For hotels, the swimming pool has become an economic necessity. It means an increase in bookings, happier guests who are delighted at the luxury in the back garden and an increase in profits within the hotel as it encourages people to stay and spend their money".

He added: "As far as private homes are concerned the swimming pool is replacing the car in the one-upmanship stakes. These views were endorsed by the other firm connected with swimming pool building in Jersey, Land-field Ltd. Primarily a building company, they formed a swimming pool division two years ago headed by 20-year-old Mr. John H. Marshman and Mr. Vernon Brooks. Their first pool was in Guernsey for the States at La Valette, which was built through an associate company. This year they are building six pools in various parts of Jersey.

They have linked with Swimquip, a firm dealing with the latest American filtration equipment. Visiting Jersey last month to see the swimming pool boom at close quarters was Col. Bill McBlain Stephen, managing director of Swimquip in Britain. After looking around the island he told me: "I think it true to say that the potential in Jersey is very big, as indeed it is in Britain, where the swimming pool business has grown fantastically in the last three years. Through Landfield Swimquip we hope to serve that potential".

Already the Landfield order book is filling for next year. Amongst their schemes is an exciting project for a hotel roof-top pool. They also run a scheme with a finance company to enable people to purchase pools on an easy payment plan and this will enable small hotels and guest houses to finance this amenity without a big capital outlay initially. Says Mr. Marshman: "Swimming pools are here to stay. Interest in them is tremendous and we are getting enquiries every day".

In America at the present moment is a director of Landfield Ltd., visiting California on a three week round trip studying the latest methods of filtration and pool construction. What is the cost of a pool? For a reasonably sized one in the garden from £1,500 upwards.

But both swimming pool companies offer a range of portable pools for those who just want a little one. These sell from about £200. The fashion in swimming pools in Jersey has also brought about increased business in garden furniture. In Jersey last month was Mr. F. W. Odell, a director of L. E. Gant Ltd., manufacturers of Elegant and Leisure Garden furniture. His company's leisure chairs will be very evident around pools in the island this year. So there it is. Are you in fashion ? Have you got a swimming pool at the bottom of your garden ?