By Paula Thelwell
And they’re off – all 93 candidates in this month’s election.
Like greyhounds out of the traps in pursuit of a dummy hare, or jockeys astride a throbbing racehorse heading for the hurdles – and praying they don’t get unseated at the first fence.
Hard drives and memories from other devices have been erased of potential embarrassing or damning emails, tweets, images, private videos or messages that could appear from the ether to derail campaigns.
And potential Constables – a position that usually sees the only candidate in each parish elected unopposed as a fait accompli – are actually having to canvass constituents and knock on doors following the introduction of the new option to put a cross next to ‘none of the above’.
That will be a novel experience in some quarters.
Moreover, elections in Jersey are no longer predominantly individual events now that many candidates are stabled in one of four political parties.
Call me sad, but yours truly read every single nomination paper – twice. The people who sign these forms are crucial to getting an understanding of a candidate. Each paper should be composed with much diligence, thought and care because those individuals – their positions in society, reputations, beliefs and actions – influence the electorate’s opinions of a candidate.
Sadly, just a tad over 20% of the 93 lists of proposers and seconders impressed me.
Rule 1: Do not ask your wife/husband/significant others – or any close relatives, for that matter – to sign a nomination paper. You may look like the leader of a mini-party who passed the paper around at Uncle Hedley’s 90th birthday bash.
Rule 2: If one half of a couple signs, do not ask the other. It appears lazy and as if you couldn’t be bothered to ask someone else.
Rule 3: Try to balance gender in a way that reflects the society you live in. It is a category which is going to get even more complicated as identities become more fluid.
Rule 4: Likewise, reflect the ethnicity of your community. In an Island with significant Portuguese and Polish populations, why were those names glaringly absent from so many papers?
For generations they have made – and continue to make – a significant contribution to the local economy while also enriching society with their culture, character and traditions.
Jersey is their home and the Island needs their greater representation in its government.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
There is a great deal of common sense to be found in old idioms, with one in particular coming back to bite proponents of the globalisation of the food chain.
Concentrating production in a small number of countries may have widened the range of foodstuffs to meet growing consumerism, but it has undermined food security by increasing reliance on imports.
It worked while the world order was in balance. Then Russia invaded Ukraine – known as the wheat basket of the old Soviet Union, and India – another of the world’s big wheat producers – was hit by drought, leaving the planet facing severe shortages in wheat-based products.
The same applies to cooking oil, as Ukraine grows 80% of the world’s sunflowers, and other essentials banned subject to sanctions against Russia.
It was not as if the warning signs were not there. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been growing since 2014.
Moreover, Moscow’s penchant for covert hostilities against the West via cyber attacks, fake news campaigns and attempts to undermine free elections – to name a few – were sure signs that President Putin was spoiling for a fight.
I am no economist or agronomist, but can someone explain, with all these ominous warning signals, why no one suggested seeking new and less volatile sources of essential goods?
Or why so many European countries became dependent on Russian energy supplies?
Say cheese
At last year’s G7 summit in Cornwall, world leaders were served the best of Cornish and British produce at their various official dinners and informal gatherings.
This included a cheeseboard comprising nothing but delicious Cornish cheese, which reportedly did not go down too well with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Did you know that the Duchy of Cornwall boasts more than 60 cheeses in various forms including soft, hard and blue; from cow and goat’s milk to organic and trendy dairy-free?
In fact, the UK overall produces almost double the French total of artisan cheese – around 1,000 different types and rising, compared to 550 – due to a boom in handmade production.
Regrettably, when it comes to eating cheese, the French are streets ahead, consuming on average twice as much as the British every year.
Macron’s most famous predecessor Charles de Gaulle was once asked during his time in power how he could govern a nation that had ‘246 different kinds of cheese’.
Extrapolate that conundrum to the present day, and it explains why Boris Johnson is making such a hash of governing the UK…
