LAW BREAKING

[Extreme]

Hi Ruddler

Yeah thanks for that i have trouble writing long posts i totally understand what your saying thou..  Im more happy being face to face

RS

Thanks for being honest.

[Nellie Macon]

Re postal votes - in my opinion, elderly people hate filling in forms and are often confused by them but when it comes to voting they are pretty good at making up their minds. In any case, by the time the ballot form comes a few days later they will certainly have had time to give consideration to who they want to vote for in their own time and without any pressure at all and quite often will have forgotten who helped them apply for it in the first place.

We got in very well in Jersey without this amendment for a great many years and this was so blatantly against a particular political party that it beggers belief that it got through. I can't understand why so little fuss was made at the time - I certainly didn't hear anything about it until a couple of months later.

[rogueelement]

Nellie are you are implying that the elderly folk ,harangued and brow beaten by the JDA are suffering from Dementia or Alzheimer's?
What other excuse can you have for saying that they would have forgotten who visited them by the time the forms turned up a few days later?

[Nellie Macon]

If my parents are anything to go by........they are neither suffering from dementia or senile but have dreadful memories and show them a form and they go into panic mode. Come on, you know a lot of elderly people are like that - it's perfectly normal and just something that happens naturally with old age - I'm sure I shall be just as bad when I get there.

I doubt very much that the JDA "harangue or browbeat" anyone. When I spoke to the elderly folk at Hue Court which Geoff had previously visited, they were really pleased that someone had actually bothered to come and visit them in their homes as many of them have difficulty in getting out. This is the reason that Geoff and the JDA get the votes - not because of helping them fill in forms - simply for taking the time to talk to them. How many of the "Establishment" candidates went knocking on doors? People like to meet their candidates and talk to them but often won't or can't go to the hustings and they feel more relaxed at home. The Establishment know this but can't be bothered to take the time so they want to "scupper" anyone else that does if they can - this is what this whole silly amendment to the law was all about.

If you ever look at the application for postal voting you'll see that it's not that easy to work out what you should write on it and what part applies to different individuals - quite apart from getting the application form in the first place since most elderly people don't have computers. With having to get onto the electoral roll, to actually achieve a postal vote you end up having to fill in 3 forms - don't you think that's asking a bit much of elderly and sick people to do all on their own? I actually didn't realise that the Parish would send people around to assist in this so that's something I've learnt to bear in mind next time - that'll be very useful.

[rogueelement]

Hopefully next time will be in about 1 month when the election is declared null and void due to granny farming!

[Nellie Macon]

I think it's more insulting to elderly people to believe they'll vote for someone simply for assisting them to fill in an application form.

[Fritz]

Do you help Jeremy to fill in forms Nellie?

[Pomme de terre]

We got in very well in Jersey without this amendment for a great many years

Hang on a minute. We've only had postal voting itself for the last couple of years, haven't we? My understanding of the chronology is:

1) Until very recently, you had to vote in person at the parish hall. Old or sick? Tough.
2) Postal voting was introduced to address the above situation
3) The law around postal votes was later amended, to discourage candidates from interfering.

Can anyone confirm my understanding? If so, what was so great about the good old days?

I am confused by your use of the word "amendment". Do you mean the introduction of postal voting in general, or the recent amendment to law regarding postal voting itself?

[Nellie Macon]

I was referring to the amendment to the postal voting law.

[rogueelement]

So if you are sick and infirm you can now vote by postal means. That would suggest to me at least that it is down to the "father of the parish" to ensure via his army of vingteniers, co,s etc , that the people concerned are given the opportunity to receive a postal vote form , this to be collected from said elderly, sick, infirm persons , by said army of honorary officials and lodged with the election scrutineers.This might at least give them (especially the ones in St Saviour) something more worthwhile to do than harass mums and dads collecting their kids from Schools (private) in the parish.
In the case of St Saviour also , they may wish to set up a temporary video Network in the area of Nellie's house to monitor chav thugs destroying Nellie's peace and quiet.
I do recall  a young Farmers concert many years back where it was stated that the St Saviours Honorary where thrown out of the SS for cruelty!

[GeeGee]

Delivered and collected by the 'pretend' police. My goodness, they would be far to busy at playing power crazy stop the motorist to want to do this.........and who is to say they are any more honest than Southern and Pitman or anyone else.

Just as wide open to abuse.

Pretend police, pretend politicians, God as someone who has lived here for most of their long life I wish I could afford to move off this god-forsaken Rock, and no I can't afford either the next boat or plane in the morning.

Al donations gratefully received!

[Nellie Macon]

The postal voting law came in in 1978 and this ridiculous amendment was passed in September 2008. Quite a few of the candidates and their supporters (not establishment) did voice protests during the elections concerning this amendment but what could they do about it?

However, I was unaware until quite recently that you can arrange for parish officials to arrange for this facility where necessary and it's a shame that this wasn't made public at the time - this is the course to follow in future.

As far as the honorary police are concerned, they're like everyone else - there are some excellent ones and some that really should not be honoraries at all but on the whole they do a good job and save the taxpayer a lot of money. Just think what the cost ot the Island would be if we had to pay for policing at all public events - it's bad enough what they charge for Jersey Live.

I'm sorry you're so disillusioned with Jersey GeeGee, if we could just sort out the way the Island is governed it would be a great place to live - this is why some of us are fighting so hard for change.

There are so many really good, hardworking, lovely people in Jersey (from all races and social strata) that it's sad that somehow some contributors to this site appear to only be meeting the few that are spoiling the Island. For those of us that are stuck here due to the stamps in our passports, we are trying to make the best of what is available to us - maybe it won't happen in my lifetime but as my children also have the dastardly stamps, hopefully in theirs.

[rogueelement]

Cheers Nellie !
As one of those who has contributed a huge amount to the Island via employment and tax of one sort or another and fully in agreement that there are most certainly some fantastic people of all races in all sorts of different jobs , I would just take one exception to your remarks:-
"If we could just sort out the way this Island is Governed"
In actual fact , as I have previously stated , this Island is the closest to a socialist dream as you might wish for outside of North Korea, there are no poor people, the disadvantaged are taken care of extremely well, the elderly, the sick and the "what is the politically correct term for mentally disturbed" are very well cared for both by the Gov.t and the voluntary services.
So what changes do you want Nellie? I find it hard to find a single area of Jersey Social services which are worse than anything you can get in the UK. Do you not find it remotely strange that the "people" the JDA wish to represent , i.e. the lower paid , the Portugese who do your ironing , the Polish who serve you in the shops ,the single parent , one legged, lesbian mothers do not give a tinkers cuss for the JDA .Would that be remotely because they are transient workers who will leave the Island as soon as they have the ability to make a decent living back home and they are totally grateful to have been afforded the opportunity to work in this socialist paradise , where as you , locally born , cannot expect to work in their Countries?
Come on Nellie wake up , you and your guys are living in the promised land , all you are really carping about is the chance to take a bigger slice of the cake.

[Jersey Spud]

Didn't Southern also publicly go on record in advance of the elections (JEP?) and say that he didn't agree with the law and was going to keep assisting people re: postal voting. I can't find the link but I'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong.

Now that's just inviting the Police to keep an eye on you, and you can't really complain when you get charged with an offence after the event. Doh.

[George]

Will Mrs Pitman have the courage to follow the example set by Jimmy Perchard?