I think we have a right to know who’s been punished for this latest shambles and how

Those responses are also invariably courteous, as indeed, by all accounts because I don’t really know him, is Mr Powell. It got to the stage that I felt so bad about taking up so much of this busy man’s time that I started saying – whenever I wrote about the commission – that I’d rather he devoted his time to more pressing matters.

I’ve been known to say the same thing in relation to long, detailed and sometimes personally offensive (to me) letters from senior police officers because I and many others have long held the view that instead of responding at such length to every little observation made about them by others they should instead be getting on with the principal tasks for which they are paid.

There’ve been a couple such from acting Superintendent David Minty who perhaps should be advised that the more frequently he rushes into print the less likely it is that very much notice will be taken of what he says. A bit less time playing with words will allow a bit more time for catching villains, as my old granny might well say had she still been around.

Anyhow, back to the task in hand and the Financial Services Commission. Just like Mike Pitman, who wrote about it last week, I too have a shareholder account at the Channel Islands Co-operative Society for very many years – so many that the share number is in the 5,000s, and like him, Herself and I tend to go there on double divi days so we too collect Co-op stamps.

For those who didn’t read Mike’s letter, I’ll explain. He went to pay in £42 in stamps to his Co-op account and, as he said, it was forty-two quid, not £4,000 or £4 million, in stamps and not used notes. He said, and I quote: ‘I have been refused because the Jersey Financial Services Commission demands photo identity before I am permitted to undertake this simple and rather unimportant transaction.

‘Through your columns, may I ask the commission to let us know how many money-launderers they have captured dealing in Co-op stamps since they introduced this piece of nonsense?’

Damn good question Mike and one which, for a change, I too would very much like the Financial Services Commission to answer. Colin Powell is no longer the chairman, although I’ve no doubt he’s keeping himself busy, and a swift perusal of the FSC’s website on the jolly old Internet indicates that his successor is one Clive Jones, who I wouldn’t know if tripped over him.

Apparently, Mr Jones spent 36 years in international banking, ending up as chairman and managing director of Citibank Channel Islands Ltd, so he sounds to me just the bloke to explain why photographic identification is needed for someone to pay in forty-two quid in Co-op stamps into his own bank account at the Co-op, although I daresay that the world of Co-op stamps is about as far removed as you can get from that of international banking, so (as a warning to FSC minions) he might need some briefing notes on Co-op stamps before he responds.

I suspect Mike Pitman will be as interested as I am in seeing how Mr Jones – or indeed one of the hired helps at the FSC to whom he may well delegate the task – tries to justify (or wriggle out of might be the more appropriate expression) the total absence in this philosophy of the law of common sense.

SO, Kevin Clyde-Smith is feeling exasperated by the ‘never ending saga’ of the future of the Plemont headland or, to give it a title that those other than people living further out than Vinchelez Manor (either of them) and a small handful of dog walkers and tree huggers understand, the site of the former Parkin’s and Pontin’s Holiday Camp.

Well, Mr Clyde-Smith, so do I feel exasperated by this never ending saga but possibly for different reasons. All well and good for you to say that democracy and our stunning coastline must prevail over the tiny minority of those who wish to develop Plemont for commercial gain.

It is the easiest thing in the world to be high minded with other people’s money or assets and that, it seems to me, is what Mr Clyde-Smith and others who write in a similar vein about this area are doing. There are lots of beautiful places in Jersey and I strongly suspect that Mr Clyde-Smith lives in one of them. He certainly doesn’t live on a housing estate, that’s for sure, and I have seen little evidence of those living on such estates getting as irate (and as high minded) as he and others who’ve written in on this subject.

I wonder how Mr Clyde-Smith would feel (if he does indeed live in a beautiful part of Jersey) if someone living almost at the other end of the Island wrote to this newspaper suggesting that he should give up his home because it had been built in a once beautiful area and the letter writer wanted it returned to its natural state.

I hold no particular brief for either the owner of the former holiday camp or its developers but I really do get exasperated with the so-called great and good telling them what they must do with their assets.

And finally,

So, the Health Department broke the rules in awarding an employee a salary ‘far outside the normal structure’. If I break rules – parking on a yellow line, forgetting to put a seatbelt on or driving at 45 mph – and get caught, I get punished. I think we have a right to know who’s been punished for this latest shambles and how.