The Accession of James II by A.C. Saunders

Some more from A.C. Saunders “History of Jersey in the 17th Century”. 

It's an interesting to note that England - and Jersey - was also facing a major refugee crisis. After the Edict of Nantes was revoked, Protestants faced grave danger if they professed their faith:

"All Protestants were forced publicly to abjure their faith, and those who refused to obey this law were treated with the greatest cruelty. They were driven to mass at the pike's point, and with halters round their necks."

It was recently highlighted in "Who Do You Think You Are?" the BBC programme in which celebrities trace their ancestors. Actor Derek Jacobi found he was related to a wealthy Huguenot at the Royal Court who lost much of his wealth, had to use bribes to leave the country (a past example of people trafficking), and  managed to escape to England.

Alan Crosby, writing on this notes that: "Sir Derek Jacobi's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? shows that persecuted people have been settling in England for centuries."

Crosby notes:

"I used to live in Norwich, where ‘the strangers’ – as they were known in the 17th and 18th centuries – became a very powerful and influential element in city business and social circles. They maintained their separate identity for many decades, with church services in their own languages and a strong sense of family ties carrying on for several generations, but gradually they assimilated. At one time, it’s been estimated, the ‘strangers’ and their descendants may have formed at least a quarter of the entire population of Norwich."

One of the lessons of history is that there is perhaps not so much to fear from migrant refugees, after all.

The Accession of James II by A.C. Saunders

With many apologies for taking so long a time in dying, Charles 11 ceased to reign on the 6th February, 1685, and his brother James, Duke of York, became King in his place. Before his death Charles openly joined the Catholic Church, to which he had belonged for several years.

It had always been known, that Charles' tendency had been towards his mother's faith, but the passing of the Test Act in 1673 had warned him that the people of England would not tolerate any return to the ancient faith. It was only when attempts were made to exclude the Duke of York from the succession in favour of Charles' illegitimate son that James' claims were recognized.

James at any rate had openly declared his faith, and was surrounded by those who were eager to support him in any action tending towards the return of the papal influence in the land.

Charles, during his fifty-five years, had had many ups and downs in his life. At the age of twelve he was present at the battle of Edgehill, and after that for many years he wandered from place to place in charge of guardians and tutors, often sorely pressed for want of money, sometimes made much of at the Court of France, and then cold shouldered as it suited the requirements of those in power.

Those nobles who surrounded him, oftimes men who had lost their all in supporting his father's cause, were eager to protect his person from danger, as with his life depended the possibility of their return to their own in England. His education was much interrupted, if not neglected, and he gained his experience of life in a very hard, and often sordid school. One thing he certainly possessed was a great charm of manner and natural wit, and when he first arrived in Jersey, although only sixteen years of age, he made himself very popular by the frank and courteous way in which he reciprocated the loyalty and hospitality of the inhabitants.

Whatever his faults, Charles had many followers, and he had always been a great favourite with the Jersey people, and therefore we are not surprised to find in the London Gazette (published by Authority) March 9-12, 1684, (should be 1685) the following " humble address of Thomas, Lord Jermyn, Governor, Sir Philip de Carteret, Baronet, Bailiff, with the Jurats and other officers of your Majesties Island of Jersey, with the Dean, Rectors, Constables, together with your Majesties Commission officers

"Most Gracious Sovereign, -We can affirm without vanity that we were excessively surprised with two contrary passions when we heard of our late Dear Soverign's departure to a better Crown, And of your Majesties being peaceably possest of that here below. For as the first could not but beget in us an exceeding measure of grief and sadness, who had felt the ease of his late government and been partakers of his special grace and favour, so the second did as much refresh our minds with joy and comfort, considering your heriocal vertues joined to an admirable sweetness of temper, which all the World is an eye witness of, and (which concerns us close) the many testimonies of special favour towards this Island, express from the time it had the honor to enjoy your Royal person to this hour, which things as they are happy prognosticks to all your subjects, as we humbly hope we may make of them a more particular application to us of this place. It remains that we on our parts acquit ourselves of those duties which good subjects are by the Laws of God and of the land to pay to a most Gracious King, and of those besides which our particular inclinations and obligations require at our hands : Wherein we trust in Almighty God never to be found wanting, as far as our Lives, Fortunes and utmost Endeavours can extend themselves. In which resolution we subscribe ourselves, and humbly pray for your Majesties long and happy reign over us."

This address, passed at St. Hillary on the 19th February 1684, was presented on the 8th March following to His Majesty by Sir Edward Carteret.

James II was proclaimed King by the Viscount on the 18th February, 1685, with all solemnity imaginable, and with all possible demonstrations of universal joy and satisfaction. The ceremony was attended by all the principal people in the Island, who expressed their joy by the discharge of canon, public bonfires, and drinking their Majesties healths. The Train bands, and all the people assembled being entertained by the Governor, the said Sir Philip, and Sir Edward de Carteret.

James had not the gracious manner of his brother, but he was considered as a man of honour, and as one who in times of danger and difficulty would still support an .unpopular cause. He knew that the Catholic Religion was much disliked by the great majority of his subjects, yet he openly attended mass and although people disapproved of his action yet they respected anyone who acted according to the dictates of his conscience. Besides he had given his word that he would not interfere with matters connected with the Church of England and the people trusted him.

Unfortunately at that time Louis XIV decided to revoke the Edict of Nantes (1685) and those Protestants who were unable to escape from France were deprived of their Civil Rights unless they joined the Catholic Church. Ministers were forbidden to preach, or teach, visit the sick, or wear ecclesiastical dress. All endowments of Protestant Churches were taken over by the Catholic priests.

All Protestants were forced publicly to abjure their faith, and those who refused to obey this law were treated with the greatest cruelty. They were driven to mass at the pike's point, and with halters round their necks. Any Huguenot trying to sell his estates, in order to flee the Kingdom was deprived of his property.

Under the rule of the " Dragonades " those who refused to comply with the new law, were left to the mercy of brutal soldiers who did what they liked with the unfortunate Protestants. By the violence and brutality of those in power, France lost nearly one hundred thousand of her best citizens.

Many of these refugees escaped to Jersey, and became the ancestors of some of our Jersey families. They told the inhabitants their tales of horror, and the many dangers they had faced in order to escape from the land of their birth. It was a terrible blot on the reign of Louis XIV, that an edict granted by Henry IV, should have been revoked at a time when Protestants and Catholics were working side by side in peace with one another, after those terrible years following the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew.

They told the people that when soldiers were quartered upon them they misquoted scripture, and told the owner " The Lord has said seek and ye shall find " and then they began to steal all they could, and woe betide those who interfered with them.

After a time rumours began to arrive in Jersey about the strange doings in London, how the army was being increased, how the officers were being selected from those who attended mass; and how James and his supporters were endeavouring in every way possible to acquire such power in the land as to force the people to revert to the Roman Catholic Church. Those in authority became very anxious and they wondered whether they had not been somewhat effusive in their address when they expressed their " joy and comfort " at his accession.

A Catholic Lt. Governor was appointed, and the officers of the garrison were changed in order that the soldiers should be under the orders of Roman Catholics. The Bailiff and Jurats recognized the danger, and they decided that half the troops in the fortress should be those belonging to the Jersey Militia.

And Daniel Brevint wrote of “troubled times ahead”.

Twisting the Tale

Twisting the Tale

A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent
--- William Blake

There’s a very cruel You Tube video doing the round about Mr Kurdi taking his family to Europe. The front caption – not part of the interview but added -suggests that he wanted to come over, and brought his family along, because he wanted dental work, and that is why his wife and those poor children died.

It includes a genuine clip – and note the world “clip” – from an interview in which his sister mentions him needing dental work and trying to help him financially. She mentions him “getting to Europe first, and then seeing about his teeth”.

The impression it sets out to give, which I am sure is deliberate, is that he was a free-rider coming over to get some dentistry done at the expense of Europe’s welfare systems. It has been cleverly put together to give that impression.

The earliest versions of the “You tube” presentation seem to appear on Facebook groups like Britain First. They don't appear on any mainstream news story, and the obvious implication is that they are selectively using part a YouTube video with the Aunt to remove the full picture and give the man a bad motive.

The video is a falsehood, bound up with a small kernel of truth. As readers will know, I always think it is important to apply the same standards of historical research to new stories, and track down sources to their origins, especially when stories have been twisted like this one.

A longer report on an interview with Ms. Kurdi - his sister in Canada – reveals this. She said she sent her brother $5,000 three weeks ago, an amount initially intended to help with costly dental work. They later decided the money would be better spent on getting Mr. Kurdi to Europe.

This is where we get – “Europe first, then dental work”. It is a priority of alternatives, not a planned sequence to follow. And the story gives more details:

“He was supposed to go by himself only, because it’s expensive for the whole family,” Ms. Kurdi said. “The smugglers, they want $1,000, $2,000 per person.” But Mr. Kurdi later called his sister back, worried that his wife would not be able to support the family without him. “’How about if we go, all of us? ” he asked her. “If you know you can do it, go ahead and do it,’” Ms. Kurdi replied.

So he wasn't trying to get dental work, he was deciding that escape from a dangerous war zone was more important for his family than teeth, and he feared for his wife and children left behind. Rather than selfishly escaping, and sending back for them later, he was trying to get them all out together.

And what about the dental work anyway? 'According to Canadian journalist Terry Glavin, who spoke to the aunt in Vancouver, he had been kidnapped during the Islamic State siege of Kobane earlier this year and had all of his teeth pulled out. He had lost his teeth under torture. No wonder he wanted to get out with his family!

As the BBC reports:

“As Syrian Kurds, the Kurdis' chances of being granted asylum in Canada were hampered from the moment they set out for Turkey. For many years, Syria denied its Kurdish population citizenship and Kurds were regarded as stateless by the authorities. A decree in 2011 allowed some to apply for citizenship but others were ineligible and many were forced to flee before they could apply.

The Kurdis had been living in Damascus until the early stages of the Syrian conflict in late 2011. When the violence in the city escalated, they relocated back to Makharij village, 25km outside the northern town of Kobane.”

Ask yourself this: if you can been captured, had your teeth pulled by torturers (and don’t imagine they used anaesthetic) and you and your family were under threat from the same brutal regime that was on your doorstep, what would you do? Wouldn’t you seek to get them out, because the risk of staying was so much greater than that of fleeing?

It is a tragedy that the three year old boy drowned, but I think that if my family faced such a desperate future, I’d take any opportunity to escape and bring them with me. Wouldn’t you?


Postscript

I'd like to put the record straight on a few other issues.

Settled in Turkey?

One of my correspondence said: “Mr Kurdi was some 4 years ago. As pointed out before, though, they were no longer in danger, but merely wanted better and more help than given in Turkey.”

This story seems to be wholly sourced from "The Muslim Issue" as the truth! This suggest he was in "no danger" . I have read that article, and it is almost entirely false, while at the same time, suggesting the mainstream media is totally wrong. It even suggests the dead boy was “planted” on the beach.

The facts: Syrian government policy under Bashar al-Assad denies citizenship rights to Kurds. Since they have no passports, Turkish law says they are not entitled to move freely in the country under its temporary protection measures for refugees. So it is not a case of being able to settle there and be safe.

Convoy Attacked?

My correspondent also says:

“The picture of Aylan is not at all an icon for children that flee wars ; it is more a symbol for all those who - though not in danger - would like to improve their lives and who now - with the hundreds of thousands of refugees actually fleeing a war - see a great opportunity to disappear in those masses and 'slip in'. And it infuriates me, because the latter are the ones that are not happy with the little help they get offered (because they already had that at home), they want more (hence the scenes at Calais, where convoys with help get attacked and plundered).”

The facts: there are no news stories about “convoys” being attacked, but there is one about a convoy from Belgian causing disruption. 35 people turned up with vans and instead of distributing aid in an orderly fashion, seemed to have just said “come and get it”, so disruption and disorder was hardly surprising.

The source of the genuine story - the Belgian convoy -is the Guardian, which notes that no one is getting upset - distribution of donations up to now had been smooth, but it is imperative that everything is distributed in controlled conditions to maintain the dignity of the approximately 3,000 people in the camp. Arrangements are being made with warehousing to do this by those coordinating aid on the ground.

No Life jackets for Children?

There’s been an idea that the father was selfish for wearing a life jacket and not having ones for his children. This report from the New York Times deals with that issue:

"“Instead of focusing on the real issues, people blame the father for not putting a life jacket on his children,” the Turkish official said, noting that Turkish patrols have seen countless similar tragedies pass unnoticed. “Well, I’ll tell you this: Life jackets in sizes that small simply aren’t available here.” Indeed, many refugees buy plastic beach toys for flotation." (New York Times)

I’d also note that much is made of the fact that Mr Kurdi seems to be unable to remember exactly what happened, and his accounts of being in the water are fragmentary and confused. In those situations of life and death, it is hardly surprising. Look at eyewitness accounts of some incidents during the sinking of the Titanic, and there is muddle and confusion, although the broad outline is accurate.

Abandonment

Abandonment
They came seeking to escape;
Stay: and women facing rape,
Children killed on a whim,
Here and there, a severed limb;
Countries would take some in,
Then the gates close. A din
Goes unheard as shops looted;
Armies march, uniform, booted,
Bringing terror in their wake;
Hear us, hear us, do not forsake,
And exclude us, by all legal ways,
Decide who comes and who stays;
Facing an uncertain future, fear
As the danger grows every near:
The lucky ones came, in hope;
Those left struggled to cope,
Left homes, a rag tag, lost souls
Seeking sanctuaries, the only goals;
As war is writ large upon the land,
They struggle on, this unhappy band,
Wandering Jews of Europe, alone;
Sigh of the dispossessed, the groan
Of the weary, the threadbare clothes;
And doors are shut, barred, they close;
And they remain, and die, a killing
For fear of all those people spilling
Into other countries, a long shadow
Where a chill wind comes to blow;
Happen again? In Calais, Syrians flee
From war torn lands, far over sea
And the doors are shut once more;
Taking in just a select few, no more;
No lessons learned, our fellow man.
And women, children: all to ban:
And this is our crime, our greatest sin
To say there is no room at our Inn.

Legal Highs and Bad Statistics Reporting

“'Legal highs' referrals 'rise by 700%' in Jersey” says the BBC News, getting in on the JEP’s act for misleading statistics. As the BBC news tells in the story, in 2013, seven people were referred to Jersey's Alcohol and Drug Service compared to 57 in 2014.

Now that is a massive rise, as the JEP mentions, a tripling, but it is small in comparison with the total Island population. Saying – rise by 700% - skews and distorts what is actually happening. The BBC - by putting it as a percentage increase - gives a very misleading picture.

A high percentage increase can result from low initial numbers, so these statistics should be considered in context. As a percentage of the total population of Jersey, they are very small numbers. 57 is around 0.057%.

The JEP is actually better at placing the statistics in a wider picture. It notes that:

“Michael Gafoor, director of the Alcohol and Drug Service, said that the significant increase last year was not just as a result of the number of users of NPS going up but also because people were becoming ‘more aware’ of the dangers and asking for help.”

Now that is significant, because it suggests part of the reason is increased awareness by drug takers of needing to seek help. So part of the increase may simply be more people becoming aware than in previous years – it may reflect not increased numbers, but the effect of better education in needing to seek help. That shows again how unreliable it is to take numbers as they stand, without considering the wider context.

We also glean some interesting figures from past years and the current year:.

“In total 57 people were referred to the service last year, compared to six in 2010, fewer than five in 2011 and seven in 2012 and 2013. So far this year 15 Islanders have been referred to the service, including five teenagers.”

Now 15 is still higher than previous years, but as we are now just in September, assuming even numbers per month on average, it suggests that the total for this year will be no more than around 23. It shows the dangers of taking just one figure in isolation.

We should also note that a calendar year is actually an artificial unit in which to count statistics. Any mathematician will tell you that choosing the starting and ending points for data may result in different statistics.

Even if this year’s figures got as high as 28, that would be half of 2014. But should we have a headline “referrals half in 2015 compared to previous year?”

I think not – the important thing about fewer referrals this year is that it shows the trends is not increasing year on year, but widely variant between years. That’s what you would expect with small numbers, where a relatively small variance can lead to 700%!

It may well be that 2014 was something of a "catchup" on referrals as people who had been unaware of their needs came forward, whereas in 2015, we are settling back to a more regular pattern, but one which does reflect increased awareness for referrals.

And by the way, Guernsey's 2014 report says: "There has been a significant reduction in the number of drug related referrals to this service compared to the previous year (37%)." But again, the figures are very small compared to the total population, and I'm not sure the word "significant" is the best one to use here. The words "promising" might be more accurate, as it leaves open the possibility of complex reasons for the reduction.

Typically a news source will try to make the numbers sound as dramatic as it can. I'm afraid that's the case with the BBC article here. Yet it does serve one good function - it enables me to point out how to look behind the figures.

A good strategy in assessing what has been reported is suggested by mathematician Robert Korn who says: "One simple strategy is to temporarily ignore the statistic that someone has presented and ask ourselves what statistic we would actually want in order to make a judgment about the issue involved". 

In this case,  the "bare statistics" do not actually tell the whole story, and we need more data to see possible causes for changes. We need more information - have the numbers increased in people taking legal highs, or is it a better educational programme - "because people were becoming ‘more aware’ of the dangers and asking for help". One indicates a worrying problem, but for the other an increase in figures may actually indicate a success!

Misleading statistics also feed the fear about the migrant crisis. As Patrick Kingsley reported:

"The migrants at Calais account for as little as 1% of those who have arrived in Europe so far this year. Estimates suggest that between 2,000-5,000 migrants have reached Calais, which is between 1% and 2.5% of the more than 200,000 who have landed in Italy and Greece"

He also notes that "the number of migrants to have arrived so far this year (200,000) is so minuscule that it constitutes just 0.027% of Europe’s total population of 740 million"

Why are these figures not more widely reported? That's something which the reader may care to ponder.

Selling the Family Silver to Pay for Caviar Costs

“St Saviour's Hospital to be sold to help balance books? States could sell off large capital assets to help solve projected £145 million deficit” (BBC News)

The problem with selling one’s assets like St Saviour’s Hospital is that it can only be done once.

It is worth looking at other countries to see how they’ve tried to flog off assets to fill their own black holes.

In 2012, Greece was forced to sell off some its beautiful islands to foreign buyers, to chip away at its enormous debts. As the Guardian noted:

“Greece embarks on a firesale - Islands, palaces royal estates and embassies must go as fears grow that country has entered full-blown depression. When you hit hard times, it is time to pawn or part with the family silver – and an unprecedented clearout is now under way in Athens. Greece has announced it will sell anything it can do without – and in the case of the debt-choked nation that means letting go of islands, royal palaces, prime real estate, marinas, airports, roads, the state-owned gas company, lottery and post office. Indeed anything, really, that can be sold.”

That was in 2012, and Greece is still in trouble. If you ask most economists, they will say that one fundamental problem was the failure to restructure public expenditure, which is something that Jersey knows very well about. Selling off capital assets could not cap the problem.

Former Senator Ben Shenton has noted that moves were afoot when he was in the States to reform the Public sector, but it has never really happened. What we have is “shroud waving”, cuts that are trivial, like the Christmas bonus, which could be funded by losing a few middle management posts.

“Joined up Government” was the cliché of the move to Ministerial government. Politicians like Frank Walker and Philip Ozouf were full of it. That never happened, and instead Ministers took over bolted together separate departments under one umbrella title, but still keeping under the hood as separate, giving very much a  “silo” mentality.

I remember one Deputy who had been at Property Services telling me that while he was trying to centralise administration offices, and get benefits from removing wasteful duplication, he was hitting a brick wall erected by some senior civil servants. It is pure “Yes Minister”:

Annie Hacker: Reform the Civil Service.
Jim Hacker: - Impossible. Catch 22.
Annie Hacker: - Why?
Annie Hacker: Supposing I suggested 50 terrific reforms, who would have to implement them?
(BOTH) The Civil Service.

In October 2013, Italy played the asset stripping game. As the Daily Mail reported:

“Never mind a place in the sun, if you’ve ever dreamed of owning your very own Italian castle, or an island in the Venetian lagoon, now’s the time. As the cash-strapped Italian government attempts to tackle its deficit, the state is to sell off some of the family silver. The sale of the 50 properties will raise £424.8million, Minister for the Economy Fabrizio Saccomanni said. The sale was approved as part of an emergency decree aimed at keeping Italy’s 2013 budget deficit within 3 % to avoid corrective action by Brussels. It is not the first time Italy has sold off assets. Last year a succession of lighthouses on the island of Sardinia were sold off to private businesses and converted into hotels, galleries, and museums.”

But as Cate Long noted:

“Hard asset sales will only provide a one-shot infusion of cash to fill a budget hole. There is only so much family silver to sell. Harold Macmillan, towards the end of his career in public life, is said to have likened the Thatcher Government’s use of privatisation proceeds – and this is a characteristically grand analogy that he was making - to selling off the family silver to pay for the grocery bills. “”

In 2013, a UK Parliamentary committee recommended that “When the government dispose off one asset, proceeds there from should be only used for fresh asset creation”. That should be a principle adopted here. Otherwise, in the words of Alex Salmond,  it is like winning the lottery jackpot and then not bothering to set up a savings account!

Failure to plug the gap by selling assets is something that Rob Duhamel also noted in his JEP column. The monies raised will not fill the predicted budget shortfall precisely because it is a one off and relatively small sale, and the problems of the shortfall are annual, and a temporary fix is like putting your finger into the hole in a dyke.

Dutch legend has it that there was once a small boy who upon passing a dyke on his way to school noticed a slight leak as the sea trickled in through a small hole. Knowing that he would be in trouble if he were to be late for school, the boy pocked his finger into the hole and so stemmed the flow of water. Some time later a passer-by saw him and went to get help. This came in the form of other men who were able to effect repairs on the dyke and seal up the leak.

That’s rather the effect of selling the major properties – they are putting a finger in the hole, but unless some real work is done to repair things, it won’t seal up the leak.

What we don’t want is a short term fix, selling large capital assets, and staving off the time for real reforms for a time, but leaving future generations impoverished

References
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/19/debt-ridden-greece-firesale
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2454535/Italy-selling-historic-castle-palace-entire-island-Venice.html
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2015/05/selling-off-family-silver.html

Remembering Reg's Garden

Reg's Garden will no longer be a community attraction from today. Instead it is to be a "Wild Life and Botanical Garden"":

Owner Reg Langlois says the time has come to stop hosting weddings, events and tourists at the space:

"I'll miss it like mad. When you get people from all around the world putting the world to rights, it's been a lovely position to be in and I couldn't have asked for better. If I'm making a cup of tea I tend to share a teapot with maybe half a dozen people who have never met before, but they go home the best of pals, meeting up the next day some of them, and I think that is nice!"

I’ve had the odd argument with Reg over the years, and at times, especially online, he seems rather like the Argument Sketch in Monty Python, deliberately trying to argue to have some fun. 

Often the thrust of his arguments are the same, rather like a stuck record. (1) Who is a true Jerseyman? To which I remind him gently that as Langlois, a corruption of L'Anglaise, "The English", his ancestors must have originated in England! (2) "I pay privately, so why should I be taxed" argument, usually to do with health care or education . (3) And finally, there is the "What do States Deputies do for their £40,000", mainly implying they are not worth that. Now that Reg is retired, perhaps he can stand for election, and tell us from the inside! Or shadow Graham Truscott, Murray Norton or Monty Tadier, and come back and enlighten us.

But balanced against that, I’ve also enjoyed hospitality – cups of tea and biscuits and a nice chat when I have visited his garden, as have so many visitors. He may have exaggerated the numbers of cups of tea. His own count which he gave online amounts to 17 cups of tea a day, if you count every day of the year! But the hospitality is very genuine and in this day and age, very kind. It will be sadly missed.

Pictured here is my son Martin on one such occasion with Reg..

This year reminded me in some ways of a Frankie Howerd episode of “Up Pompei”, a TV show that probably dates me and I’m sure Reg can remember as well – the show, I mean, not Pompei. He’s not that old! One of the characters is apparently poisoned, and spends most of the episode falling through doorways, out of cubpboards, etc stealing into every scene saying “I’m going…, I’m going…, I’m going”, and taking the entire episode to die, although in fact I think he survives.

This year has seen that kind of running commentary on the garden – “it’s going…, only 90 days to go… it’s going.. only 37 days to go…” etc, coupled with various pieces of the garden structures and plants for sale on a regular basis, posted on about three different Facebook sites.

How many plants and structures will remain? That’s a mystery - although the photo below shows some of the structures which are due to leave. Because the day has finally dawned, any remaining plants will be left to go wild. Anyone visiting does so at their own risk, although I suspect Reg will keep an eye on the trees to make sure they are not likely to fall on people.

I remember all the birds in cages, and the tortoises in the garden's past. There was even a webcam. Although in the distant past, I'm not sure if the garden was open all the year round; I seem to recall it being opened mainly for special fund raisers, like cream teas and a chance to stroll around.

And while some of the various experiments - some ideas - like the classrooms, didn't work, others like the Toy Shop, seemed to have always had visitors, even if it is unlikely that all the items for sale will be sold - a hundred or so VHS videos will probably have to be junked.

Reg seems have have toyed with various ideas for his garden before it closed. One was that it should be a place for quiet and meditation.

There is perhaps something to be said for that. The idea reminds me of Frances Hodgson Burnett's wonderful book "The Secret Garden":

"It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of climbing roses which were so thick that they were matted together.... All the ground was covered with grass of a wintry brown and out of it grew clumps of bushes which were surely rosebushes if they were alive." 

"There were numbers of standard roses which had so spread their branches that they were like little trees. There were other trees in the garden, and one of the things which made the place look strangest and loveliest was that climbing roses had run all over them and swung down long tendrils which made light swaying curtains, and here and there they had caught at each other or at a far-reaching branch and had crept from one tree to another and made lovely bridges of themselves... "

"It was this hazy tangle from tree to tree which made it all look so mysterious. Mary had thought it must be different from other gardens which had not been left all by themselves so long; and indeed it was different from any other place she had ever seen in her life."

"How still it is!" she whispered. "How still!"

The current thinking behind the garden is that it will be wild, rather like the "Secret Garden", and perhaps also be a rather special place to visit. In "The Secret Garden", Mary, the lame boy Colin, and their friend Dickon all set to caring for the neglected and wild garden that they visit:

"Mary was an odd, determined little person, and now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed, indeed. She worked and dug and pulled up weeds steadily, only becoming more pleased with her work every hour instead of tiring of it. It seemed to her like a fascinating sort of play."

It would be nice to think that would be the case.

The Plane Truth

The Jersey International Air Display must find new ways of generating income to reduce the burden on the taxpayer, according to the Ports of Jersey. This year's event on 10 September is being supported by a government grant of £189,000. Robert Gaines-Cooper had sponsored the air display for 18 years but he withdrew his financial support in 2014.
(BBC News)

At least the air display gets something for its £189,000, which is more than can be said for the £200,000 non-existent movie grant signed off by Alan Maclean!

The need for the States to cough up for the air display comes after the withdrawal of a main sponsor, but more could be done by those businesses which use the event to host corporate events because they just happen to have a good view of the flying arena.

That those businesses choose to just take this for free when building up their own profits says a lot for corporate greed and the lack of corporoate responsibility to give back something to the community.

Mike Higgins is I suspect too much of a gentleman to “name and shame”, but it should not be past the wit of an investigative reporter from the JEP to enquire of those business staging corporate events how much they are donating to the air display.

Like the Battle of Flowers, the air display also brings in revenue from the tourist, but unlike the Battle, there are no tickets sold; apart from programmes for sale, and voluntary donations, it is all free for the general public to view. Would they come if there was a modest charge to be made? 

That, of course, is the conundrum, as the skies can be viewed from many vantage points, unlike the Battle for which viewing is restricted to the arena. I think the only way to find out is to try – and a “toll” could also be set up on a few other roads, such as that leading to Noirmont. In fact, a bucket or two held by volunteers at Noirmont on the approach road would not go amiss this year.

Funding models at other UK air displays should also be considered, although it is clear that Jersey is not alone with finding funding problematic.

Cleethorpes Air Show – a free two-day airshow, has been cancelled for 2015 because of a funding shortfall, but the local authority hopes to be able to put on an airshow or air display of some kind and a report in December 2014 suggests it may move to Hull.

And the Folkestone Air Show has been cancelled. The official line was that "without considerable public support and business funding the show is unlikely to return". The 2014 show organisers, Open Air Productions, called in the liquidators leaving local businesses unpaid.

The Southend Airshow and Military Festival in Essex has been cancelled. The organisers blame high local authority costs. After cancellation of the airshow in 2013 the Southend Air Festival was to have become the Southend Airshow and Military Festival in 2014, but because of a funding shortfall the relaunch was postponed.

A number of other shows occur once every two years, no doubt to better aid fundraising and budgets. This is also something which could be considered. They are not just small ones – the Farnborough International air Show - the biggest aircraft trade show in the UK is held once every two years.

The Dawlish Air show has a funding website where some funding (which can be by Paypal) is directly linked to aircraft appearing, such as the last appearance of the Avro Vulcan XH558 supported by a “crowd-funding bid” raised the £8,000 needed.

http://dawlishairshow.co.uk/newindex/

The website also notes:

“Your huge generosity means we have raised enough money to confirm the booking – but we are still f fundraising, both online and of course in Dawlish this week. Friday sees our Family Fun Day and Pilots’ Party, while the airshow and live music is on Saturday, starting from around 11.30am.”

There is also a The Friends of Dawlish Air Show scheme which was launched in November 2009 as a way to raise additional funds to pay for the town's annual 'free' air show.

And Dawlish has also moved online

“Air Show Cam will be watchable for all paid subscribers and all we ask is that you make a donation to the Air Show fund. We will be broadcasting at the same FULL HD experience you are used to with Dawlish Beach along with great sound. The camera we are using is the same the BBC use on location for their news clips.”

Whether Dawlish has as many aircraft, or the cost of landing fees is as great, I don’t know, but it is interesting to note that it costs about £60,000 to produce and is like Jersey a largely “free” show.

And the Herne Bay Air show has a digital souvenir guide, ideal for the world of smart phones and apps:

“Download our digital souvenir guide, it costs £5, which helps us put the event on. Enjoy the digital version with the full event guide, all-important aircraft timings, plus much more.”

Their website has a rotating link of sponsors.

http://baypromoteam.co.uk/hernebayairshow/

Clearly more could be done, and while Herne Bay, for example, still has sponsorship from Kent County Council, it has widened its sponsorship base.

Possibly because we have had the luxury of a large sponsor in Robert Gaines-Cooper, it has perhaps not been so necessary in Jersey.

And of course, now Ports of Jersey is incorporated, they appear to want less involvement in raising funding for subsidising events like the Air Display.

RIP Oliver Wolf Sacks

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was an English neurologist and author, famous for writing best-selling case histories of his patients' disorders, with some of his books adapted for film and stage. - Wikpedia

Oliver Sacks, who has just died, was an amazing man. A neurologist who was a very shy man, and yet saw his patients as human beings.

This comes out very strongly in his second book, Awakenings. This detailed the miraculous recovery, then tragic relapse, of the near-catatonic patients given the experimental drug L-dopa.

Frozen in a decades-long sleep, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, “awakening” effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of these individuals, the stories of their lives, and the extraordinary transformations they underwent with treatment.

It was brought to life wonderfully in the movie “Awakenings” with Robin Williams, another wonderfully talented individual no longer with us. Sacks made one request: that the name of the doctor be changed to Sayers.

A medical review noted that:

Normally, films that are based upon actual events take a great deal of liberty in changing the details of the events that they depict. Awakenings appears to be an exception to this trend. Although the names of people involved are changed,... the movie seems to depict a particular disease and the drug used to treat it very accurately. Robin Williams did a good job imitating the personality and mannerisms of Oliver Sacks as the renamed Dr. Sayer.

The film has few inaccuracies, as the review by Andrew Clapper notes: "Rather than starting L Dopa treatment with one patient and then expanding to all of the EL patients as depicted in the film, Oliver Sacks actually began his study as a double blind procedure with a placebo group and a treatment group. He also originally intended to conduct the study for 90 days. Once he saw that fifty percent of his patients were showing improvement, Sacks went ahead and began giving all of the patients L Dopa and dropped the 90 day limit on the study. Sacks' decision to do so is a good example a particular bioethics issue."

But Sacks also had a brilliant BBC documentary he made on the subjects of his book “An Anthopologist on Mars”, in which he speaks to many people, and uncovers the person, not the symptom. There is a surgeon with tourettes – apparently in operating conditions, the twitching motions just vanish away. And Temple Grandin, such a clever autistic woman, who invites him round and lacks all the social niceties, offering a cup of tea, seeing if he is tired and wants a break!

WH Auden, reading Sack’s first book, “The Man Who Mistook his wife for a Hat”, told him: “You’re going to have to go beyond the clinical. Be metaphorical, be mythical, be whatever you need.”

And no one can doubt that Sacks did.

Last week, I was listening to the Radio 4 “Book of the Week”, which was entitled “On the Move”, in which he describes his life – it is a painfully honest memoir, full of regrets despite his successes, and one in which at least he find love in his old age.

That was after gruelling treatment for a tumour in the eye, in which Sacks was both fearful, and amazed, describing the way in which his vision distorted under treatment, and the new ways he saw the world. That was nine years ago.

Unfortunately while ocular melanoma was removed, leaving him blind in that eye, he as he himself says, unlucky that the cancer had spread to his liver. In the New York times, he wrote about this, and I finish this posting with some extracts from that (the full link is given afterwards). Like all that he wrote, it is inspiring.

Oliver Sacks on Dying

It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can. In this I am encouraged by the words of one of my favorite philosophers, David Hume, who, upon learning that he was mortally ill at age 65, wrote a short autobiography in a single day in April of 1776. He titled it “My Own Life.”

Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life.

On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight.

I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential. I must focus on myself, my work and my friends. I shall no longer look at “NewsHour” every night. I shall no longer pay any attention to politics or arguments about global warming.

This is not indifference but detachment — I still care deeply about the Middle East, about global warming, about growing inequality, but these are no longer my business; they belong to the future. I rejoice when I meet gifted young people — even the one who biopsied and diagnosed my metastases. I feel the future is in good hands.

I have been increasingly conscious, for the last 10 years or so, of deaths among my contemporaries. My generation is on the way out, and each death I have felt as an abruption, a tearing away of part of myself. There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate — the genetic and neural fate — of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

http://nymag.com/news/features/oliver-sacks-2012-11/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/oliver-sacks-on-learning-he-has-terminal-cancer.html
http://socrates8181nc.tripod.com/id5.html

Migrant - or Refugee?

The parables of Jesus sometimes lose their force because of their familiarity, and yet here was a man who reached out to the outcasts, the refuse of society, and never lost sight of their essential humanity. I remember reading Kiekegaard, before his legacy was stolen by later existentialists, who forgot the point he hammered home time and time again, the divergence between the message of Christianity and those who profess it:

In the magnificent cathedral the Honorable and Right Reverend Geheime-General-Ober-Hof-Prädikant, the elect favorite of the fashionable world, appears before an elect company and preaches with emotion upon the text he himself elected: "God hath elected the base things of the world, and the things that are despised"—and nobody laughs.

In fact it is Christians, like Giles Fraser, like the BBC Songs of Praise team, like the teacher in Jersey from De La Salle, who are responding to the call for action to help those in Calais, who are fellow human beings like ourselves. They hear a call for compassion. And for their pains, the wrath of tabloid newspapers like the Daily Mail, feeding xenophobia, descends on them. When did refugees become "migrants", a much less compassionate term, one which distances "us" from "them"?

Here is a parable for our times, a reworking of the parable in Matthew's Gospel, and a call for rethinking compassion.

Parables of the Sheep and Goats

When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people at his right and the others at his left.

Then the King will say to the people on his right, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world.

I was a refugee, hungry and starving with children crying, their bellies empty, and you fed us and gave us clean water to drink a drink

I was a migrant, homeless, with children fearful of the future, and you received me into your country and clothed me and settled me.

I was ill, living in a camp at Calais, and you brought medicine and provisions to nourish me back to health.

I was imprisoned behind barriers, living in a migrant camp, forgotten, and you came and visited me and told the world of my plight, and that of my family, my children, and others like us.

The righteous will then answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry in a refugee camp and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a migrant, a stranger to our land, and welcome you in our country?

When did we ever see you sick or imprisoned behind barriers, and visit you?'

The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!'

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Away from me, you that are under God's curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!

I was a refugee, fleeing a land torn by war hungry but you would not feed me, and told me I should go home (but where is home, but burnt out villages) and not be a parasite, and told me charity begins at home.

I was a stranger in a strange land, in a migrant camp, but you would not welcome me in your country, and cried out “send them back”, and “they have no place here”.

I was in a living prison, behind barriers in a refugee camp, and you did not visit me, but from afar spoke of the cursed migrant, not a fellow human being, not a refugee.

The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.' These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life."

Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box

I sometimes wonder at the world
And all the suffering so unheard;
Dead bodies in a lorry, just left,
And no one to mourn, be bereft;
And a mad killer shooting on TV:
Presenters killed for all to see;
There was the airliner crash earlier:
No sign the co-pilot being surlier,
Before he crashed the plane
Into the mountains, killing all;
All these deaths by man appall,
And yet they go every day;
Is there a death wish, our way,
Not that of the Tao, but fraught:
A nature that can twist, distort?
The history of mankind in blood:
All evil destroyed in the flood?
Not a hope. A myth of the Jew,
And its falsity, they know, few
Indeed survived the Nazi purges;
At least there are funeral dirges,
And we do not forget, or do we?
Some wish to destroy Israel, see
All her children dead and dust,
And think that is somehow just!
I fear to read the news, the carnage,
Nothing learned since Rome and Carthage;
It never seems to end, wars, death,
Such bloody visions like Macbeth;
And what can in all truth be said
To comfort when we see the dead?
As a boy I read the Greek stories:
Trojan War, The Heroes, glories;
Odysseus on the long way back;
Jason, Theseus, Procrustes rack;
But one stands out among the lot
Pandora opened the box, a blot
Set free upon the world, hate
Greed, lust, and so, so late
She closed the box, then heard
One last voice, a final word;
The word to be spoken very last,
After all black deeds were past,
Opened again, and out flew one
A sign that evil had not won
A winged sprite, small, and light,
Hope can make the world still bright.

Goodnight from Him: A Review

Goodnight from Him: A Review

This was a Radio 4 comedy drama by Roy Smiles. Smiles has written past plays like this one, in which the central protagonists are real people. He wrote - Ying Tong (the Goons), Pythonesque (Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and Dear Arthur, Love John (Dad’s Army).

This play tells the story, not always in chronological order, of Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker from their beginnings in cabaret and repertory theatre, their first meeting at the bar of the Buckstone Club in 1963 and how they were chosen by David Frost for his new show The Frost Report (alongside John Cleese); it details what Barker calls the “extraordinary luck” of getting their own Saturday night BBC1 series The Two Ronnies in 1971 which ran for 16 years until 1986, topping the ratings, until Barker decided to call it a day and retire (although he was lured out of retirement to play Inch, Churchill’s butler, for one last performance).

We see the differences between the extrovert Corbett, able to ad-lib, and Barker, a shy introvert who needed characters to hide behind, and who also was a workaholic - he managed to find the time to write for the show under the –pseudonym Gerald Wiley. It also shows their great strength was that they broke the mould for comedy pairings – they were not a double act, comedian and straight man, as for instance Morecambe and Wise, Little and Large, Hale and Pace, etc – but rather two actors who did their own shows in between – Barker in Porridge and Open All Hours, and Corbett in Sorry.

One strength is the way in which it brings out Barker the perfectionist, calling it a day on all his series when they were still at their height. There were only three series of Porridge and a few specials. This is something notable about good comedies of the time – Fawlty Towers only had two series, To the Manor Born only had two series, Yes Minister only three, Yes Prime Minister only two - and while Dad’s Army ran and ran, it ended on a high note. More comedies that start on a high and go one and on and on – Are You Being Served, Allo Allo, My Family – run out of steam, and become tired parodies of themselves.

Speaking of parodies – Smiles uses parodies of some of their greatest sketches - Fork Handles, the Rude Man at Party, Mastermind from the Two Ronnies and The Class Sketch from The Frost Report, but I felt that these really did not work well.

A few of the parodies of the sketches came across fairly well, but on the whole, they seemed enormously laboured. The introduction and closure sequences, which involved fake news item jokes, fell particularly flat. The parodies were so bad, they made you see how extraordinarily good the Two Ronnies actually were.

Robert Dawes gave a very passable impression of Ronnie Barker, but Aidan McArdle’s Ronnie Corbett varied in Scottish accent, at some times passably like Corbett, but at others very different

Every so often McArdle reminded me of Tony Hancock’s Joshua Merriweather, of whom Patrick Cargill’s Producer said “It is never the same two performances running” (where Hancock incorporated bits of Welsh and impersonations of Robert Newton's 'Long John Silver'. Then McArdle would pull himself back, and we’d get that somewhat plummy Scots Corbett voice).

Addis with Cleese was more of a generic voice than anything, while James Lance as David Frost had little more than a run through Frost’s cliché’s “Great” “Super, Super, Super”. In fact, hearing those makes me wonder if David Nobbs actually cribbed them from life for his TV show Reginald Perrin – it is entirely possible, as Nobbs wrote for “The Frost Report”.

The bottom line: a genre than Smiles has made his own, if you really want laughs and a lighter touch than the heavy handed parodies, watch the real show. But in between the parodies, some good stuff about the two actors and their working relationship.

Cast
Ronnie Barker - Robert Dawes
Ronnie Corbett - Aidan McArdle
David Frost - James Lance
John Cleese - Matt Addis
Writer - Roy Smiles



Producer Liz Anstee

A.C. Saunders: 1861-1938

A.C. Saunders: 1861-1938

In 2004, at a meeting of the History Section of the Société Jersiaise, George Langlois mentioned that A.C. Saunders gave his father an inscribed set of his four books on Jersey written in the 1930s and that G R. Balleine drew on them for his history of the Bailiwick.

Balleine’s History of Jersey is still in print, but Saunders is largely forgotten – and yet he incorporates details left out by Balleine. Currently I’m working through his Jersey in the 17th century for my blog to make it more widely available.

So who was A.C. Saunders? This obituary comes from the 1939 Annual Bulletin of the Société Jersiaise, Volume 13, pages 435-436, and gives some of his background; like Balleine, he was Honorary Librarian of the Société Jersiaise, a good place for research!

Victoria College also notes him as an entrant for the 1st Term 1875, register entry 1542:

Saunders, Arthur Charles. Son of C.B. Saunders, St Saviour’s Road. Brother of 1543. Afterwards. Avranches College (France) and at King’s College, London. Entered H.M. Customs. Served at Inverness, Ipswich. Collector Lowestoft (1900), Londonberry (1903), Collector Swansea 1908, Collector Portsmouth 1914, Collector Newport 1916. Retired 1921. Living at Cambrian Villa, Beaumont. Librarian of the Société Jersiaise.

A.C. Saunders: 1861-1938, Obituary from Bulletin
Arthur Charles Saunders, Honorary Librarian of the Société Jersiaise, died on June 23rd, 1938.

The son of Mr C B Saunders, whose Caesarea Nurseries, on Mont de La Rosière, St Saviour, were so justly celebrated in Victorian times, he became a pupil at Victoria College in 1875.

His education was continued at the College of Avranches, Departement de la Manche, and completed at King's College, London. He then entered HM Customs and was stationed first at Inverness and later at Ipswich.

On attaining the rank of Collector of Customs, he served at Lowestoft in 1900, Londonderry in 1903, Swansea in 1908, Portsmouth in 1914 and Newport in 1916. During the war he was given the rank of Commander. He sold the family home, Alphington House St Saviour, which he inherited from his father, in 1901.

In 1921 he retired from the service and settled in his native island. He became a member of the Société Jersiaise in 1926 and was elected to the post of Honorary Librarian in 1928.

Mr Saunders' long and active connection with maritime affairs inspired him to study the careers of many eminent Jerseymen who had spent their lives at sea.

Some of the results of his wide researches were embodied in articles written for the local press. Others, as the following list shows, were published in our annual bulletins:

1929 “Charles Robin. Pioneer of the Gaspe Fisheries”
1930 “The Corsairs of Jersey”
1931 “Admiral Philip de Carteret, Seigneur de la Trinite. Circumnavigator of the world, 1766”
1934 “Nicholas le Messurier, Master Mariner”
1939 “Vice Admiral Philip Durell, 1707-1776”
(This article was written early in 1938 but published posthumously).

In addition to all the above, he wrote:

“Jersey in the 18th and 19th centuries” Published by J T Bigwood 1930
“Jersey in the 17th century” Published by J T Bigwood 1931.
“Jersey in the 15th and 16th centuries” Published by J T Bigwood 1933
“Jersey before and after the Norman Conquest of England”. With an introduction by C T Le Quesne, Published privately, 1935
“Jean Chevalier and his Times”. With an introduction by Dr R R Marett. Published privately 1936