That’s a bit surprising, given the composition of the group which, over the years, has used a plethora of adjectives to describe the 12 august men and women who occupy the middle ground, literally speaking, of the debating chamber of the Big House. Indeed, the bloke who made the ‘best Chief Minister’ comment was a few weeks ago heard to observe – in relation to this bloc – that he’d seen more life in a crate of cauliflowers.
But credit where it’s due, and the bit of news which initiated the discussion was one of the head honchos of the National Trust for Jersey telling the rest of us what’s best for us – this time in relation to memorial benches being placed at open spaces, usually on or near the coast.
I don’t know about anyone else but I get fed up with people like the National Trust’s Charles Alluto telling the rest of us that certain areas are being ‘spoiled’ by this, that or something else – in this case apparently too many benches placed in certain areas, usually by the bereaved relative of those who had an affection for or association with those areas.
Presumably Mr Alluto would love the job of dealing with applications regarding the siting of such benches but thankfully Len Norman has stepped in and injected common sense into the discussion by effectively telling the National Trust and anyone else of like mind that he’s quite happy with those his parish has at its beauty spots. Whether he was also minded to tell the trust that it should slope off and be environmental traffic wardens somewhere else is not known, but I’d have been tempted.
The benches provide an awful lot of comfort and pleasure to those who placed them in their locations and to those, like Herself and me, who make frequent use of them when the opportunity arises, and in that respect we can both recall occasions, particularly at Green Island, where such has been the demand that every seat on all the promenade benches was occupied.
So please, Mr Alluto, find something else to object to instead of seeking to spoil the pleasure of very many residents and tourists alike.
***
COLUMNISTS are often accused of stirring the pot just for the sake of it and while I’m tempted to utter ‘perish the thought’ there have been occasions when this bolshie little crapaud has put the upper echelons of our ruling classes on the spot for no better reason than that was the mood I happened to be in at the time.
I am now going to stress that this is not one of those occasions but a genuine attempt to elicit information because I’m more than a mite confused. On the one hand we’ve got head honcho Charlie Parker telling us that things are so bad that hundreds of children are reliant on schools to provide them with food first thing in the morning. If that is the case then it’s a shameful state of affairs and doesn’t sit well with thousands of us enjoying a very comfortable lifestyle in a place which, despite its faults – and I’m not blind to them – is a wonderful place in which to live.
On the other hand I know a young primary school teacher who tells me that while there are children who are packed off to school in the mornings with nothing in their stomachs but perhaps half a cup of water, there are many more whose parents find that these breakfast clubs are a massive help in getting themselves to work as early as possible in order to pay the rent or mortgage and would happily pay a little more than they do for the wonderful service by those who run these clubs.
So, can someone please tell me how many of the kids referred to by Mr Parker are indeed in dire need of the breakfast they get at school?
***
AND finally… Colin Campbell represented Jersey with distinction while in the Great Britain teams for both the Olympics and Winter Olympics – a rarity indeed. But he is wrong to challenge Phil Austin’s assertion that we’re not part of Great Britain or the
UK. Mr Austin is absolutely right. We most certainly are not.
