A long-lost home movie was reunited with its owner, party politics got a bit friendly, and the pandemic is, apparently, no longer classed as an emergency.
The ten things we learnt this week are:
1. Party politics… Jersey is ahead of the game
For years we’ve all thought Jersey was lagging behind in the party politics game, having just one party (Reform Jersey) in the States. But we are actually one step ahead of the UK. Over there, when there is a hung parliament after an election, two parties will get together and form a coalition. But, in Jersey, parties form a coalition before anyone has even had the chance to vote. This week we learnt that the Jersey Liberal Conservatives and The Progress Party had joined forces and will campaign with a single manifesto.
2. Fishing in Portelet bay has been banned…
But the question is, has anyone ever seen anyone fishing there? No-one can argue with the sentiment, but it’s a bit like banning sunbathing at the La Collette dump, or outlawing swimming at the sewage plant.
3. Caribbean hospitality staff have arrived
The first cohort of hospitality workers from Antigua and Barbuda arrived in the Island this week in time for the summer season and received a warm welcome. Probably not quite as warm as they were used to. But 14°C isn’t too bad for late April.
4. A family were reunited with a long-lost home video
Let’s be honest, when you press play on a stranger’s home video, you could be about to watch anything… and we mean anything. Fortunately, this one just featured footage of a family in 1967. It’s a long story (involving a man from Newcastle being given the box of tapes purely because it had ‘Newcastle’ written on it). But the short version is that after he posted an appeal on Facebook, the family came forward and were reunited with the videos.
5. Some professional criminals aren’t particularly professional
Three ‘professional’ money launderers who were contracted to funnel some dodgy cash through Jersey were this week jailed for a total of ten years. They claimed to have come to the Island for a holiday – a holiday that consisted solely of trips to various banks, currency exchanges and paying for a load of iPads and cars in cash. It was either the world’s most boring holiday or a criminal enterprise. The judge decided it was the latter.
6. The War on Hornets has begun
More than 200 Asian hornet traps have been set this year after dozens of Islanders volunteered to join the fight against the invasive insect. A few queens have been taken out already, but the troops are now readying themselves for the main offensive this summer.
7. Life has got more expensive
We are not quite in ‘Zimbabwe in the early 2000s territory’ and there have been no reports of people pushing wheelbarrow loads of cash down King Street, but the rate of inflation is definitely ticking up more quickly than we’d like. The price of essentials such as bread, milk, eggs and wine are all on the rise, and this week it was revealed the cost of living had increased 6% in a year.
8. The government is putting children (in prison) first
Further damning criticism was levelled at the government’s treatment of young people after it emerged that a child was being held at La Moye Prison. Children’s commissioner Deborah McMillan wrote to ministers arguing that the move was in breach of human rights and against Jersey law.
9. The bubble has burst
Mask-wearing in schools and classroom bubbles are now a thing of the past and children can finally get back to having a normal life.
10. and finally…. IT’S OVER (sort of)
The ’emergency’ phase of the pandemic is over and even people who test positive don’t legally need to isolate. So unless Covid has a nasty new variant up its sleeve, this is what the new normal looks like.
