Safety-first protection in the current climate of fear

He was reading their newspaper the other day and, having a small boat of his own, looked with interest at a couple of pages they did on boating –

a couple of pages which he said included a feature on the Barclays Wealth Jersey Boat Show.

Well, I thought, getting a bit of positive publicity for this place in a Guernsey newspaper must be nearly eligible for the Guinness Book of Records, but there again, I suppose that lot over there throw away the rule book when it’s anything to do with boats.

However, my little bit of surprise and pleasure was rudely interrupted when my mate asked why we over here needed lifejackets when taking a walk on a pontoon on the marina.

According to him – and a scanned picture of the Guernsey Press picture he got his version of Herself to send by email (I said nothing because that would also be too complex for me to get my head round) – Barclays Wealth director Richard Corrigan and Myra Shacklady, who by all accounts is the managing director of Jersey Marinas (where do they find these jobs?) are wearing what look like lifejackets while doing nothing more than having their picture taken.

‘It’s a wonder they weren’t wearing hard hats as well, seeing how they can’t be more than a few hundred yards from containers being craned off boats,’ was my mate’s parting shot.

It was only to be expected, I suppose, given the wellie our Guernsey cousins have had in this column over the years. Mind you, I reckon he had a point. It reminded me of countless pictures of people who wore hard hats (and looked as silly as they felt) whenever they were doing something semi-official anywhere near a States building site.

It’s the climate of fear – fear of criticism from some jobsworthy writing to this newspaper – which makes otherwise sensible people who ordinarily would not dream of putting on either a hard hat or a lifejacket feel obliged to in circumstances such as those I’ve outlined.

I don’t criticise Mr Corrigan or Ms Shacklady one little bit for doing what they did. I’d probably have done the same in order to enjoy a quiet life – a life free from the interfering busybodies who give real and necessary health and safety measures a bad name.

AS I write I have just heard that the Channel Islands have lost their VAT case in the High Court in London. I have no idea at all as to whether that lot in their collective Big Houses were right to bring the action, but I do know that I have enormous sympathy with the many individuals whose jobs are in jeopardy as a result of this ruling.

It also sticks in my gullet more than a little to know that in an English Court of Law, the oldest (and probably the most loyal, if the truth be known) possessions of the English Crown have been told that stuff from here of a certain value cannot be exported to the United Kingdom but no such restriction applies to similarly valued exports from, let’s say, Middle Eastern countries including Iraq and Iran, Russia and other former USSR states not associated with the European Union, and of course the good old United States of America.

Proud to be British? I think not. I am certainly proud of being a Channel Islander, and that, the way I am feeling at the moment, is an entirely different thing altogether. It’s high time a lot more of us in these islands starting feeling that way if we are going to avoid getting put upon by British governments of whatever political persuasion for the foreseeable future.

NOT for the first time in this column, can I say what a pleasure it was to read the reports of the 15th annual Youth Assembly.

Held in the States Chamber last week and involving more than 50 sixth-formers from Island secondary schools, the handful of politicians who – as has been demonstrated over the years by their predecessors – demonstrated their willingness to stick their heads above the parapet to an intelligently critical Assembly did the Island’s overall political image no harm at all.

The issues raised by these young adults, all of whom are eligible to vote, were both appropriate and pertinent to the issues facing this small community right now, and by asking them, the Youth Assembly members demonstrated a sense of political awareness that was perhaps not as commonplace among that age group when my generation were finishing our education.

I finished reading the report giving thanks that for every mindless moron roaming the streets in search of nothing but trouble and as high as a kite on either booze or Moroccan Woodbines (or both), there must be scores of youngsters like those in the Assembly (and probably the many who wanted to be but didn’t make it) who want to have fun but realise also that there is a serious side to life.

I also reflected that perhaps I write too much about the mindless morons and not enough about the huge majority of others of that generation. I suppose it’s the way of the world – thousands of column-inches more for the American serviceman who allegedly shot civilians in Afghanistan recently than were ever devoted to the many of his NATO colleagues who have died in that neck of the woods in recent years.

AND finally … Meridian’s comment the other day about men sewing reminded me of an old friend who knitted garments, including christening shawls, for his three children and has done the same for his nine grandchildren. He’s well known, but I’m sworn to secrecy.