A view from the west

: st_ouennais; July 16th, 20:25

I am uncertain whether Jersey blogs qualify, but it would be fun to see one get into the listings.

The magazine Total Politics is again running its poll for Britain's top political blogs. To quote the magazine's website, the rules are simple:

You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
You MUST include ten blogs. If you include fewer than ten your vote will not count.
Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com.
Only vote once.
Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible.
Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name.
All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2009. Any votes received after that date will not count.
If you have your own blog, please do encourage your readers to take part. Last year, more than 80 blogs did so. We hope this year it will be far more than that. BUT, DO NOT list ten blogs you think your readers should vote for. Any duplicate voting of this nature will be disallowed.

Tags: politics

In the field

: st_ouennais; July 16th, 6:45

It has been a dynamic couple of weeks in the fields. Not as intense as spring, but full of change. We now have pods on the first of the french beans - the borlotti. I always get them of first as we like to have them as both shelled and dried beans,and they need a good long stretch to dry well. The other favourite in the household is the deep purple variety royalty. Apart from saving a few to resow, they go straight to the pot. They are curently full of flowers, but as yet no pods. There are also a good number of white flowers on the runner beans. I've been saving my own white runner seed for 4 or 5 years. While I really like fresh runners, these white ones are good substitutes for butter beans. I am trying a new for me pumpkin variety this year, though in fact its an old french variety , rouge vif d'Etampes. At the moment there are a few small yellow balls, but I believe they turn a deep red when mature, and can be upto 15 kg. We'll see.

I have just this week cut the oats, and the spelt will follow soon. The overwintered broad beans have been productive, picking by the bucket. Fortunately the children quite like the red ones picked young, so we have been able to eat a fair few, frezee some more and give away a pile too. I have cleared down the picked plants to add to the growing compost heap, along with the dried grass straw cut in the orchard earlier in the year, and the fresh grass I'm cutting now. I am not to sure what to do with the spring sown broad beans that are ready now, but I have found an interesting wine recipe that may have to be tested.

All the alliums have now been lifted - I don't do maincrop onions. The shallots have done well. Not as big as last year, but quite acceptable. The garlic has been a near disaster, but I am not surprised. Before planting time last year, I found 'someone' (I won't name her) had moved the bag I was saving to plant and they got wet. Bad news. I did try to get some spring sown garlic such as printanor, but none was to be had. Some sort of crop in these circumstances is useful . We'll have just enough to keep us going, but none to spare, and I'll have to buy in more to plant.

Blackcurrants have been plentiful this year, and we made 8 jars of jam with the pickings from just one day. If you have never made jam before, blackcurrants are a great choice for your first go. They are quite high in both pectin and acid, so dont need anything adding, just sugar, water and fruit. It doesn't take too long for the jam to set either - that's the trickiest bit ensuring you have reached the setting point without over doing it.

Sweetcorn, amaranth, tomatoes, artechokes, beetroot , salsify , carrots and celery all look to be doing well. The oca are particularly impressive. I've had some excellent feedback from a couple of people who tried some last year, so its just as well I've got four times the area growing this year.

Lastly, I have been very taken with the variety of butterflies I have seen in the field in the last few weeks. Not huge numbers, but all manner of orange, yellow and blues, and one particularaly stunning peacock butterfly. I hope its an indication of the growing habitat and species diversity around the plot.

A bientôt

Tags: in the field

Legally binding CO2 emission reductions

: st_ouennais; July 15th, 6:31

The European Commission has passed a national plan proposed by the United Kingdom to introduce a trading system for emissions of carbon dioxide related to energy consumption.

Scheduled to start in April 2010, the national system, called the Carbon Reduction Commitment, applies to non-energy intensive sectors not already covered by climate change agreements and the EU Emissions Trading System.

Following the passing of the Climate Change Act in November 2008, the UK is now legally required to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050, and 34 percent by 2020.

The plan is a central part of the UK government’s strategy for controlling carbon dioxide, CO2, emissions. The policy has been developed in partnership by the British Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Department of Environment Northern Ireland.

And Jersey's commitment is ......

Tags: co2

Jersey care leavers

: st_ouennais; July 13th, 7:59

The JCLA have their latest newsletter on the web site: http://www.jerseycareleavers.com/

Tags: jcla

Spot the difference

: st_ouennais; July 13th, 7:48

There were still around 17,000 ex-Stasi employees in Germany's civil service.

Despite opposition from out of the West, the East Germans decided that the Stasi's files should not just be locked away -- even though that is what Helmut Kohl and Wolfgang Schaüble first wanted. These documents should have been helpful in outlining the inhumane methods used by the secret police and to explain why some people's lives worked out the way they did. For the most part, this chance has been wasted. The information in these files was simply considered burdensome by many employers.

I can think of 3 local parallels.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,635486,00.html

Long term monkey study shows calories kill

: st_ouennais; July 12th, 8:04

A decades-long study of monkeys on a restricted diet is simple: Consuming fewer calories leads to a longer, healthier life.

During the 20-year course of the study, half of the animals permitted to eat freely have survived, while 80 percent of the monkeys given the same diet, but with 30 percent fewer calories, are still alive.

"We observed that caloric restriction reduced the risk of developing an age-related disease by a factor of three and increased survival."

Obesity and excess calorie intake is broadly a disease of the rich, in global terms. And yes here in Jersey our levels of excess weight are higher than many other places. See 2007ForewordSummary.pdf

Collectively the simple financial costs to the health service of treating the resulting ill health from obesity is huge. I have written before of the coming food crisis and the difficulty we face feeding the world in the coming decades. The logic is grindingly, relentlessly obvious. Yet the evidence is that we do nothing about it, even when it clearly is in our personal as well as collective best financial and health interests.

Wanton abrogation of all that makes sense as adopting a sensible diet does, leads me to be very pessimistic about the future of humanity. If we cannot or will not change or ways in the face of abundant personal evidence in our faces of the damage we do ourselves, what chance of getting meaningful action on climate change where the effects and the real damage is a generation away, but the urgent action is needed now.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090709110836.htm

Tags: diet, food

More evidence on the ill effects of nitrates.

: st_ouennais; July 9th, 8:18

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/07/06/Nitrates-linked-to-deaths-from-Alzheimers/UPI-67821246854759/

Researchers at Rhode Island university have evidence that links increased nitrate levels to diabetes alzheimers and Parkinson's disease.

The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, found strong parallels between age adjusted increases in death rate from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes and the progressive increases in human exposure to nitrates, nitrites and nitrosamines through processed and preserved foods as well as fertilizers.

We know the levels of nitrates in Jersey surface and borehole supplies is high. Are we storing up a huge medical health bill for the population?

Tags: nitrates, water

Oyster virus hits Jersey

: st_ouennais; July 9th, 6:26

I have received word that the oyster virus that caused problems last year in France has hit Jersey. 40 to 50 percent mortality at the last tide. Facing problems like this the last thing we need to be doing is heaping further problems on the marine environment like incinerator pollution fall out and gradual sea acidification

Tags: marine environment, oyster virus

Interview with a scientist

: st_ouennais; July 8th, 8:59

Spiegel is carrying an interview with a glacier expert. See spiegel international

"By the time the last IPCC report was finished in 2005, it was simply not possible to project what will happen. We had already seen dramatic changes by that time, but we had to leave them out. We simply didn't know how to model the ice sheet. But we are in a better position right now. New estimates that we are about to finalize suggest a potential sea-level rise from the Greenland ice sheet that could be 0.35 meters (14 inches) over the next century."

"I am a scientist, not a politician. As a scientist it is, nevertheless, interesting to see that the politicians are trying to figure out what would be feasible politically. Currently, trying to cap global warming at two degrees is something that they can seemingly sell to the public. But as a scientist I have to really stress that two degrees is an absolute maximum. It is not something to be negotiated, like 2.7 or 2.5 degrees. We are at the very maximum already, I believe."

Tags: climate change, glaciers

11 more historical abuse cases dropped

: st_ouennais; July 7th, 15:49

The Attorney General has dropped 11 more cases. According to the JEP online that includes a number of cases involving employees of the Education and Social Services departments. It is the worst of all possible outcomes. Names are not cleared, nor claims of victims vindicated. Simply there is no resolution here. Its akin to leaving the gangrenous limb untreated. The stench will continue. Either administer the antibiotics, or get out the amputation saw.

Dropping the cases does not prove that abuse did not take place, it does not clear the names of anyone accused, and crucially it does not give voice to the victims. Having so many cases unresolved is in no way in the public interest, however expedient it may appear to some.

Tags: attorney general, child abuse

Earliest recording of late blight

: st_ouennais; July 5th, 8:05

There are reports emerging of widespread late blight in potatoes and tomatoes in the eastern USA. It has also never been recorded so early. Anyone hazard a guess as to what's behind that? We haven't had much blight so far this year locally - one benefit of long dry spells. My organic grower friends seem to be having a darned good crop of Royals for once. Much as I love eating spuds, I'm sticking to growing Oca and Jerusalem artichokes.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090701163647.htm

Tags: blight

Meeting photo thanks to JerseyCam

: st_ouennais; July 4th, 11:13

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

Protest and survive

: st_ouennais; July 3rd, 20:02

Saturday 12:00 People's Park.

What to do when the warnings sound.

For your info this is the old UK government advice on what to do when things are about to go ballistic, so to speak.

Prepare for fallout -sounds about right to me

You might also like the intro to this video

Tags: protest, when the warning sounds

Simple and to the point

: st_ouennais; July 2nd, 9:02

Tags: peak oil

Cost of food driving people into poverty?

: st_ouennais; July 2nd, 8:09

The Rowntree trust has issued a new report on the cost of living in Britian.

The foundation says that a single adult with no children now needs to earn at least £13,900 a year before tax to reach the minimum standard. This is a £500 rise from 2008 and nearly half of this extra income is needed for food. A couple with two children are estimated to need a combined gross income of £27,600 annually.

An online calculator is available for people to check whether their income meets the minimum standard for Britain at www.minimumincome.org.uk.

You might like to compare those income figures with one I read only the other day, here in the minutes of the AMOS group: 88% of States tenants have an income of less than £12k p.a. (Thanks for that Tony). Now factor in the Rowntree Trust calculation uses a rent for a single person of £53.87 per week.; a figure just not credible here. The implication is that 88% or more of States tenants are living below acceptable standards.

Something else that is very worrying here is the disparity in the actual inflation experienced by different people. Many who have mortgages will have seen their outgoings fall as interest rates have dropped, yet those renting are seeing very high inflation rates because of inescapable costs like food. It is just too simplistic to rely on one aggregated value for determining inflation (and hence inflation related payments lie pension increases) when circumstances vary so widely between people's circumstances.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jul/01/wage-rowntree-minimum-cost-living

Tags: inflation, rowntree trust

What is (not) happening at Social Secirity

: st_ouennais; July 2nd, 6:31

If you are an employee in Jersey earning more than the minimum £8,500 or so a year, you will pay social security through your employer. This is the Class 1 contributions scheme. However for the self employed and some non-employed, Class 2 contributions are paid based on the previous year's earnings.

There are a few exceptions that allow no contribution to be paid by people on very low incomes. By default class 2 contribution are at the maximum rate, and are collected quarterly It is possible to apply for a reduced class 2 contribution of you have a modest income. High earning self employed people can use these rules to organise their earnings to end up paying less in social security contributions than would normally be the case. All perfectly legal you understand, just like those M.P's expenses claims.

Despite the systems having been set up like this for many years, for some reason it has started going wrong this year. Some people who applied for reduced Class 2 contribution at the beginning of the year have still not received their assessments of what contribution should be paid. That hasn't stopped the Social Security department sending repeat copies out of their standard proforma pay us the full amount or face us in court, and get charged the costs of the action type threats. Even people who have properly contacted the department and explained the situation have been told it is being sorted out and their records will be marked to show there is no gap in contributions payments once they have been advised and paid the correct amount, are still receiving the threatening demands for the full contribution amount.

We are now at the point where the second quarter returns are to be made and in a few weeks another quarter's contributions will be expected to be paid. I am sure those who are simply using the rules to minimize their contributions won't be troubled by this. However for the genuinely modestly earning self employed trader who had been struggling through the recession the mounting social security contributions could just be the last straw.

Tags: social security

A couple of local items

: st_ouennais; June 27th, 10:33

It is being reported that the States are actively negotiating to buy the Pontin's site at Plémont with the intention of returning it to nature. The Connétable raised this possibility some time ago, and depsite some doubts over the posible costs seems to have got serious backing for the scheme. Hurrah!

Earlier in the week the JEP carried a small piece about dangerous rock face above Greve de Lecq. The deputy Bailiff said it was unacceptable that the decision over who should pay had drifted on for two years. There is however a bit more to this than is apparent from the JEP report. The matter was initially raised at the Visite Royale on the 1st August 2007. It was decided at the Visite that the Minister (for TTS) should make safe the cliff face as there was a clear danger to the public on the access to the harbour. Ordinarily that would have been an end to it as the decision at the Visite Royal is the decision of the Royal Court.

Clearly the cost of making safe the cliff face is not trivial. The minister at TTS engaged the services of a lawyer to investigate the decision. The upshot of the legal research is that it appears the tarmaced road access to the harbour is not a road at all. It is private property over which certain rights of way exist arising from some circa 15th century law. So although TTS own and are repsonsible for the harbour, and have for many years maintained the road surface of the only road accesss, that roadway is not theirs nor is the cliff alongside. They argue they are not therefore responsible.

It is believed there are a couple of other places in the Island where the access to harbours is under a similar arrangement. Shades of Les Pas Holdings and Fief de la Fosse walk again!

Tags: greve de lecq, plemont, st ouen

Peak Oil

: st_ouennais; June 25th, 9:35

I think this is a pretty fair summary

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/49334

1000 years for greenhouse gas effects to reduce after zero emission

: st_ouennais; June 24th, 6:53

A recent Spiegel edition carries an article on a study of recent climate change thinking. It is very very scary.

What a legacy for our decendants, even assuming we do enough to have a habitable plantet for our potential descendants. Preparing for a four degree average temperature rise is serious stuff. Recall that only last year the consensus was that anything over 2 degrees was serious.

You can get some idea of the outcomes of a four degree temerature rise here how to survive the coming century. Alligators on the south coast of britain a Brazilian desert and only 10 % of human beings surviving.

"The last time the world experienced temperature rises of this magnitude was 55 million years ago, after the so-called Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum event. Then, the culprits were clathrates - large areas of frozen, chemically caged methane - which were released from the deep ocean in explosive belches that filled the atmosphere with around 5 gigatonnes of carbon. The already warm planet rocketed by 5 or 6 °C, tropical forests sprang up in ice-free polar regions, and the oceans turned so acidic from dissolved carbon dioxide that there was a vast die-off of sea life. Sea levels rose to 100 metres higher than today's and desert stretched from southern Africa into Europe."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,631262,00.html

Tags: climate change, greenhouse gases

A million chinese farmers in Africa today

: st_ouennais; June 24th, 6:33

This item in the Guardian shows just how big is the problem of food security. Despite its agricultural background, and its desperate need to deal with growing pollution and C02 emissions, China has abandoned reforestation and other eco remediation activities to be able to feed its population.

When a country with a quarter of the world's population is having to take such measures as buying up huge areas of farmland in other countries, you have to realise there is a big problem for the whole world and its only just round the corner. Let me put it this way. If Chinese companies own large tracts of farmland in these countries - they are going to send the produce back to China if China needs it. That leaves less for the rest of us to compete for if we also need to import food, and in Jersey we really do import almost all our food. We, after all, do not have a food security policy other than perhaps the unwritten expectation that the market will provide.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/23/china-food-shortage

Tags: food security

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A view from the west

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