Given that it was for something called ‘head of product’ for Visit Jersey – to most of us raised here or resident for more than 20 minutes, that should read States of Jersey Tourism Department, but, as Jersey Zoo found to its cost with its own ill-fated attempt at confusing the very people they rely on, why make life easy for the punters? – I’m surprised there’s been little comment.
I actually read it carefully, before I asked Herself’s mate, who used to work in the growth industry that used to be known as ‘personnel’, to explain some of the terminology, using words and phrases someone like me would understand. In actual fact, her explanation was hilarious, making frequent references as she did to bovine manure.
The upshot was that she reckoned it would be a pretty high-powered job, and it goes without saying that there’ll be a pretty high-powered bundle of bank notes shoved into the little brown envelope distributed every Friday lunchtime, not to mention all manner of additional financial incentives (my old man used to call them perks) such as performance bonuses and loyalty bonuses – the latter of course being a reward for not taking another job for six months or so. Indeed, given just how high-powered the job looks likely to be, my own question is what on earth will the current head honcho and his hierarchy be doing to earn their crusts? Surely there can’t be enough windows at wherever they spend their working lives for them all to look out from at what’s going on in the real world.
There can’t be many of those who enjoy walking either on beaches, in country lanes or on cliff paths – either with or without our dogs – who won’t welcome last week’s announcement by the Constables’ Committee that they are looking at restrictions on the number of dogs that can be walked safely by one person.
Licensing professional dog walkers is also apparently under consideration, as is – or certainly should be – a requirement for such people to be properly insured. St John Constable Chris Taylor is leading the review into dog legislation and seems to believe that although ‘a lot of evidence is coming forward’ suggesting a maximum limit of four dogs per handler, the limit should be six.
I’d like Mr Taylor to have been with me and Herself as we sat outside a beachside kiosk the other morning enjoying a coffee and a bacon roll and watched a van pull up on the nearby slip where five dogs were let loose to flee to all points of the compass.
This handler actually needed a couple of helpful tourists to help him identify the locations at which his charges had defecated.
Having watched that, and similar incidents in the same location on a number of occasions – and the locals will give you chapter and verse – all I can say is that if Chris Taylor thinks it’s practical for someone to properly control (even just in terms of being able to pick up their mess after them) half a dozen dogs, then he must be really blessed among men by having eyes in his backside.
But, of course, he and the other Constables are well-versed in making a lot of noise about irresponsible dog owners – a small minority, I once again stress – and actually doing precious little in terms of ensuring that the current restrictions are properly policed.
I strongly suspect that the number of cases dealt with by all 12 honorary police forces since the daytime restriction came in four weeks ago is in single figures, but perhaps Mr Taylor and his colleagues would care to prove me wrong by publishing some figures, along with the sanctions actually imposed on the selfish, irresponsible dog owners who break the law, some of them on a daily basis.
All well and good introducing yet more restrictions – sensible as well they may be – Mr Taylor, but a total waste of everyone’s time if your honorary police forces can’t show their faces where their presence is really needed.
And finally…No surprise then that our American cousins leaked pictures of the Manchester bombing. They can’t keep their mouths closed. Hence ‘America is a lot of wide open spaces, usually surrounded by teeth’.
