It was established many years ago that the Bailiff does not meddle in Island politics

From John de Carteret.

READING the Bailiff’s comments about politicians (JEP, 1 July) could be forgiven for immediately thinking God has arrived back in Jersey.

For an unelected and uninvited (by the large majority of Jersey people) holder of this senior Crown appointment to again enter the political arena and call comments by States Members ‘ignorant’ and ‘unwelcome’ is to risk outside interference from Westminster into the Jersey way of life. This is not the Bailiff’s personal fiefdom.

It is long overdue for our senior politicians to take aside our current Bailiff and give him a date for retirement. His latest political outburst should be his last.

It was established many years ago that the holder of the title Bailiff does not meddle in politics. I can well remember former Senator John Le Marquand, severely reprimanding the then Bailiff, Sir Frank Ereaut, in public for attempting to do that very thing.

For far too long the current holder has entered the political arena, deliberately and wrongly. The Bailiff might like to consider retirement solely to remedy the debacle whereby he remains chief judge while his brother remains chief prosecutor. Can you imagine for one moment being arrested in some despot African state on a trumped-up charge? Then in the morning your lawyer arrives and says ‘I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is you are getting a trial in court. The bad news is the prosecutor’s brother is the judge.

The current position may technically be legally acceptable. It may even, though I doubt it, be politically acceptable. But bearing in mind that our political masters keep telling us that we need to be on the world stage, the perception is that ‘it just does not look right.’

That makes it unacceptable and neither occupant, as intelligent men, should have allowed themselves to arrive in the current situation.

Many local people are finding the cost of living in Jersey hard, with rising food prices and house prices unaffordable, and GST has just accelerated prices even further. Those same people must find it somewhat repugnant that the Bailiff is pushing a political agenda for a national art gallery.

Not a priority in many people’s minds. If he truly believes in this he may like to consider contributing some of the Bailhache family money as a start to establishing a funding campaign. Sir Philip is reported as saying, ‘Senior politicians should know better than to attempt to subvert confidence in our judicial institutions in pursuit of a personal agenda’. That statement cuts at the very heart of grass roots democracy and courageous free speech which is so important in a democracy like ours where we have no organised opposition.

It is every States Member’s first duty to their electors to look, and research, and stand up and fight for their political agenda. Every States Member has every right to strive to put right with tenacity and public support any part of the way we are governed and the way in which justice is administered.

I may be walking different streets and talking to different people, but I cannot remember the general public being more disillusioned with current political performance and agenda.

Olivet,

Rue de la Presse,

St Peter.