Epiphany

The BBC programme "The Nativity" has the three magi arriving in Bethlehem, shortly after the shepherds, at the time of the birth of Jesus and going to the stable. But the events which take place in Matthew actually occur later - they go to a house, not a stable, and the text also suggests they expected Jesus to have been already born.

Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the time when Herod was king. Soon afterward, some men who studied the stars came from the East to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him." When King Herod heard about this, he was very upset, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the teachers of the Law and asked them, "Where will the Messiah be born?" "In the town of Bethlehem in Judea," they answered. "For this is what the prophet wrote: 'Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least of the leading cities of Judah; for from you will come a leader who will guide my people Israel.' " So Herod called the visitors from the East to a secret meeting and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem with these instructions: "Go and make a careful search for the child; and when you find him, let me know, so that I too may go and worship him." And so they left, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him. Then they returned to their country by another road, since God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod.  (Mat 2:1-12)

Also notable is the Greek which calls them "Magi", which has been interpreted as Persian astrologers, and there is again no indication that there were three of them, or that they were kings, or any names for them.

What has happened is that the account of the shepherds, Bethlehem and the stable in Luke have been conflated with the Magi narrative, and other traditions in which the Magi are given names.

This conflation can be seen to be happening around the 11th century in France, where the stories formed miracle plays around the Christmas period. The Shepherd Play (with three shepherds, Mary, Joseph, stable, baby Jesus) seems to have been a slightly later derivation from the Easter plays, with a nucleus that was called the "Officium Pastorum". This was originally in Latin, sung as part of a high mass on Christmas day, but was transferred to the service of Matins, which afforded more possibilities for dramatic impersonation and action. There was also an Epiphany Play - with the three Magi - which around this time merged with the Shepherd Play

This was the form of the Shepherd Play:

The praesepe, it appears, was behind the main altar, and contained artificial figures of the Virgin Mary and the Child, behind a curtain. As the five shepherds, suitably costumed, enter the west door of the choir, a boy up under the vaulting, representing an angel, announces the Nativity. After seven other angels have sung Gloria in excelsis, the shepherds begin their march to the praesepe, singing, as they traverse the choir, first a responsorial poem Pax in terris, and then, as they round the altar, the verse Transeamus. At the manger they find two priests in dalmatics, who represent midwives, and with whom they carry on the familiar dialogue. At the words Adest hicparvulus parvulus, the obstetrices draw aside the curtain, and point first to the Child, and then, at the words Ecce virgo, to the Mother. The shepherds kneel before the figure of the Virgin, singing the verses Salve, virgo singularis, and after obeisance to the Child, they turn to the chorus, singing the usual sentence Iam vere scimus. This leads directly into the Mass, during which the pastores rule the choir, and read or sing considerable parts of the liturgical text. (1)

and this was the form of the Magi Play, or "Officium Stellae":

In the simplest form of this play from the use of Limoges, 3 the Magi slowly enter the choir singing the prose O quam dignis celebranda dies ista laudibus. They announce their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and then one of them, singing Hoe signum magni Regis, points to a moving star which they proceed to follow from the middle of the choir to the high altar. There they deposit their gifts, whereupon from behind the altar a boy, representing an angel, announces the birth of Christ. Surprised (attoniti et admirantes), the kings return to the sacristy, singing the antiphon In Bethlehemnatus est Rex coelorum. This version is attached to the offertory. Another more elaborate office from Besançon is connected with the intoning of the gospel, and there the Magi are accompanied by attendants who carry the gifts in gold vessels and who are appropriately dressed, two to represent Persians, one blackened to represent a Moor. (1)

These two plays were conflated, and took on the shape of the single Nativity narrative which, with minor variants, is the form we see today in Primary and Nursery Schools, and which takes place at one time, rather than two separate times, at Christmas, and on the 6 January.

Where do we get the idea that they were kings?

Psalm 72:10  says "The kings of Spain and of the islands will offer him gifts; the kings of Sheba and Seba will bring him offerings.", and drawing on this, and other Old Testament verses, it was argued they were kings by Tertullian, in his Adversus Judaeos:

Tertullian, a Christian writer c. 160-230, was the first to name them as kings, and although the Gospels do not mention the number of men present, three are most often shown because of the number of gifts presented. (Two men are depicted on a third-century fresco in the Petrus and Marcellinus catacomb, and four appear in the Cemetery of Domitilla of the fourth century.) Their names, Caspar or Jasper (the oldest), Balthazar, a Negro, and Melchior, the youngest, may have originated as late as the 9th century in a pontifical at Ravenna. Obvious signs of their eastern origin are present: turbans, camels, leopards or perhaps the star and crescent of the Saracens. Joseph, the Virgin's husband, is usually present. The English historian Bede, c. 673-735, explained the symbolism of their gifts: Frankincense was in homage to Christ's divinity; gold represented his kingship; myrrh, used in embalming, was a foreshadowing of his death and crucifixion. Later, the Magi came to personify the three parts of the known world, Europe, Africa and Asia, paying homage to Christ, which explains the traditional appearance of Balthazar from Africa.(2)

The imagery developed to portray them took the form of the Persian setting, and looked back to the story of the three children cast into the fiery furnace (from the book of Daniel), and dressed them ""in their mantels, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments."(Daniel 3:21) and with this parallelism, their number was finally fixed at three, not so much for the gifts, but as a parallel to  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. But this was later, and quite different numbers appear in early Christian art:

In the third century a liking for symmetry led the artists to depict two Magi or four. Not till the Middle Ages did they acquire the names of Balthazar, Melchior and Casper, three kings of Orient, representing the three principal races of mankind (3)

The art of the early Middle Ages shows how the development into threeness for children (from Daniel) and Magi (from Matthew) are so closely bound together:

When the story was told more elaborately, the likeness with the Magi was so close that the two subjects were often depicted side by side, and sometimes they were merged by placing the star above the Three Children.... This combination, especially when the Magi were paired with the shepherds, made a long frieze which hardly could be contained on the side of a sarcophagus and was therefore commonly carved on the lid, where the surface available was long but narrow, requiring small figures.(3)

The English tradition also gave them different ages:

In the English folk-tale tradition, obtained originally from an eighth-century Irish manuscript, Excerpta et Collectanea, Melchior, King of Arabia, who presented gold, is considered to be an elderly, grey-haired man, Balthasar, King of Ethiopia, the giver of frankincense, is regarded as middle-aged, swarthy and bearded, and Caspar, King of Tarsus, who brought myrrh, is seen as a young stripling.(4)

But what of the star? The recent Nativity saw it as a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Regulus. Our appreciation of conjunctions has largely disappeared from Christian tradition, although the Vatican does have an official observatory. But most people who consider stars and planetary alignments to be significant do so outside of Christianity, in the debased astrology of newspapers and magazines, and even there, the portion who actually study the sky are negligible compared with the mass who consume the newspapers, books on sun signs, and the general nonsense that is purveyed. As Guy Consolmagno, planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory asks,

"When the Magi came from the East, announcing the star to King Herod, why was he so surprised? If they could see the star in Persia or Babylon, why didn't they see it in Jerusalem? But then, when was the last time you looked at the stars?...Even if there had been a visible star rising over Herod's palace in Jerusalem, would anyone have noticed it? Two months ago, a small but bright comet appeared in our northern sky; how many of us noticed it? Only the amateur astronomers, who knew the stars of the constellations; they were surprised at a new star sitting among them. The rest of us stayed indoors, watching TV."(4)

We have to go back to a writer like C.S. Lewis to find this kind of link, between a study of the stars, and a Christian faith, and it is not the kind of trivial matters that consume vulgar astrology columnists, but looking at symbolic links of significance between the night sky and events on earth, not as predictions, so much as echoes in the cosmic dance.

"It was beautiful," C.S. Lewis confided, "on two or three successive nights about the Holy Time, to see Venus and Jove blazing at one another, once with the Moon right between them: Majesty and Love linked by Virginity-what could be more appropriate?" Thus Lewis wrote to the poet Ruth Pitter early in January 1953, recalling what he had seen in the night sky during the Christmas that had just passed.(5)

Derek Brewer remembers how Lewis once "pointed out to us the extremely rare conjunction of five planets all brilliantly visible in a circle." His letters frequently detail the pleasures he took in the firmament: "Isn't Jupiter splendid these nights?" he exclaimed to one correspondent in 1938; "Do you ever notice Venus these mornings at about quarter past seven?" he asked his godson in 1946. "She has been terrifically bright lately, almost better than Jupiter."(5)

And this comes through strongly in his Narnia books, especially in one sequence in Prince Caspian.

A few days later Caspian's Tutor said, "Tonight I am going to give you a lesson in Astronomy. At dead of night two noble planets, Tarva and Alambil, will pass within one degree of each other. Such a conjunction has not occurred for two hundred years, and your Highness will not live to see it again. It will be best if you go to bed a little earlier than usual. When the time of the conjunction draws near I will come and wake you."

It was long and steep, but when they came out on the roof of the tower and Caspian had got his breath, he felt that it had been well worth it. Away on his right he could see, rather indistinctly, the Western Mountains. On his left was the gleam of the Great River, and everything was so quiet that he could hear the sound of the waterfall at Beaversdam, a mile away. There was no difficulty in picking out the two stars they had come to see. They hung rather low in the southern sky, almost as bright as two little moons and very close together.

"Are they going to have a collision?" he asked in an awestruck voice.

"Nay, dear Prince," said the Doctor (and he too spoke in a whisper). "The great lords of the upper sky know the steps of their dance too well for that. Look well upon them. Their meeting is fortunate and means some great good for the sad realm of Narnia. Tarva, the Lord of Victory, salutes Alambil, the Lady of Peace. They are just coming to their nearest."

Doctor Cornelius said nothing for about two minutes, but stood still with his eyes fixed on Tarva and Alambil. Then he drew a deep breath and turned to Caspian.

"There," he said. "You have seen what no man now alive has seen, nor will see again."

It is notable that the great good is not won without a struggle, that the conjunction does not remove free will, or somehow ensure that Narnia will automatically be set free; the signs point to the history that is unfolding, but, like the Delphic oracle, can only be finally understood after the events which they echo.

This is, of course, a kind of thinking that modern scientific worldview finds difficult to deal with. How can the movement of planets and stars effect anything on earth? But by imputing meaning to these events, and working with a non-rational method to how these symbols behave and are structured, might it not be the case that we are opening up our own thoughts and consciousness to insights which we might not otherwise have, making cross-connections and patterns that are there in our real world, but which we might otherwise overlook. Famously, Kekulé hit upon the structure of Benzene after a dream. Archimedes, according to the story, shouted "Eureka", in the bath.

And considering patterns in the stars may do the same, opening up the mind to less rigid patterns, so that a whisper of events, in ancient texts, in the gossip along the trading routes, of expectancy might translate into certainty when the Magi studied the pattern of the stars? As Douglas Adams said:

As we become more and more scientifically literate, it's worth remembering that the fictions with which we previously populated our world may have some function that it's worth trying to understand and preserve the essential components of, rather than throwing out the baby with the bath water; because even though we may not accept the reasons given for them being here in the first place, it may well be that there are good practical reasons for them, or something like them, to be there. (6)

Links:
(1) The Medieval French Drama, Grace Frank, 1954
(2) Baroque Art: A Topical Dictionary, Irene Earls, 1996
(3) Art in the Early Church, W. Lowrie, 1947
(3)  English Legends of the Three Kings:, Alison Barnes, History Today 1997
(4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/sunday_worship/documents/20080106.shtml
(5) http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2008/janfeb/15.30.html
(6) http://www.biota.org/people/douglasadams/

2010 - A Retrospective Blog

In this posting, I am looking back on a selection of blog postings I made in 2010, which cover a variety of the newsworthy items in the year. I have chosen to pick only one item per month in order to both make this manageable, and also bring a focus on that particular item.

A happy new year to all my readers.

JANUARY

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. (CP Snow)

This month, I posted in Jersey's lack of gift aid, and BBC Radio Jersey were very quick to pick up and help me. I haven't had a huge success so far, but I am working my way round politicians, trying to get the "one off limit" on a tax reclaimable donation down from £100 to £25, or £50 at least. I will be emailing more politicians this year, particularly when the election is looming, to get some definite commitments.

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/01/why-jersey-needs-gift-aid.html

In the UK, not is there gift aid, but the Government is trying to find ever more inventive ways of getting people to give. Jersey is seriously lagging behind. These are some of the UK ideas. Why are we so lacking in innovation? There is a culture of the status quo, in part not helped by officials at the Jersey Treasury, which needs to be changed, and soon.

People could give to charity every time they use their bank cards at cash machines and the shops, under government proposals announced in its recent 'Giving' green paper. It found that 31% of donors give spontaneously simply because they 'felt like giving' and being able to make impromptu donations would therefore make it easier to give. "We want banks and ATM providers to let us know how we might make this
happen in the UK and whether there are ways we can facilitate this," the paper says. It cites the Columbian model, which, since 1998, allows customers to make a donation every time they withdraw money from an ATM with Servibank. There is now a network of 500 machines with about 100,000 donations a month, averaging $1 a time with a choice of three charities to choose from...The paper is also calling for a National "round-up-the-pound" scheme, which would allow people to donate their change when paying by debit or credit card. The scheme is already run by charity the Pennies Foundation and with first UK retail partner Domino's Pizza, the 'electronic charity box' has raised £20,000 for charities in six weeks. (2)

FEBRUARY

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/02/lies-and-lawyers.html

This saw the publication of the Verita report which exonerated Mr John Day in the tragic case of the death of Mrs Elizabeth Rourke. It also highlighted serious concerns with the management of the hospital. The Amos Group, meeting with the Treasury Minister in November, noted that "Philip Ozouf was critical about the previous oversight of the hospital and noted that there had been some recent changes which should make a substantial difference", but they also commented that "In the absence of any detail, it is not clear how the new management structure will improve on the old one."

What also came to light was that in court, Mr Day had all kind of allegations made against him, and was not called to defend himself against those; a pattern which was repeated later in the collapse of any timetable for disciplinary hearings against Mr Power. While bloggers are often castigated in the JEP for making allegations without giving the person involved a fair hearing, this unfortunately seems to have been the case with at least three people and the States - Mr Day, Mr Power and Ms Huchet.

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?

MARCH

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/03/supermarket-myths.html

Alan Maclean rewrote or edited a supermarket report because it didn't say quite what he wanted it to say; unfortunately the unaltered copy revealed the differences. There was a good deal of pressure for an extra Supermarket chain - and it will be interesting to see if Waitrose makes a difference, or the new Iceland franchise does. I am skeptical, because I remember the past!

There is a myth circulating that a new supermarket would cut prices significantly in Jersey, and now I read Helier Clement has bought into it. Perhaps the consumption of calvados has befuddled his aging memory, because I can very clearly remember when we did have a new supermarket. This was called Safeway, and unlike the supermarket that now bears that name, it was part of the large U.K. chain. Did it mean increased competition and reduced prices? Only on some of its own brand foods, which - as with the Co-Op - were sometimes cheaper than other brands. There were a few different loss leaders, items whose price is positioned deliberately lower to draw people in. But in general, most of the prices were much the same as the other supermarkets, then Le Riches and the Co-Op.

APRIL

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/04/eight-or-nine-levels-of-management.html

The lack of organisation in States departments, and financial controls comes to light when Sarah Ferguson releases her complete organisation chart for Health and Social Services. The department didn't have anything more than a sketch of the different areas and top levels of management, and couldn't provide her with one. Deputy Daniel Wimberley pestered Terry le Sueur for charts for other States departments only to be fobbed off with being told they were in the business plans; all that was there, of course, was the incomplete précis that Sarah Ferguson showed to be so inadequate, but it was sufficient for Terry Le Sueur to indulge in his usual fudging of issues.

That a large States department has no organisational chart is amazing - when I was working on a business continuity plan at work, one part of the plan was - quite obviously - an organisational chart, giving posts and responsibilities - and that is for a relatively small organisation. Someone at Heath can't be doing their job properly. How the States, with large departments like Health, manage without one is, quite frankly, incredible, because any additions to staff will likely be on an ad hoc basis, dependent purely on small clusters, and will very likely involve duplication, because no one has the big picture to hand.

"There is evidence that there is too much administration - for some departments within the Hospital there are eight or nine levels of management from the front line to the Health Minister. " (Sarah Ferguson)

"Any competent organisation can extract information from the computerised ledgers and identify exactly what has been spent on what. The States ledgers were in such an appalling state that it was not possible to undertake more than very approximate analyses." (Sarah Ferguson)

MAY

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/05/liberal-conservative-dawn.html

The election in the UK brought about a coalition, and the need for political opponents to work together rather than polarize against each other. Sadly in Jersey, Alan Breckon's proposals for a reform of the polarity between the Council of Ministers and Scrutiny failed, despite being backed by Terry Le Sueur, and Philip Ozouf saying that he approved and wanted to implement some of the changes as soon as possible. Later Senator Ozouf backtracked, and voted against what he saw as a return to Committee government. Alan Breckon was concerned about how effective politicians were being excluded from any participation in the process of government, and languished outside it.

Reading Barak Obama's "Audacity to Hope" recently, I was struck by the distinction which he makes between those politicians who want to win
arguments, and those who want to solve problems. Obama notes that often the paradigm for political confrontation is that of the law court, where winning arguments is more important, but that in politics, solving problems is far better.

"I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers. Lawyers win arguments, engineers solve problems."(Obama)

It is notable also that Ernest Bevin (Labour) successfully achieved mobilization of Britain's workforce and became one of the most significant
members of Churchill's war cabinet. Sometimes coalitions can bring to the fore effective people who would otherwise have languished on opposition benches.

JUNE

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/06/election-surprises.html

Stuart Syvret returned to Jersey, was arrested, released on bail, and fought an election which failed to see him elected again a Senator. Geoff Southern, in what appeared to be a show of egoism, decided to run for Senator, even though he was already in the States, and both terms would expire next year; this split the JDA, reducing it to a rump of just Mr Southern in the States. So far, nothing has happened with Mr Le Gresley's progressive taxes, although he did secure (albeit reduced) the Christmas bonus to all pensioners.

My first surprise of the evening was the almost absolute runaway success of Francis Le Gresley, being beaten only in one Parish, the home of Patrick Ryan who beat him by 12 votes in St John. I'll be interested to see if anything comes of his "progressive taxes" - he mentions capital gains tax in his manifesto, and I've always been of the opinion that the French model (where it is reduced to zero after x years) rather than the English one is the better way of justly curbing property speculators - who sometimes buy and sell new houses in a matter of months without even living in them - and so inflating prices of property.

The St Helier "surge" effect pushed Stuart Syvret into second place, after being behind Patrick Ryan in third place for most of the other Parishes. Yes this was not consistent - Stuart also came second in St Brelade, St Clement, St Peter and St Saviour. As Deputy Roy Le Hérissier pointed out, capturing about 1/5 of the vote, and coming a good second indicates a level of dissatisfaction with the Council of Ministers that they would be wise to acknowledge, otherwise, as he put it on BBC Radio last night, there might well be a "bloodbath" at the next election.

JULY

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/07/missing-70-of-wiltshire.html

Jim Hacker: You can get them from the Public Records Office under the 30-year rule.
Alex Andrews from the Mail: Yes, I thought you'd say that, but I want a guarantee that I will get ALL of them. You made a manifesto commitment
saying you'd tell voters the facts. This is a test case. I want your guarantee that no papers will be removed from the file before it's opened.
Jim Hacker: I don't see why not. No skin off my nose.
Alex Andrews: Is that a promise? A REAL promise, not the sort you put in
your manifesto!
(Yes Minister, The Skeleton in the Cupboard)

Any disciplinary hearings against suspended Chief of Police Mr Power were abandoned, and Senator Le Marquand decided to reveal the Wiltshire report, showing the "whole truth", except it was severely cut, and a firm promise for a much less chopped up version was given for September, and has now slipped into 2011. I wonder if it will take as long to be released mostly in full as the original report - and shouldn't Jersey have its own version of the UK's 30 year rule, to allow historians to see the whole picture, and those "in camera" minutes?

On the positive side, indications are given where names or sentences are removed. On the negative side, a lot of text is removed! The only document which appears to be intact is the reports by BDO Alto on finances and use of resources seems to have escaped the textual equivalent of a Beeching axe. In one of the reports, which is 109 pages long, page 9 to 89 are completely missing and the notice says "Text Redacted". How one can judge a document where 75% is missing is beyond me. It may be argued that it is not significant, but how do we know? Who judged that it was not significant, and are they right or not? With one of the other reports, we have 118 pages of a 383 document, which is around 30% of the total - 70% of the pages are missing.

AUGUST

This month saw Terry Le Main in a tussle with the Courts, and refusing to admit he had not anything wrong or unwise, but also being forced to resign. But I've chosen to focus on the benefits of farm shops, which I took up this month both in my blog and in the letters to the JEP.

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-praise-of-farm-shops.html

The key factor in so-called quality control which cause supermarkets to reject some local produce is summed up in that little phrase " product uniformity". This means that potatoes have to be of a similar size, that the look and shape of carrots, green beans, and other vegetables is given an importance which is really beyond significance -- a good proportion of the food which does not meet the standards is nonetheless fresh, tasty, a nutritious -- it does just not meet what is an arbitrary aesthetic judgement. Supermarkets say that they're responding to what the customer wants, but to some degree they are also educating the customer into making an aesthetic judgement on the quality of food which makes no real sense at all. Not all supermarkets do this to the same degree, and some also provide containers of loose vegetables and potatoes from which the customer can make their own selection rather than being given the prepackaged washed "blemish
free" containerised food.

Against this, most of the food in farm shops that is local is provided loose for the customer to select with no peculiar artificial selection on what is blemish free or not. One might call this the "That's Life" test, after the television programme presented by Esther Rantzen in which all manner of peculiar and sometimes quite rude looking vegetables made their way before the public's view. There is absolutely nothing wrong with vegetables that have an odd shape because nature does not produce straight bananas, potatoes of uniform size and roundness, and sober shaped carrots (however much the late Mary Whitehouse might have desired it).

If there was no outlet for this kind of produce, it would simply go to waste. And we simply cannot afford these throwaway mentality of the 1960s
and 1970s.

SEPTEMBER

Returning again to farm shops, and also more allotments coming available, I considered the need for both of these as a counter-cultural movement, a return to roots and against the existential alienation resulting from a more urban existence which also throws up more social problems.

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/09/ozymandias-syndrome.html

If we look at the Romantic movement before, we see the god Pan coming to the foreground in the literature of the time. As Ronald Hutton has explained, Pan was a rural god, a village yokel, and contrasted with Zeus and the Olympian pantheon of urban and civilised deities. Pan had long languished in obscurity, while English scholars extolled the virtues of Ancient Greece, and retold the Greek legends, but as the Industrial revolution moved into high gear, enclosure of fields shifted people who were drawn to the industrialised cities rather than remaining working on the land, and now the Romantic movement found in Pan the god of the woods. Pan was thereby a reaction to the alienation of modern society from its rural roots, and is, of course, still popular in Neopaganism today as a result.

That alienation is with us today. Many people live in flats with no gardens, and some find increasing solace in cyberspace, in Second Life, where they can live out vicariously the world they cannot find in the everyday. We live in a society of clocks, not rhythms of day and night, of calendars, not seasons, and the acceleration of this pattern of change can be seen most clearly in the harvest festival, where once a farming community brought grown food, but now, if fruit and vegetables remain a part of the festival, most of the congregation source it from supermarkets and farm shops. Even the seasonality of food, still present when I was young, has diminished, as a result of forced growing to create longer seasons of crops, and importations from far abroad. Counter-cultural movements, such as allotments and farm shops are increasingly popular because people are aware of what has been lost.

OCTOBER

This saw the publication of the long awaited Napier report, as Bob Hill almost lost his temper at the endless delays while Terry Le Sueur dithered over any legal and disciplinary matters. In the end, Bill Ogley, the Chief Advisor, was disciplined, but this was "internal" and Terry Le Sueur refused to give any details of what that entailed. It was pure Yes Minister!

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/10/turning-over-napiers-bones.html

I have found no evidence of a "conspiracy" to oust Mr Power for some improper reason. (Napier Report)

But look at the words carefully - "to frustrate police investigation in Jersey" and "some improper reason". What does Brian Napier understand by "conspiracy", in these phrases? He clearly means some kind of cover up of dark secrets, a kind of murky world not unlike that described in a recent play on Radio 4, "The Conspiracy of the Illuminati". There was some kind of devilish plot to get at Mr Power, and destroy the child abuse enquiry. I know some suggestions have been made of that.

But there are conspiracies of many sorts, and there is clear evidence that certain individuals were conferring together, behind Mr Power's back (and hence in secret) , and while this may have been from the highest motives, they were definitely intending to remove him from office, and were preparing the ground for this. This emerges again in the Napier report.

NOVEMBER

GST proposals abounded from staying at 3% to 4%, 5%, 5% with exemptions, and 6% with exemptions. In the end the 5% with no exemptions won the day, after Philip Ozouf was forced to apologise for saying he would fight to keep it at 3% and it wouldn't increase while he was in charge. Philip Ozouf told the Amos group in November that "he is of the opinion that 5% is the absolute threshold at which we can't bring in exemptions, but that if we sort out our finances, we should not have to go above 5%." It will be interesting to see if he changes his mind again on this.

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/11/gst-and-exemptions-pros-and-cons.html

The argument is that while GST goes up, targeted assistance is provided to lower-income families. The trouble with this is threefold:

(1) deciding the amount of assistance is problematic, and can fall below the threshold of what is really needed because it is extremely complex to assess the needs of individual families, and consequently the analysis of needs works from a simplified model;

(2) there are always people at the margins, who are hit by GST, but who are just above the level at which they could claim for assistance. While the GST bonus scheme can address some of this, there still seem to be marginal cases, just above various thresholds for claiming support, who are penalised and find it more difficult. It is particularly areas such as food costs and domestic fuel that they have to struggle with. The Parish Welfare system was very good at proactively identifying cases of hardship, but this seems a weakness of the more simplified and centralised income support system, which increases in GST will only exacerbate

(3) rapid changes in market prices, such as a large increase in domestic fuel (which does occur), for example, will invariable not be offset by
immediate increases in the amount of assistance; there is a time lag in reviewing the figures, and taking decisions, which increases the chances that the targeted aid will simply not be sufficient.

I can see the merit of some of Philip Ozouf's arguments, but I can also see the problems at the lower end of the scale, and I remain unconvinced that targeted assistant works efficiently enough, either at its thresholds, or if economic situations (as with fuel) change rapidly. Given that GST will probably have to increase yet again - the experience of Singapore and New Zealand suggests that it will do so - I think that the GST at 6% with exemptions on food and domestic fuel is the wisest option.

DECEMBER

Stuart Syvret was tried, fined, imprisoned, but released on bail pending appeal after a dispute between the Jersey authorities, such as Bridget Shaw who did not think he could have bail, and the UK judge, who took quite a different and independent line. It was clear from transcripts of the trial that were available that there appeared to outsiders to be a degree of animosity between the Magistrate and Mr Syvret, and the conflict over bail was notable for highlighting this.

But the story I have chosen to close on is not Mr Syvret's plight, but that of a pensioner, which demonstrated the hardship already faced by those on the margins of income support, and the failings in Jersey's system of welfare.

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/cold-weather-welfare-deficiencies.html

A PENSIONER was found stranded on his kitchen floor after falling while trying to keep himself warm in front of his oven. (JEP)

In the days of Parish Welfare, the disadvantage was that the system was not on a universal Island wide statutory level, but the advantage was that Parish officials were employed to proactively seek claimants who - perhaps like the pensioner in question - may have a need but had little or no idea how to go

First Collector: At this festive time of year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute.
Ebenezer: Is there no income support?
First Collector: Plenty of income support for those who can access it. Although it barely supplies enough to keep off the cold, and little enough for food.
Ebenezer: Oh, from what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop it in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.
First Collector: I don't think you quite understand us, sir. A few of us are endeavoring to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth.
Ebenezer: Why?
First Collector: Because it is at Christmastime that want is most keenly felt, and abundance rejoices. Now what can I put you down for?
Ebenezer: Huh! Nothing!
Second Collector: You wish to be anonymous?
Ebenezer: [firmly, but calmly] I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish sir, that is my answer. I help to support the establishment I have named; there is income support, and forms to complete, and those those who are badly off must go there.
First Collector: Many can't go there. They are not eligible.
Second Collector: And some don't know that they can, and would die.

Links
1) http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/giving-green-paper
2) http://www.moneywise.co.uk/news-views/2010/12/30/give-to-charity-the-cash-machine

A Brighter People, or a More Heavily Certificated Society?

People in Jersey are getting 'brighter', according to the findings of the 2010 Social Survey. The survey's results show that more people are going on to further education, but, the island still lags behind the UK. More than a quarter of islanders of working age have 'higher level qualifications' - mostly degrees and that a further 50 percent have 'secondary qualifications' - that's GCSEs, GNVQs, A-levels, or O-Levels. Only a fifth have no formal academic qualifications, now that's mainly older islander who fall into this group, but the statistics do reflect better access to further education. Back in 2001 a mere 12 % of islanders had a higher level qualification, that's now more than doubled to 29 percent. Nine years ago, 34 percent had no qualification, that's now dropped to 14. That downward trend clearly reflecting a better educated population, one that's likely to continue. (1)

But is it "brighter", or a more heavily certificated world? I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story "Profession" (2), in which there are "Education tapes" which put knowledge into people's heads:

"The turning point came when the mechanics of the storage of knowledge within the brain was worked out. Once that had been done, it became possible to devise Educational tapes that would modify the mechanics in such a way as to place within the mind a body of knowledge ready-made so to speak. But you know about that. Once that was done, trained men could be turned out by the thousands and millions, and we could begin what someone has since called the 'Filling of the Universe.' There are now fifteen hundred inhabited planets in the Galaxy and there is no end in sight."

In Asimov's vision, of course, the tape process is relatively painless and quick, and it leads to a society where profession is flaunted by certification. George Platten, the protagonist of the story, has parents with registered professions, as do most of the population.

"Let's see, George. It says here on your card that your father is named Peter and that he's a Registered Pipe Fitter and your mother is named Amy and is a Registered Home Technician. Is that right?"

But it still leads to problems of supply and demand. I have seen this most clearly with nursery schools training in the late 1990s, when Highlands College was busy providing NVCQs in Early Leaning and Childhood, but not matching this to the demand. As a result, over a relatively few years, the qualification required rose from NVCQ grade 2 to grade 3, to whittle down the numbers required. An increasingly certificate driven society will do this, however good the certificates, because the number of certificates does not directly match the employment prospects. An education course is useful for someone retraining, trying to change direction to improve employment prospects, but on its own, it can lead to crowding out of the marketplace:

George had argued with Stubby Trevelyan about that constantly. As best friends, their arguments had to be constant and vitriolic and, of course, neither ever persuaded or was persuaded. But then Trevelyan had had a father who was a Registered Metallurgist and had actually served on one of the Outworlds, and a grandfather who had also been a Registered Metallurgist. He himself was intent on becoming a Registered Metallurgist almost as a matter of family right and was firmly convinced that any other profession was a shade less than respectable. "There'll always be metal, he said, "and there's an accomplishment in molding alloys to specification and watching structures grow. Now what's a Programmer going to be doing? Sitting at a coder all day long, feeding some fool mile-long machine."

Even at sixteen, George had learned to be practical. He said simply, "There'll be a million Metallurgists put out along with you."
"Because it's good. A good profession. The best."
"But you get crowded out, Stubby. You can be way back in line. Any world can tape out its own Metallurgists, and the market for advanced Earth models isn't so big. And it's mostly the small worlds that want them. You know what per cent of the turn-out of Registered Metallurgists get tabbed for worlds with a Grade A rating. I looked it up. It's just 13.3 per cent. That means you'll have seven chances in eight of being stuck in some world that just about has running water. You may even be stuck on Earth; 2.3 per cent are."

On education day, George goes with his classmates to receive the education tapes, and discovers to his horror that he can't be taped. He is an outcast in a society where everyone is registered:

He was led by a red-uniformed guide along the busy corridors lined with separate rooms each containing its groups, here two, there five: the Motor Mechanics, the Construction Engineers, the Agronomists - There were hundreds of specialized Professions and most of them would be represented in this small town by one or two anyway. He hated them all just then: the Statisticians, the Accountants, the lesser breeds and the higher. He hated them because they owned their smug knowledge now, knew their fate, while he himself empty still' had to face some kind of further red tape.

He is told the shocking truth:

The man said, "Good evening, George. Our own sector has only one of you this time, I see."
"Only one?" said George blankly.
"Thousands over the Earth, of course. Thousands. You're not alone."
George felt exasperated. He said, "I don't understand, sir. What's my classification? What's happening?"
"Easy, son. You're all right. It could happen to anyone. He held out his hand and George took it mechanically. It was warm and it pressed George's hand firmly. "Sit down, son. I'm Sam Ellenford."
George nodded impatiently. "I want to know what's going on, sir."
"Of course. To begin with, you can't be a Computer Programmer, George. You've guessed that I think."
"Yes, I have,' said George bitterly. "What will I be, then?"
"That's the hard part to explain, George." He paused, then said with careful distinctness, "Nothing."
"What!"
"Nothing!"
"But what does that mean? Why can't you assign me a profession?"
"We have no choice in the matter, George. It's the structure of your mind that decides that."
George went a sallow yellow. His eyes bulged. "There's something wrong with my mind?"
"There's something about it. As far as professional classification is concerned, I suppose you can call it wrong."
"But why?"
Ellenford shrugged. "I'm sure you know how Earth runs its Educational program, George. Practically any human being can absorb practically any body of knowledge, but each individual brain pattern is better suited to receiving some types of knowledge than others. We try to match mind to knowledge as well as we can within the limits of the quota requirements for each profession."
George nodded. "Yes, I know."
"Every once in a while, George, we come up against a young man whose mind is not suited to receiving a superimposed knowledge of any sort."
"You mean I can't be Educated?"
"That is what I mean."
"But that's crazy. I'm intelligent. I can understand - " He looked helplessly about as though trying to find some way of proving that he had a functioning brain.
"Don't misunderstand me, please," said Ellenford gravely. " You're intelligent. There's no question about that. You're even above average in intelligence. Unfortunately that has nothing to do with whether the mind ought to be allowed to accept superimposed knowledge or not. In fact, it is almost always the intelligent person who comes here."

George becomes a "ward of the planet" and is sent to a "house of the feeble minded" where he can learn from books if he so chooses, but there is no certification process. He decides to leave and attend the "Olympics" a competition not of physical sport, but where different professions can compete in a series of tests for the marketplace; those succeeding well being snapped up by the rich and prosperous outer worlds:

He had expected to be stopped before leaving the grounds. He wasn't. He had stopped at an all-night diner to ask directions to an air terminal and expected the proprietor to call the police. That didn't happen. He summoned a skimmer to take him to the airport and the driver asked no questions. Yet he felt no lift at that. He arrived at the airport sick at heart. He had not realized how the outer world would be. He was surrounded by professionals. The diner's proprietor had had his name inscribed on the plastic shell over the cash register. So and so, Registered Cook. The man in the skimmer had his license up, Registered Chauffeur. George felt the bareness of his name and experienced a kind of nakedness because of it worse, he felt skinned. But no one challenged him. No one studied him suspiciously and demanded proof of professional rating. George thought bitterly: Who would imagine any human being without one?

At the Olympics, he sees his old friend Trevelyan who takes part, but fails, in part because he has used older tapes, and there are better, more advanced educational tapes.

"Didn't do so well did I?" Stubby dropped his cigarette and stepped on it, staring off to the street, where the emerging crowd was slowly eddying and finding its way into skimmers, while new lines were forming for the next scheduled Olympics. Trevelyan said heavily, "So what? It's only the second time I missed. Novia can go shove after the deal I got today. There are planets that would jump at me fast enough - But, listen, I haven't seen you since Education Day. Where did you go? Your folks said you were on special assignment but gave no details and you never wrote. You might have written."
"I should have," said George uneasily. "Anyway, I came to say I was sorry the way things went just now."
"Don't be," said Trevelyan. "I told you. Novia can go shove - At that I should have known. They've been saying for weeks that the Beeman machine would be used. All the wise money was on Beeman machines. The damned Education tapes they ran through me were for Henslers and who uses Henslers? The worlds in the Goman Cluster if you want to call them worlds. Wasn't that a nice deal they gave me?"

Trevelyan is wedded to the idea of a society in which knowledge is designated by certification status. He cannot think outside that box. Because his education has only taken him so far, he is unable to come out with any original thought beyond his training, and this is the reason why he has failed:

"Sure, but I lost time wondering if I could be right in my diagnosis when I noticed there wasn't any clamp depressor in the parts they had supplied. They don't deduct for that. If it had been a Hensler, I would have known I was right. How could I match up then? The top winner was a San Franciscan. So were three of the next four. And the fifth guy was from Los Angeles. They get big-city Educational tapes. The best available. Beeman spectrographs and all. How do I compete with them? I came all the way out here just to get a chance at a Novian-sponsored Olympics in my classification and I might just as well have stayed home. I knew it, I tell you, and that settles it. Of all the damned -"

I'm not going to reveal the twist which comes later in the story, but it makes some clear points during its course.

1) A certificate based society, in which everyone has qualifications, becomes overcrowded, and the qualifications lose their value. This was well known when Parkinson wrote his books. By all means, improve employment prospects with courses, but those of skilled professions must be matched to the demands of society.

2) A society which only understands knowledge in terms of certified qualifications is a society which is only half a society; it is a society that will stagnate because in the pursuit of certain knowledge, it has turned away from the kind of open ended problems that occur in the real world, which cannot all be enumerated, and require problem solving thinking, which is a quite different kind of skill. The benefits of time spent not gaining qualifications, but gaining real workplace experience are being downgraded as a result.

This also brings us back to the idea of "brighter". Under the baneful influence of the IQ test, many people have come to believe that intelligence can be measured by means of a closed, fixed option, series of puzzles, which as far as testing knowledge is concerned, are little more than a sterile backwater.(3)

So is Jersey "getting brighter"? I would say not.

Postscript:

Here is an interesting puzzle which requires thought for its solution. It is not a multiple choice test, but it could be seen as a "theory of mind" test.

A striking feature of many of El Greco's pictures is the way figures and faces often appear to be excessively elongated . In trying to account for this idiosyncratic style, an ophthalmologist proposed in 1913 that El Greco may have had a form of astigmatism, which distorted his vision and led to elongated images forming on his retina (Trevor-Roper, 1970). Although such an explanation may initially seem reasonable, it does not stand up to logical scrutiny. Why?

Links
(1) http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_jerseynews/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=492343
(2) http://www.abelard.org/asimov.php
(3) http://www.mathmojo.com/chronicles/2009/02/08/iq-test-answer/

The Impressionist

Has anyone noticed how the Hopkins Masterplan has been subtly altered by Mr Izzat in his recent talks?

Rather than being all of one piece, the aim is now the development with underground car park on the old car park, and only later, if the demand and economic climate is right, will the sunken road go ahead.

"It would be funded by the private sector and development would be in phases and strictly in response to real demand." (1) (JEP report of speech)

"However, Mr Izatt yesterday revealed that a new vision of the so-called Hopkins masterplan was now taking shape, and that detailed planning applications should be ready for submission by the end of next year." (JEP)

What in heaven's name is a "new vision" of a "masterplan" that has been drawn up by architects? Answer - as the comedian said, "It's a fiddle", otherwise known as redrawing the plan without admitting as such. The Masterplan was a complete entity designed to do that ever so important piece of claptrap - "join the Waterfront to the rest of the Town".

Quite why that was a good thing is not clear, when the main problem of crossing was not the zebra crossings, but the main streets - to be retained - that one had to cross over by Sand Street to get to the car park and then the zebra crossings, but it was repeated diligently like some kind of Buddhist mantra, and was the reason for a sunken road in the first place.

Now it seems the "new vision" can develop the "masterplan" in phases, and somehow leave out the option of the sunken road (with its 1/2 million pound maintenance costs) until a sunnier economic climate.

Obviously Mr Izzat is keen to get on with providing some value for his extraordinary salary, and wants the development, any development really, to go ahead.

"There was, meanwhile, a danger that the general public - and some States Members - were taking the artist's impression of the masterplan too literally."

I am sure that Senator Cohen, nor Hopkins Architects, will be too pleased with this sort of thing. When we are shown a picture, done in wonderful detailed graphics, as is presented in the plan, now we are told it is simply "an impression". I think the real impressionist is Mr Izzat, who is doing a wonderful impression of a man trying desperately to get something built, as quickly as possible, no matter what.

"The 400 residential units, meanwhile, would not be of the sort that some expected. 'I don't believe that they will be apartments,' he said. 'They are likely to be town houses in traditional squares"

So all that glass and concrete flats that we saw in the original masterplan was clearly an illusion; the artist was just sticking blocks of flats there as an artists impression of some vague kind of dwellings for accommodation!

All you need is a "new vision". And the old plan, which involved a huge risk, such as a sunken road, and the dangers of flooding near Gloucester Street can be gently shelved.

I don't mind that - any scheme which does not involve half a million pound maintenance costs (for the sunken road), funded by the taxpayer in perpetuity, seems good to me.

The only secure basis on which that could realistically go ahead would be if the ground rent and common areas included payment for maintenance of the road below, so the taxpayer would not have to finance it.

But I do chuckle at the way in which the "new vision" is presented by Mr Izzat as if nothing has changed.

What can one say of Mr Izzat? He must have gone to Specsavers!

Links
(1) http://www.thisisjersey.com/2010/11/05/we-are-too-good-at-looking-back-and-not-forward/
(2) http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-12924151.html

RIP Dennis Shaw

I read with sadness that Dennis Shaw, Jersey's well known and loved gardener, who for several years was the BBC Radio Jersey resident expert, has just died, on Christmas day. Dennis Shaw was one of the first gardening feature writers. I used to like his warm tones, as he gave advice on the BBC. I never thought he was a cockney though; his accent sounded more rural!

Jersey Plants Direct has this about him:

Dennis is a true cockney, (born within the sound of Bow bells) has resided in Jersey for 42 years and is one the island´s most popular gardening experts. Now retired from lecturing Horticulture at Jersey´s Highlands College, Dennis keeps himself busy with a weekly gardening chat show on BBC Radio Jersey, as a judge for both Britain in Bloom and the Royal Jersey Agriculture & Horticultural Society and of course tending his own garden. He has been writing articles and commenting on our plants and bedding since January 2007, and long may it continue! (1)

Dennis was still going strong this year, with tours of Jersey gardens. I'm not so sure that the "tax haven" bit in the following extract is correct though! I'd say it was probably truer that there are more gardens than perhaps urban areas in the UK, and they are usually well tended, which does not necessarily mean spending vast amounts of money on them. Perhaps "View from the West" can give the true picture!

The Channel Islands have the warmest climate of anywhere in the British Isles. This favours plant growth, but the strong winds cause damage. Because the Channel Islands are a tax haven, there is no shortage of money for garden maintenance. Brightwater Holidays offers a 4 night tour of the Private Gardens of Jersey, led by the garden correspondent for BBC Radio Jersey - Dennis Shaw. The tour departs on 14th June 2010 (2)

Reg's Garden also has this to say: "Dennis Shaw, Jersey's gardening guru uses the garden on occasions when `keen gardeners` come over to see what Jersey has to offer in the way of gardens."

Dennis Shaw will be missed. I still remember his distinctive voice, talking of autumn, and quoting Keats - surely a gardeners poem, if ever there was one:

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.


Links
(1) http://www.jerseyplantsdirect.com/pages/cms.aspx?page=about%20us|about%20our%20experts
(2) http://www.gardenvisit.com/gardens/in/channel_islands#ixzz19XXbjnSH

Piniec

Christmas is traditionally a time for ghost stories. Here from Brittany, translated in her "Breton Stories" (1932 and alas, long out of print) by Lillias Eskine is a ghost story with a comic twist, in which two different stories come together, the peasant and the ghost. Have you ever seen a grey ghost when out walking like the shadowy figure of Piniec?

Piniec: A Tale of Brittany

One evening a young peasant was working in his field by moonlight. He was a very thrifty young man and most eager to make his farm a great success. Having been unable to finish his work by daylight, he was continuing by the light of the moon. The wind whispered and murmured in the pine trees near by, owls hooted and the young man put his plants into the ground with as much speed as he could...

Suddenly from among the pine trees a figure appeared : a tall grey figure with long clinging draperies. The peasant felt his hair rising on end and his blood froze but he endeavoured to be brave and faced the grey figure, waiting for it to speak. As it did not move, the peasant tried to imagine that he had seen nothing and went on with his planting. But at that the figure moved and advanced towards him. Throwing down his tools, he turned and ran. A thousand hobgoblins might have been chasing him, so fast did he run, and never drew breath till he reached his own house. He looked then towards the woods ; the figure was still visible, but had turned round and was walking away amongst the pine trees.

His family were celebrating a fete that evening and long tables had been laid in the stables. Soup and chickens and honey cakes, with jugs of cider, were spread out and all the neighbours had assembled to make merry. . The young man ran into their midst crying out that he had seen the grey man of the woods. .

Everyone circled round him and he was asked to tell his story so many times over, that by the end of the evening he felt a real hero ! The next day the news had spread all over the village. Even the Cure and the Holy Sisters came to see him.

"Tell us the colour of his clothes," they asked.

" Grey ! " said he.

" Ah ! " they all exclaimed. " That is surely Piniec whom we have always heard of in those woods."

Two years later the young peasant went into the neighbouring town, and feeling thirsty, he went to an inn and ordered some cider. . A tall man approached him, and laying a hand on his shoulder said : "How long is it-my friend-since you saw Piniec ? "

" What ! the grey ghost ? " asked the peasant.

" It is two years now since I saw him."

" Well ! for a glass of wine, I will tell you some more about him," said the tall man.

" Gladly will I give you the wine," answered the peasant, and they sat down together at a small table.

" Two years ago," began the man, " I was in need of a Christmas tree for my children. But I could not afford to buy one. In the wood near your land there were many fir trees and I had settled to go by night and dig up one of these. Alas ! when I arrived with my spade, I found you working in your field. . What could I do to frighten you away ? Wrapping my grey cloak over my head, I advanced towards you, and to my great surprise you were immediately scared away ! I dug up my tree and returned home unmolested while you flew homewards and became the hero of the village ! "

Both men laughed heartily over the success of the joke but they both kept the secret very close, and for all I know the peasants still think that Piniec had been seen in their woods.

Manifest Deviation

As the end of the year approaches, and an election year looms, I thought it would be interesting to look at some election manifesto's and see how they measure up to what has happened. I know some of the politicians are not standing again, yet their manifesto can be still instructive. I keep copies of old manifestos, and JEP or BBC interviews or questions, because they are always interesting to go back to when elections come around. I will be going over more of these in 2011, when it is known who is standing - and I also keep manifestos from failed candidates, which can be just as interesting to review the next time they stand.

Some are vague generalities, and don't really commit the politician to anything at all - like the Mystic Meg and her "cold reading", they can be taken as appealing to virtually everyone, because everyone can read into them what they want to hear, but in reality - like with "cold reading" - they say nothing much at all. Here are a few examples of this by Terry Le Sueur from 2005:

Finance industry - Our primary source of jobs and revenue needs support by political stability, modern legislation, realistic regulation, confidence in our future and good fiscal policy.

IT industry - Essential to have a good IT service industry to support States and business sector in delivering maximum efficiency.

Who is really going to say that is a bad thing? But it is hardly a commitment to anything but the most banal cliché.

But he has some statements - just one of two - that do make a definite statement:

Health - More focus on preventative care. Realism about the need to find specialist treatment elsewhere, including France.

Since 2005, of course, Jersey has lost the reciprocal health agreement with the UK. And never have I seen the slightest indication of any consideration of links with France. Did the idea get dropped after he got in? Or was it just put in as an example of "forward thinking", which never would ever really amount to anything.

Tourism Industry must be more forward looking. Waterfront development must stimulate growth. Joint marketing with other Channel Islands.
Waterfront Must be developed into a top quality product serving needs of residents, tourists and business community. Some reasonably high buildings could enhance this, and should not be condemned irrationally.

This was clearly mooted at a time when high buildings on the waterfront were being seriously suggested - remember the rigged JEP phone vote - and Terry is trying to have one foot in that camp. High buildings where fire engines are unable to reach upper floors would, I would consider, to be a rational condemnation of the idea, but that's the sort of fact that doesn't enter this.

As far as "forward looking" tourism goes, there is not really much in the way of joint marketing that has emerged. One possible contender was a proposed CI-Paris air link in 2006, which was scuppered when Jersey did not want to give the same backing as Guernsey. Nothing else has really emerged.

Turning to Freddie Cohen, there are a few interesting surprises there.

I would promote measures to encourage local businesses to lower consumer prices and I have innovative proposals to develop new industries.

Well - prices have been going up, and I can't recall any "new industries" emerging from those "innovative proposals", or indeed, hearing that much about those proposals at all since 2005.

The JEP also reported that Mr Cohen would "also insist on GST being pegged at three per cent", which seems to have been one of those commitments like Philip Ozouf's that vanished, although perhaps because it was tucked away in a JEP election profile and interview rather than Hansard, did not come to the public view.

When she was standing for Deputy in 2005, Juliette Gallichan also said: "I believe there is a strong case for exemption from GST on medical items, food and children's clothes." Her voting record is completely to the contrary.

Ian Gorst, on the other hand, in 2005 said that "GST and exemptions - I will vote against any proposal to increase this from 3%. I would support a review to exempt medical supplies, providing the administration costs of such an exemption were not prohibitive. It might be that help towards medical costs are best dealt with through the new low-income support scheme." True to his commitment, he did vote for exemptions in the recent vote in 2010.

However, nothing seems to have become of his other - and I think good - suggestion: "Tax incentives - I would support tax incentives for employers who take on trainees and apprentices." In these times of high unemployment, that might be open to review.

Deputy Sean Power - in his 2005 version, was supporting "the need for a Parish Newsletter and the proposal to have alternate Parish Assemblies at Communicare." The former has occurred; the latter has not. But I had not realised until I read his 2005 manifesto that he was as committed as Guy de Faye towards reclamation at St Aubin:

The reclamation project for St. Aubin, including much needed parking, is a never-ending story, and it needs to move on. St. Aubin is now at a stage, where it is choking with cars, and residents and visitors alike will benefit from new car-parking. Businesses and the local tourism community will benefit. Given the remedial works now necessary to rebuild the north pier (on the Parish Hall side ) at St. Aubin, it is time for Parish authorities to now sit down with the Harbours department and see if the two projects can go hand in hand together. It may well be possible to re-use the beautiful granite on the sea wall at St. Aubin and integrate it into the new sea wall needed to encircle the new proposed reclamation area.

The 2005 reclamation scheme was totally chucked out by the Parish, but last year Mr de Faye has come up with his own fantasy version. It would be interesting to know what Mr Power now thinks of that.

Incidentally, in 2005, the following Parishes returned candidates unopposed: St Ouen, St Peter, St Saviour No 3, Grouville, St Martin, Trinity. If 5 1/3 Parishes had no elections in 2005, what does that say about the state of Island democracy?

And finally, another generality, but this time with a characteristic grammatical mistake of the kind that John Prescott makes.

To make policies that is good for all employers so that they are successful.

Any guesses as to the Jersey politician?

Christmas Carol

A brilliant Dr Who riff on the Charles Dicken's story, with wonderful performances from Matt Smith, Michael Gambon, and good acting too from Katherine Jenkins, whose spellbinding singing was magnificent. It had humour, tension, exuberance, and Matt Smith has made the part of the Doctor very much his own, with a unique style that makes him appear older than his years, and wonderfully inept with human relationships. There is definitely a Troughton-like quality to his Doctor. The younger leads who played younger versions of Gambon's character were also very good, and Stephen Moffat's sparkling script took us on a wonderfully paradoxical twist and turn through time. Murray Gold had two days to compose words and music for a completely new song that is sung alongside some well known ones, and he is a magician, there are no other words, for coming up with such a marvelous song so rapidly. I'm definitely going to get some Katherine Jenkins on CD.

Elsewhere there was a very dark version of Murder on the Orient Express, with significant departures from the book, making Poirot very much an upholder of the law and utter repelled by what he sees as a lynch mob. Removing Pierre, the Wagon-Lit conductor, from the list of suspects made the rationale for the murder taking place on the train simply an opportunistic
random event, and the obtaining of the spare uniform thereby became a complete loose end. Suchet's Poirot was very much out of character, ranting about the need for the law, where the Poirot of the book - and earlier stories with Suchet - have shown that he was capable (like the best private detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes) - of seeing the difference between justice and legality. Here, instead, an older Poirot (and perhaps an older Suchet) was morose and angry at the murderers, and yet came to see that justice and law could differ, and yet seemed, in the final scenes, to be weary with the world. Psychologically, whatever liberties it took with the book, it places Poirot far closer to becoming the character who we see in "Curtain", and I wonder if that was intended.

The weather on Christmas Day was surprisingly warm - unfortunately last night was so cold the pipe to the outside tap burst, but now fixed, thank goodness for a plumber who turned out - and it was good to be able to go out in the day to enjoy the warm sunshine, and no bitterly cold wind, for a morning walk. Fortunately there were no creepy shadowy figures pursuing me along the beach, unlike the unfortunate John Hurt, in "Whistle and I'll come" where he picks up a strangely carved ring and is menaced by a malignant force, seen only out of focus, or in scratching sounds, or rapping violently on the door of the hotel where he is the sole visitor in the cold winter months. Gemma Jones was also brilliant as his wife, portraying a passive, uncommunicative Alzheimer's patient, but in a few moments, indicating that despite what her husband thought, there was a mind trapped within a body, helpless to communicate. It was an extremely dark and bleak script, quite terrifying in not showing anything of substance, and will haunt me for some time to come.

Christmas Day

Christmas has provided some festive treats, the best of which has to be the four part modern re-working of "The Nativity" by Tony Jordan on BBC1. It was fresh, free of the trap of cloying piousness that some Hollywood productions have fallen into, and took liberties with the stories, especially that of the Magi, but at its heart was four very human stories, that of Mary, of Joseph, coming to terms with a pregnant wife who was outcast as a common whore, a young shepherd, bitter and angry under the Roman yoke, and the Magi, prepared to trust to their astrological knowledge with a quest of over a thousand miles to see the triangulation point of a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Regulus. At the heart of it, Mary was played delightfully, as a human being, not some statue on a pedestal, and the birth scenes were genuine and (for me) quite harrowing, as well as most moving when she reaches out in her desperation, upwards - and Joseph takes her hand.

Elsewhere, Christmas Carols abound. Later today sees the modern take with Bill Murray in Scrooged, and the fabulous Muppets Christmas Carol - how is it that other puppets are puppets, but you just forget it when watching them. Meanwhile there was

A Christmas Carol (1938) starring Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, June Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll, and Terry Kilburn
A Christmas Carol (1951) starring Alastair Sim, Meryvn Johns, Michael Hordern and Glyn Dearman, with a brief appearance from a young George Cole - originally black and white, but showing as colourised.
A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott, David Warner, Susannah York, Frank Finlay, Edward Woodward and Nigel Davenport. 100 min
Christmas Carol: The Musical (2004), starring Kelsey Grammer

and the one I like best of modern versions, especially for the Ghost of Christmas future - the 2000 ITV version starring Ross Kemp as loan shark Eddie Scrooge.

Meanwhile, on Radio 4, Timothy West and June Barrie head a wonderful cast in "Crisp and Even Brightly", an extremely funny comic play which tells the "truth"behind the story of "Good King Wenceslas", or as he prefers to call himself, Well Intentioned King Wenceslas (brilliantly played by West as a selfish, self-centred bully)- in which Slavonic spies intent on killing the king, a small page loaded up to carry all the goodies from the carol, and a hermit called Kermit all appear, along with a peasant by a demolished hovel (a legacy of the government's new slum clearance policy), and a man with a harpoon, and his wife Nora. Still available on Listen Again, it is a wonderful romp, and if you have ever wondered why "a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel" when surely the best source of wood would have been not in the city but where he lived "a good league hence, Underneath the mountain, Right against the forest fence", this will explain everything about how the carol came to be written - as a piece of political propaganda. It will never sound the same again!

Comedy also takes centre stage in the surrealist mayhem of the Goon Show over on Radio 7, where the Goons produce their own madcap version:

SELLERS: (offsite BBC type announcer) And here, at Christmas we see the great venerable offices of Scrooge and Marley, importers and exporters for the great year of eighteen eighty seven.
MILLIGAN: Aba, ova to you ..
FX:SCRIBBLING UNDER:
SCROOGE: Aba da you. Marley is dead, Marley is deaeed.
MILLIGAN: (accent?) No I'm not ...
FX: PISTOL SHOT.
MILLIGAN: Ohhh
SCROOGE: Yes you are. Ahh. Now to enter certain thingsss in the all weather leather ledgers:
FX: SCRIBBLING UNDER:
SCROOGE: One barrel of blungers violent stone and ginger purge. ... One gill (*1) of rare leopard oil! Tin newts. One box of feathered shirt lifters.

Back to Radio 4, an exploration of "The Santa Story" tracing the historical connections between St Nicholas and the modern "ho ho" fellow at the North pole; five 15 minute programmes, full of anecdote and interest.

"Something Understood" on Radio 4 looks at the Nativity in words and music, and has Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, fresh from his "History of Christianity", to unpick the stories - the bible has only "magi", not kings, and doesn't give the number of them - that, and the gifts all come in later stories.

But, for me, the gem was on Radio 7 in an adaptation of Wynyard Browne's "The Holly and the Ivy" for radio.

The Holly and the Ivy is a captivating Christmas tale with a difference. Wynyard Browne's play, set in 1940s Norfolk, begins on Christmas Eve and slowly unfolds over 24 hours, during which time secrets are revealed, skeletons are wrenched out of closets and lives are changed forever. Martin Gregory is an elderly pastor who refuses to retire, despite pleas from his sisters. Cared for by his loving elder daughter he bumbles on, completely unaware that she has fallen in love with their neighbour. The pair long to marry and move away but she cannot bear to leave her father alone at the vicarage. Things come to a head when the family - made up of an errant younger daughter with a penchant for whisky, two fussing aged aunts and a carefree cad of a brother - descend on the vicarage for the festive season. The play is compelling from the outset, as characters are introduced and their stories established. Everyone is emotionally troubled in some way, and the vicar, caring as he is toward his parishioners, seems blind to his own family members' turmoil - until, of course, everyone's personal problems begin to emerge in a poignant scenario.

Surprisingly modern in tone, it packs illegitimate birth, child mortality, alcoholism, existential despair and the bitterness of old age and wasted years.

"It began with feeling, of course, but feeling soon exhausts itself. You can't feel even grief forever."

"Grief leaves an emptiness, there's always a blankness..."

"Yes: I know, but it's not that. It's something far bigger than that. It's...it's as though, in that blankness, I had suddenly stumbled on something that affects everyone. Everyone in the world. Well look, listen: Robert was killed. I really did love him, you know. And after that, I found I was going to have Simon, well that seemed important. Because, not only because of Robert, but another life in the world is...important, so for the next four years I did everything I possibly could for Simon. Well then, he died. And I just felt, well, what's the point, of it all. What was the value of all that effort? Don't you see? It was then that I first began to realize that, in the end, It's the same for everyone. Practically all the efforts that people make are simply to keep life going, well their own or somebody else's, and the whole thing's doomed to failure, we know that. Life can't be kept going indefinitely, with the sun's growing cold and in the end the human race will be frozen off the Earth, well what sense does that make?"

And as the parson points out, reflecting that he too had felt that existential despair about life, that is the start of the journey of faith, not its end.

The Fourth Wise Man

I've been watching BBC's "The Nativity" which has the traditional three magi (or wise men). But what if there had been four, not three?

The Fourth Wise Man
 
I was lost, following a wandering star,
Went astray, in strange lands, very far;
And my brother Magi, who found a way,
Went to Bethlehem, arriving on that day;
While I was lost in a land of dark and mists,
Along a winding track that turns and twists;
And so I did not come upon the babe that lay,
But only the bitter cold, and harsh dismay;
And incantations failed, and did not prevail,
To find the path I sought, the sacred trail;
Young I was then, not old, and many years,
I had forgotten so much wisdom in my fear;
But as I journeyed through the land of ice,
Time took my youth, and age paid the price;
And stooped and weary, my staff in hand,
Wandered along the dust roads of the land;
Until one day, I found a sign again, above,
And sought the glories of the promised love;
Hurried forth, lest I should miss once more
The signs and wonders of our ancient lore;
And came towards the city now in sight:
Hope anew to see and hear the Lord of Light;
But as I drew near, I felt instead a sudden chill,
As I saw three shapes, three crosses on a hill.

 

Christmas Greetings - from December 1940!

I've just been perusing the Christmas 1940 "Editor's Window" from "The Islander". This was "Jersey's Monthly Picture Magazine", and the editor was a Mr E.H. Brenam. The price was one shilling. This was published when the German military forces had been in Occupation of the Channel Islands for around six months.

The editorial starts by berating "the gossip and scandalmonger" in a manner which makes one think of the criticism heaped on bloggers by some (but not all) of the writers in the Jersey Evening Post. But the giveaway is that the mention of "international and local events", which surely refers in part to the German confiscation of radio sets - which had been ordered towards the end of November. Equally, there probably was, as is usual in Jersey, the usual Jersey "grapevine" spreading tidbits of news, some true and some false. What is interesting is that the international and local aspects are conflated, so that the editor gives the impression that any spread of gossip, even if it is British news, is bad, and that only an indirect mention is made of the confiscation orders ("local events").

The editor then turns his eye on fuel and food. Nowadays, fuel and food is still subject to a kind of rationing, but instead of everyone getting an equal share under rationing, under GST, those who can pay most have comfortable warm heated homes, and plentiful food, while those who cannot afford it do not. It is the new kind of "black market", except that it operates openly and legitimately.

It is interesting that the sugar ration is increased for children, presumably on health grounds to provide nutrition for growing bodies, while we have had cut backs on free school milk for primary school children, despite studies showing it helps healthy bones.

Lastly, there is an interesting comment on raising the school leaving age. Today, as then, there seems to be young people "kicking their heels at home, there being as it is, a surplus of both skilled and unskilled workers in the labour market", and the fiscal stimulus fund has been used to increase available places in education at Highlands. The November figure this year was 1,310 people unemployed, and Alan Maclean, the Economic Development Minister said that the figures would have been worse had the States not agreed to invest fiscal stimulus funding into training initiatives and capital projects. But sooner or later, the training initiatives will end, and will we be out of recession then, or will there be an even greater rise? How much greater would it have been without more young people still in education?

How much of our misery is because of the world recession, and how much have we done to make it worse? Some local businesses are hanging on by their fingertips above the precipice. GST at 5% may be the last little nudge to send them off it. And more and more local businesses are being snapped up by UK shareholders (who have to pay nothing on profits), and thereby place an ever greater tax burden on the local taxpayer. So far, all we have had is promises that Philip Ozouf will do something; not unlike Mr Micawber in Dickens, saying "something will turn up".

Anyhow, here is a brief window into Christmas 1940, where the soup was not on offer to raise money for charity, but to be charitable, and where freedom of speech would be obliquely criticised as "odious", and people who spread news from the BBC would be sent to prison for breaking the law.

The Islander - Editor's Window
Christmas 1940

Both international and local events have brought to the fore that interesting but odious specimen, the gossip and scandalmonger. No Act can be passed without a comment, which is always far-fetched, rash and frequently imbecile, made up of general reflections containing no thought and scarcely a phrase that has not been overworked. His ears are long and his eyes are quick, but especially so with regard to perceiving faults which are often than not increased by his intermeddling. Rumours sweep through the town and country-side with an amazing rapidity and cause many nervous or highly strung people quite unnecessary fears, anticipations and worry. We think that this form of amusement should cease.

The. dark, long, winter nights are approaching and, the black-out and curfew tending to anchor people to the fire-side, there are in this particular, two main commodities which will be required : fuel for the fire and fuel for the mind.

We hope that the States' Schemes of peat cutting and wood felling and also the import of coal and coke will be sufficient to satisfy the demand in the first case while the Public Library will no doubt do its best to satisfy most people in search of reading matter. Owing to the limited size of the fiction section, habitual novel readers would be well advised to realise that biographies and books of travel can be just as entertaining. To this end, we propose, in next month's issue of the " Islander," to give short reviews of some non-fiction books obtainable at the Public Library which might
be of interest to readers.

With the limited resources at one's disposal, it is only the expert cook who can concoct a tasty dish. For those devoid of the " culinary art," we strongly recommend the daily Communal Meal served at the Technical School in Phillips Street. Here a splendid hot meal of soup and meat or vegetable dish may be obtained for 6d. For an additional 1d. or 2d, a dessert of some kind is served. We understand that many of the vegetables used at the Communal Kitchen are obtained from the products of the Stadium Scheme mentioned in last month's " Islander." The Communal meals are planned by Miss Fraser, who is the cooking instructress at the School, while the efficient service is performed by an enthusiastic body of voluntary helpers, who together with Miss Fraser, deserve all praise. If we make one small criticism, it is that there seems to be somebody entrusted with the seasoning who is inordinately fond of pepper and peppers on the same principle as the Duchess in " Alice in Wonderland " who said " he can thoroughly enjoy pepper when he pleases."

The tobacco rationing has started a lot of unjustified grousing. Whilst not condemning smoking as " a custom loathsome to the eve, hateful to the nose, harmfulle to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomless " as King James I did, we feel that the regular amount of tobacco allowed per week is ample.

"To smoke more is to take it as tinkers do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischief, a violent purger of goods. lands, health, hellish, devilish and damned tobacco, the mien and overthrow of body and soul " as sour-minded Burton remarked. We should smoke a cigarette as we smoke a cigar, on an appropriate occasion, after a meal or last thing at night, not, as so often happens, when we have nothing to do for a moment.

It is with great pleasure that we learn that the sugar-ration for children has been increased to 8 ounces per week. In these times, when attention is concentrated on the war, we ought to be extremely thankful to the authorities concerned for having had such foresight with regard to the generations who will, we hope, inhabit a more peaceful and prosperous world.

This attention to the health of children brings us to another aspect : their education. Many boys and girls who would normally have left school and obtained employment are now kicking their heels at home, there being as it is, a surplus of both skilled and unskilled workers in the labour market. Might this not be an opportunity of extending the school leaving age, thus equipping the man and woman of the future with an education which will be a real use to them in playing their part as citizens ?

The Time of Ice

As we have just had the shortest day, the day of the Winter Solstice, here is a tale to read after leaping over the smouldering Yule log, sitting by the fire, sipping a glass of warm and spiced mulled wine....

The Time of Ice
(A Meditation for the Solstice)
 
Come in, and sit down, as the fire burns brightly. Close the door, and keep the draughts at bay. For this indeed is a tale told by the fireside, a tale for fire, but also a tale when there is ice outside, and the cold fingers of the Northerly wind rake their frosty hands upon the window pane.
 
It is said, and was told to me, that long ago, the days were mild and temperate, and the sun shone brightly throughout the year. The trees blossomed with fruit all year long, and rivers irrigated the land. This was the golden age of the world, and happy indeed were those who lived in those glorious days.
 
But one day, there was a change, as a breeze sprang up, and the breeze became a strong wind, and then a gale, coming from the North, and the land grew colder, and the days grew ever shorter. The sun lost its strength. The crops failed, the land grew cold and barren, leaves turned brown and began to fall from trees, and there was hunger in the land.
 
There was a blight on the land, and the tribe felt the darkening of the days, the cold that chilled to the bones. They were full of a deep foreboding, a deepening gloom, a malaise that only the sun could shake off, but little by little, the days drew in, and the cold, dark night came, and brought only despair and melancholy.
 
It was a cold walk to the cottage where the wise woman lived, so the leaders of the tribe, an old man and a young maiden, set off in search of an answer to the blight that had afflicted their lands. And she welcomed them in, and soon they stood warming themselves before her fire. They asked her for help, and she gazed into the fire, as if falling into a trance, and spoke softly:
 
Branches dancing wildly through a stormy night
Sea foaming, waves churning against sea walls
As if an elemental force was loose, an evil wight
With destruction in its wake, as darkness falls
 
Seek the wisdom in the sacred fire, heart of gold
The sparks from where the shattered vessels fell
And fight against the darkness rising, be so bold
And venture forth into the lands where shadows dwell
 
And in those days, there was also a wise man, the keeper of the sacred flame. This was surely were wisdom was to come from. So they went to the wise man.
 
Now the wise man kept the flame upon the high places, set among the stones of the ancestors, and it burned as a beacon to guide sailors by night, and also a place where the tribe made the offerings to the gods of wheat and barley, of the first fruits, and of young lamb, when they sang of the blessings of the land, and gave a measure to the gods in thanksgiving.
 
The keeper of the flame told them that the seasons were out of balance, and the strange weather days were the result of an evil come upon the world, and he would strive to find the cause, and return to the tribe the heat of the sun. But the days grew ever dark and cold, and it seemed that the land would become a land of night, beset by wolves and bears, where no crops would grow, and all hope would die.

And so he set forth, and they kept the flame alight, in faith that he would return, and never gave up hope, even when the children cried with hunger pains, and their parents sought firewood with, venturing out with fingers chilled to the bone, and hurting in the cold winds that tore through this once pleasant land.
 
But when all hope had almost gone, he returned, after forty days, from the wilderness, and sat down by the fire, and told us his tale; the tale that I tell you now.
 
The keeper of the sacred flame had ventured far into the north, along the narrow mountain paths, and passed down through deep gullies, and the snow was thick upon this land. At last he came upon a mountain. This mountain was taller than any he had seen.
 
On the mountain's peak, lightening struck the land, with powerful energies, while all around a thunderous boom echoed across the valley. And on its summit stood a fortress, wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, with a gate of cold steel, and above those cruel pinnacles, a great tower of black stone.
 
Upon that tower, the keeper saw a dark shape around which the firestorm blazed out, and yet sucked in the heat and light, and remained in shadow. He held a staff high in his hand, summoning the elements, and crying out an ancient spell:
 
Cold and blackness on the land
The void consumes the light
Gather darkness, reach out hand
And bring forth endless night
 
Tenebrae, O Tenebrae!
Et Ite Nunc!
 
And as he spoke, a colder wind spring up, and flakes of snow began to fall.
 
The keeper knew that this was the Ice Lord, and he had taken our fire and bound it to his will, stealing the light and warmth from our sun, drawing it to his mountain realm, and causing the days to weaken, and the tribe to feel despair, as all light and joy was stolen from them.
 
The keeper raised his own staff, and chanted an incantation of light:
 
We celebrate the sun returning
Growing light, early dawning
The sun brings life and growth
Rain and sun bring fruits both
As the light of the sun grows
Passion for life it now bestows.
 
Love is as powerful as death
Passion for life in each breath
Bursting into strongest flame
Let us rejoice, now proclaim
Burning heat like raging fire
Tongues of flame to inspire

So it was that the keeper of the sacred flame battled the Ice Lord, and great was their struggle. Bolts of fire rained down, setting fir trees on fire, and a storm raged around the mountain peak. But the Ice Lord was held at bay, and weakened, and his fortress crumbled, and the dark tower fell. The rocks of the mountain themselves slid, and all came crashing down.
 
Then the keeper bound the Ice Lord, and chained him with many binding spells, and with his baneful power gone, the days began to grow longer once more, and the warmth and light of the sun began its slow return.
 
The keeper of the sacred flame was weary from his struggle, but victorious, and gradually, he retraced his steps, returning to our village. But it can cost him dear; he lost all his powers in that fight, and died soon afterwards.
 
Now all that took place many years ago, and the tale was forgotten, almost lost, except among those who passed it down the years, telling it to each other.
 
And it is said that every year, the Ice Lord breaks his chains, and casts an evil enchantment, binding the sun to him, summoning warmth from the land, and robbing the earth of life, and the people of joy. Then the winter storms bring a dying year, and a fading sun, and despair casts a shadow on the land.
 
But also every year, we rekindle a portion of the sacred flame, when we take the Yule log and burn it anew
 
And as we do so, it is said that the spirit of the keeper of the flame returns to keep us safe, as he awakens from his deep sleep within the trees. Then he ventures forth once more to battle against the dying light, and at the shortest day, he holds the darkness at bay, and the days begin their slow march back to light, growing longer and longer once more.
 
As the trees burned brightly when the battle fought, so we keep a remnant of the burning fires ourselves, and light the Yule log, for hope, for the renewal of the sun at the turning point of the year, and as we leap over the smouldering wood, we too cross the threshold from darkness into light and are reborn.
 
Pass through fire, be not burned
Such is promise now discerned.