Have I Got Election News for You

Later on, I will be examining manifestos in detail, especially when it comes to population, an area which some candidates seem to have shied away from almost as much as the States survey on the future of Jersey does, with the vaguest of platforms.

Meanwhile I want to concentrate on some of the rather more amusing or silly statements by candidates or supporters. Mary O Keefe-Burger has this to say on immigration:

"Our median age of our working population is 41.6, this is too high. We should be at about 18-19. Our median aged working population will be retiring and Jersey is facing a huge crisis in less than 20 years. "

This is evidently a statement from someone who is totally clueless about the word "median". The median means the mid-point. It is not to be confused with the mean or arithmetic average. That is found by adding the numbers and dividing by the total. With a skewed population (as ours is), the average is going to be pulled higher by those on the bulge - the older people. In the same way, wages are usually skewed and the average is pulled well above the mid-point by relatively few people earning considerable amounts.

The median, on the other hand, is the mid-point. So a median age working population of 41.6 of say 60,000 people would mean 30,000 above that and 30,000 below. Mary would like a median working age population of 18. So given a working population of, for example, 60,000 - this would mean 30,000 working population below 18 and 30,000 above. That's a heck of a lot of 16-18 year olds working!

That is what happens when you are clueless about mathematics.

But if you are clueless about how to spell, and never even thought to run your manifesto through spell-check, you get this:

Doesn't it make you want to dispair, sorry despair? It reminds me of "Yes Minister" - "the Minister of Education is illiterate"! And also a cheapskate - the posters still say "Time for Change" even though that pressure group disappeared years ago.

And the following exchange on Facebook is also amusing, especially as Anne Southern is digging her own grave, supplying Mike Dun with the perfect punchline:

Indeed he did.

Mike Dun 1,948
Geoff Southern 1,429

And guess who was bottom! yes, a sitting Deputy Southern! The electorate didn't feel that Senators needed previous experience in his case - or perhaps they did?

And lastly, this is a very strange picture. Not only is it a black and white publicity still, with gold colour of the jewellery photoshopped, it is also about 20-25 years old.

Isn't it just deceiving the electorate a bit to portray yourself with a photo of yourself as a youngish man, rather than as you are now? Here is one of Stevie from 2014, in a rather laid back mode:

And now for something completely different....

Here's Christian May of the IoD. Not our Christian May, but it got me thinking. Do all Christian Mays have tufts of hair reaching upward?  Is it a genetic thing? Or some kind of cultural meme?

Here is our own "tufty".

And it also got me thinking about duplicate names. Comedian Dave Gorman did a search for other Dave Gormans.

There are several Christian Mays out there. Sarah Ferguson, of course,outside of Jersey, is the Duchess of York. There are lots of John Youngs, including an astronaut. There are a few Hugh Raymonds and several Mike Duns. Mary O'keefe-Burgher is a rare name, and there is only one Sam Mezec and Guy de Faye. There is only one Stevie Ocean, hardly surprising as that's not his real name, only his performing one.

Strange as it may seem, there are several Avin Aarons about. But what I want to know: does ours have an election team called "the chipmonks?"