Let’s All Party

Did you know that there is an All Party Parliamentary Group for the Channel Islands?
Or that it was visiting Guernsey a couple of weeks ago or in Jersey at the end of 2008?

So what does this Group do and who do they meet when in the Islands?
Since the sight of MPs from the UK usually has our petty Island nationalists hoisting the drawbridge and telling them to mind their own business it’s strange that the Group should be quietly wined and dined as honoured guests by our establishment.

The Chairman of the CIs All Party Group is Jim Dobbin (Lab) (dobbinj@parliament.uk) and other members include Lyndsey Hoyle (Lab), Lord Falkener (Lab), David Cranby (Lab), Paul Keith (LD), John Whittingale (Con), Nigel Evans (Con) and Andrew Rosindell (Con) and there are about 33 members altogether including several others from the House of Lords. The Group was formed in 2005 on the initiative of Lyndsey Hoyle and the most recent visit to Guernsey (3 MPs and 3 Peers) was the fourth.

There is a Manx Group too and Hoyle, Cranby and Rosindell serve on that as well and there are All Party Groups too for Gibraltar, the Caymans, Faeroes, Falklands, St Helena, Turks and Caicos, Montserrat, Trinidad and Tobago, South Pacific, Chagos Islands and Cyprus and the amazing fact is that Andrew Rosindell serves on all of them.
Yet he also manages to serve too on “Country” Groups for Sweden, Uganda, N. Ireland, Mauritius, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Syria, Kuwait, Lebanon, Thailand, Denmark, Australia, Iceland, Brazil, Bulgaria, Estonia, Canada…..Altogether there are about 140 “Country” Groups……….
And he serves on All Party “Subject” Groups (there are over 400 of these) for St George’s Day, The Flag, Veterans, Local Democracy, Tackling Terrorism, Royal Marines, Third World Solidarity, Markets, Space, Greyhounds, Holy See, Commercial Radio, ITV, Conservation and Wildlife, Crossrail, Cycling, Dentistry, Sickle Cell, Race and Community, Yacht Club, in fact almost everything from (and including) Aviation to Zoos and Aquariums.

Besides which there is an Overseas Territories Group too which includes Anguilla, Bermuda, BVI, Caymans, Falklands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, St Helena and Turks and Caicos Islands collectively (in case anywhere is missed out) and Andrew is involved with that too.

Well aren’t you really amazed and gagging to know how this chap manages to be a member of so many Groups and compare that with some of our elected representatives in Jersey who moan if they attend 2 meetings in a day!!!
He should be constantly flying from one exotic lunch to another all over the world but he employs just a few staff operating out of a tiny London office to deal with all the correspondence. He receives about 45 e-mails each day plus 20 letters (including a significant number from the CIs and Gibraltar) and he has a constituency of 100,000 residents at Romford (more than the entire population of Jersey) with all sorts of time consuming and varied problems to be dealt with…….
Since early 2008 he has declared travel to Malta, Taiwan, Gibraltar, China and Syria.

Andrew Rosindell (andrew@rosindell.com) is 43 years of age and has always been involved in politics as a local Councillor, MPs research assistant and since 2001 as an MP for his home town of Romford with a huge Conservative majority. He was until a few weeks ago a Shadow Home Office Minister. He is on the right of the Party yet displays some unusual anti-ID pro-animal welfare tendencies among his very extensive range of interests and is a Christian. Until recently he had a famous bull terrier that often sported a Union Flag jacket.

In the Jersey context he was pally with Frank Walker and would doubtless identify with the Ozouf/Maclean faction and the promotion of the Finance Industry rather than Bob Hill and the pursuit of Human Rights standards. But you never know!!!!!

In normal circumstances he would almost certainly have become a Minister in the likely Tory government next year and would very likely have found a role where his extensive interest in off-shore jurisdictions could be utilized. But the recent removal from his Shadow post is puzzling and may be related to the curse of the Daily Telegraph and the £125,000 allegedly claimed for his 2nd home expenses for a flat in London while designating his childhood home 17 miles away – where his mother lived – as his main address.
He said;
“I am extremely dedicated and am often at work in my Westminster office till 2 am.
I’m always the last to leave the House”.

Other expenses claimed included the maximum permitted £400 per month for food but he
also submitted a chitty for £1.50p for a packet of Farley's Rusks although he doesn’t have children.

So it is now difficult to predict just who might be serving on the All Party Channel Islands Group next year. But we really should be planning for every eventuality in the meantime and we THE PEOPLE ought to be making contact with this Group NOW in order to set OUR OWN AGENDA for any future discussions and meetings…………..

We at “The Voice” asked Senators Breckon and Shenton for a comment – but what do the other 51 of our “elected representatives” think about our All Party Group of representatives at Westminster?
CORRECTION.

We have been contacted by Andrew Rosindell's office with the following "Andrew is still a Shadow Home Office Minister with responsibility for Animal Welfare and at no stage was he removed from his post, nor was he involved in any discussion about the prospect of being removed from his post"

BLAST! Another sordid Jersey Police OPERATION.

So - all of a sudden our elected States Members woke up to the realities of a Police State today. Even Sarah Ferguson seemed concerned! (for her own interests of course) In fact there wasn't much concern for the general public and the files that the Jersey Police keep on US! At least it's a start. All sorts of rumours and conspiracy theories are circulating of course and the Strathclyde Tendancy will no doubt carry the can but it just goes to show. You can't trust modern coppers, or is there good reason for monitoring some of our elected "representatives"? Our own "Dixon of St Martin" (Deputy Bob Hill) is briefly interviewed (below) but there are major issues yet to be explored....... Below the video is the official statement about "OPERATION BLAST" given to the States this morning by Home Affairs Minister, Senator Ian Le Marquand.
STATEMENT TO BE MADE BY THE MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS ON TUESDAY 16th JUNE 2009 OPERATION BLAST It is my duty to inform this Assembly that on 2nd June 2009 I received a formal written report from the Acting Chief Officer of Police which confirmed to me the details of Operation Blast. I was first informed of the general details in relation to Operation Blast by a letter from the Solicitor General dated 30th April, 2009, and requested further information prior to making any decision in relation thereto. I am able to reveal the following information - 1) In February 2006 the States of Jersey Police set up files under the name of Operation Blast which contained sections on every elected member of the States of Jersey, that is on every Senator, Connétable and Deputy. These files do not appear to relate to any actual police investigation. 2) Each section on an individual member contained a photograph and other generally available information on the member. It also contained a full criminal record search on each member. Some of the sections contained other information on a member from a variety of different sources including local police intelligence and national police intelligence and sheets detailing the checks that had been carried out in respect of each individual. The existence and general contents of the files have been independently confirmed to me by the Solicitor General acting upon my request. 3) The files were kept securely within the Special Branch office. Between February 2006 and November 2008 the files were updated from time to time. The files were not retained under standard arrangements for the retention of intelligence data. Indeed, there are papers within the files which would suggest that efforts have been made to ensure that this information was maintained outside the normal protocols for the management of information. Various members of the Police Senior Management were aware of the existence of the files and directed certain information to be retained therein. The existence of the files was known only to a very small number of officers and does not appear to have been disseminated further. 4) I am not aware of the motivation for the setting up and retention of these files but am very seriously concerned about their existence. 5) No new sections were set up after the October/November 2008 elections and no information was added to the files after November 2008. Existing or former members of the States who are concerned by the contents of this statement may wish to contact the Acting Chief Officer of Police, Mr. David Warcup, who has agreed to meet individually with them, should they so wish, in order to discuss the contents of their section of the files. However, I must inform members that Mr. Warcup will not be able to reveal to them any items which cannot be properly disclosed outside of the Police intelligence community. I will of course answer questions which members may have but the answers which I can give will be limited because of possible police disciplinary issues which may arise from this discovery.

Submitted by Thomas Wellard.

CODED INFORMATION – A Jersey Police Enigma

If you have the misfortune to be detained at Jersey States Police HQ you might wonder about your rights and what might happen to you.

Your relatives or friends might wonder too and the answers should be found in “SOJ POLICE CODE C”.

The States of Jersey Police CODE C booklet was first published in 1992 and more or less followed the UK PACE standards which in turn followed the vague and discredited UK Judges Rules.

Initially the Jersey Code C booklet was available to purchase at the Greffe bookshop for 50p and copies were available at Police HQ to inspect but for some reason they always declined to offer copies for sale. One excuse was that the Police had nowhere secure to keep the money! The Code itself requires that it shall be readily available at all police stations for consultation by officers, detained person or members of the public.

At the end of 2001 the booklet was revised in accordance with the then proposed (Jersey) Police Procedures and Criminal Evidence Law. That Law was enacted in 2002 and so the CODE C booklet now relates to that and current Jersey practice.

Unfortunately, the Greffe Bookshop was stopped from selling the booklet for some reason and the Police seem very reluctant to make a copy available to anybody unless actually detained for questioning or for some other reason on Police premises. It is not known if this was a policy decision initiated by Graham Power.

However, there is some good news because Senator Ian Le Marquand the Home Affairs Minister has now investigated the matter following representations from “The Voice” and he has promised that copies of CODE C will once again be offered for sale to the general public.

Of course, the booklet is not an easy read and the 40 plus pages of A4 would be difficult even for a law graduate to understand under the stressful conditions of a police cell – especially if English is not the first language.

Whether Stuart Syvret studied the booklet during his recent 7 hours detention is not known to this writer but it is essential that full information is made available to all persons who are held in any of the Police stations, whether at the Ports or other places and anybody who cannot obtain a copy of CODE C in the near future might like to advise us at “The Voice” or better still contact Senator Le Marquand directly;
tel. him on 766078 or e-mail i.lemarquand@gov.je.

Submitted by Thomas Wellard.

MAURICE KIRK A Premier League Protester

If protesting is your purpose then you should know about Maurice Kirk “the flying vet” – click the link on this page to see his blog;
Maurice Kirk
He must have been born with a defiant protestor gene because he has been fighting everything from mortality to any form of authority all his life and through the wreckage of his 64 years – wrecked at sea, wrecked in 15 “engine failure” air crashes, wrecked from a 35 days hunger strike (including 6 days without fluids) in Guernsey, professionally wrecked with the loss of his licence to practice as a veterinary surgeon, his flying licence and driving licence too at various times and arrested 100’s of times and jailed all over the world besides the wreckage of his 1st marriage and wrecked in too many bars and drinking sessions……


RECTUM indeed you might think and his Egocentric, Eccentric, Excessively Exuberant style is not to Everyone’s liking. But he has lived a truly Extraordinary life as a Boy’s Own, Daring Do, Death Defying fact or fiction character somewhere between The Red Baron and Crocodile Dundee and he is still fighting the English Courts, corrupt lawyers, bent policemen and the Veterinary College and anybody else who wears the badge of officialdom and acts arbitrarily.

The Grim Reaper will eventually out-run Maurice of course but he carries the name of his uncle Maurice (who was also a vet) killed serving in the 2nd World War and so Maurice “the flying vet” has already seen his own name on a tombstone. He clearly decided at an early age to taunt or defy the old man with the scythe at every opportunity and only last year he managed to ditch in the Caribbean and lost one aircraft and had another arrested after landing too close to President Bush’s Texas Ranch. Then he came within an inch of being shot out of the sky by the US air force and he ended up trussed and cuffed like a Guantanamo Bay terrorist in a frightening Texas jail. He was duly banned from flying in the US and deported and the experience has left lasting impressions.
Maurice might even have discovered a new “E” for Emotion and he now actually likes gardening. But although his broken arthritic bones bear testimony to his self-imposed Excesses the events of his past 5 decades warrant both critical attention and admiration.

For those unfamiliar with Maurice’s years in the Channel Islands and his campaigns against Crown Officers and Government, the Courts, lawyers, the Police and more all the way to the Privy Council and how he just failed to be elected to the Guernsey States – you are urged to look at his blog.

And, for those who think that any one in Jersey is breaking new ground or challenging the “oligarchy” in some novel or daring manner – well just have a look and see that it has all been done before and that we really should try to learn from ancient and more recent history before we venture to seek reform or to protest.

Submitted by Thomas Wellard.