I THINK it was a Whitehall civil servant who famously said that 11 September 2001 was ‘a good day on which to bury bad news’. Unfortunately, either he or someone else put the phrase in writing and scored one of the most notable own goals in the history of massaging the message.
I don’t know whether that had crossed Charlie Parker’s mind when the news emerged that in addition to him becoming head lad of the Island’s hired help and bringing in another small handful of ‘expert consultants’ with the declared intention of knocking the public sector into some sort of shape. But he and the other rocket scientists now need a specialist firm – from the United Kingdom, yet again – to roll up sleeves and do the work at the coal face that I for one thought he was going to do, with some temporary assistance (until the beginning of this month) from his friendly consultants.
Talk about a gravy train. This lot have not only hopped aboard but appear also to have struck oil or discovered gold in the bowels of Cyril Le Marquand House – or perhaps even both. I’ve no idea of Mr Parker’s religious persuasion, or indeed that of his consultant mates – and I care even less – but if they didn’t believe in the existence of the Promised Land then surely they must do so now.
In common with lots of my fellow taxpayers, I had high hopes of the fresh look Mr Parker promised to bring with him in examining the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector – while hopefully not losing sight of the fact that its staff are human beings who, certainly in the main and despite some appalling leadership (non existent at times, I shouldn’t wonder), have strived for generations to provide Island residents with as good a service as they believed it was possible to deliver.
I’ve been doing this for long enough to know when those I speak to are feeding me little more than heaps of bovine manure. It seems to be that all that has been achieved in the almost four months since the beginning of the year is the alienation of whole groups of employees and the excessive pressuring of the sector’s middle management – the very group which, properly handled, could be so valuable in the implementation of the sort
of change everyone agrees is necessary.
And what of those who are both paid and empowered to control this sort of nonsense – our elected representatives? The silence from them has been deafening – indeed, so marked that cynical little crapauds like me start believing that they’ve given the boy Parker carte blanche to do what he likes while they busy themselves with either fighting for their political lives or getting so demob happy that they’re already looking at the cruise brochures and visiting the general emporiums that masquerade as gardening centres.
The neglect, in terms of the way this is being handled, is little short of shameful and certainly would not have happened with a committee system overseeing who’s got their hands on the chequebook and what they’re being allowed to do with our money, because don’t forget that in all this that lot in the Big House don’t have any money – they always use ours.
I HAVE to say that I feel more than a little sorry for Marilyn Carré, who was obliged to withdraw her candidacy for the post of Constable of St Brelade because of what seems to be generally accepted as being little more than a genuine mistake.
I don’t know Miss Carré – I don’t know her intended opponent either – and I certainly make no criticism of anyone involved in this sad little affair. But I have a feeling that years ago this would have been dealt with by a liberal application of common sense, with the Royal Court ordering that the whole shooting match should start again from the beginning. Of course, these days I wouldn’t be flavour of the month if I said that this would be ‘the Jersey way’ at its very best.
AND finally…I’ve just read somewhere that jellyfish don’t have brains and have existed as a species for 650 million years. Perhaps those whose names will appear on ballot papers next month will take a crumb of comfort from that and decide that all is not lost.
