Archives for June 2010

Earlier this year Google came to the island with their 'Street View' car to take photographs of Jersey's roads.

They then went away and will be spending the best part of the next year or so stitching it all together so you can go on a virtual tour of Jersey within Google Maps.

But one enterprising islander pre-empted Google and had already taken things into his own hands - making use of a video camera, a car and YouTube.

GadgetGizmo posted a series of videos in 2009 that he filmed while driving in his car around town, adding linked boxes within the text allowing you to chose the direction of travel.

You can watch the St Helier video on YouTube.

It's great fun and a real time kill. I discovered it through a tweet from Brian Le Lion.

On the Voice for Protest blog they have a photo and details of a new portrait of 97 year old Jersey political campaigner, Emile Collins.

Emile was born in St Helier in September 1912 and has lived in the parish ever since.

Emile has been an active member of political movements in Jersey for over 60 years, including membership of the Jersey Democratic Union in 1944.

That was during the Nazi Occupation of Jersey when it was punishable by death to be a member of a political party.

In those early days the JDU members would meet in a house in Stopford Road trying to dodge the German patrols and the curfew.

The Jersey Democratic Union later became the Jersey Democratic Movement after the Occupation.

Even now Emile is still an active political campaigner in Jersey, regularly attending rally's and contributing to BBC Jersey's lunchtime phone-in and our weekly Sunday political phone-in.

And in 2009 Emile was made an Honorary Patron of the islands only political party, The Jersey Democratic Alliance.

Team Voice said in their post that they wanted to recognise Emille's contribution to Jersey politics for future generations.

We have chosen to commission this "one off" portrait because we want him recognised now and by future generations as one of the unsung people who have campaigned so that we all might enjoy the privileges of a democratic society.

How sad then, that there should, at this time, be so many divisions in the "progressive" arm of Jersey politics.

The portrait is currently on display at the Falle Fine Art Gallery opposite the States of Jersey building in Hill Street.

But the people behind the Voice for Protest blog hope someone will sponsor or buy the artwork and "make it available for public exhibition, in an appropriate place, for many years to come."

Thanks to Voice for Protest for the photo and story.

If there is one thing that gets the people of Jersey talking above anything else - it's whether the island needs a third supermarket chain or not.

There are currently two large supermarket operators in the Island - the Channel Island's Co-Op and Sandpiper CI who run Checkers, M&S and Safeway.

It was announced on 23 June that the UK chain Waitrose would be buying the Checkers and Safeway stores from Sandpiper.

When the press release for this story came through there was a buzz in the newsroom - we know this would mean a lot of debate and discussion.

A BBC Jersey reporter was sent to Checkers to ask people in the supermarket what they thought about the deal and the reaction was as mixed as the one in the newsroom.

One couple said: "Waitrose is more expensive than Checkers and Safeway are, we got back from the mainland and the prices are sky high."

Another said: "Checkers has improved a lot but I think with the extra Waitrose products it will be absolutely fabulous, they do such nice food."

And a third couple said that there was a lot of Waitrose food in Checkers anyway and that the competition would help

But will this really mean a third supermarket operator for Jersey?

Well arguably yes - there will still be co-op, then Waitrose who will replace the big Sandpiper operated stores and Sandpiper plan to expand their Iceland and M&S franchises.

Tony O'Neil is the Chief Executive Officer of Sandpiper CI and he thinks that the stable of Sandpiper brands (M&S, Iceland...) are enough to keep people loyal.

"With our stable of brands, and by that I mean M&S who has been here for 40 years and has a got a very strong and loyal following, together with the fact that we will be upgrading our stores locally and we're extending the Iceland fascia.

"I would point out that Iceland continue to sell Iceland branded products at UK prices, all the prices are marked on the packs, the only difference is we apply GST to these products.

"I think yes it is more competition, yes that has to be good for consumers in the island by giving choice and obviously the competitive challenge is there but we feel reasonably confident that customers will continue to shop with us."

On the Channel Television article on this story Lorraine is hoping a John Lewis Store will follow behind Waitrose: "I think thats the best news I have had in ages and cant wait for a John Lewis Department store to follow"

And Teri doesn't think it's a good thing at all, in fact suggesting it could make things worse for the lower earning islander.

"So that's what the survey was about pretending to ask the locals if they wanted another food chain on the island, all the time they had already sold out to one of more expesive food stores in britian, what a farce with gst on top not really what the average earner needs."

In the Jersey Evening Post version of the story Kev questions whether this will lead to UK prices.

"So then, the island is getting what it has always asked for, which is the arrival of a UK supermarket chain. Quality may improve, and without doubt a larger choice will be available.......but there is no way of getting mainland prices !!"

On Twitter anne_f replied to a BBC Jersey tweet of the story saying: "This is fantastic news for us in Jersey!"

Of course the final decision over whether this deal goes ahead still lies with the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority.

For a band in the 21st Century there are a lot of things you can, need and probably want to do for yourself.

You can get your music into one of the largest music stores the world has ever seen without the help of a label - iTunes.

You can record all the music yourself to a very high standard from your own home, or even fairly cheaply from a studio.

You can even promote the music yourself through Facebook, Soundcloud, Reverbnation, Twitter, MySpace etc...

But the dark art of making a music video is still something that can have VERY mixed results - you could get the charm of a homemade viral video on the cheap - or you could end up embarrassing yourself.

Now, the local production company behind all of Jersey's comedy musicial creation, Hedley Le Maistre's films - Fortress Island Films - have started turning their talents to other musicians.

Taking the 'Guerilla filming' techniques they developed working on the Hedley films and slimming them down further still, they're giving local musicians the chance to get a music video out there for a fraction of the 'thousands' it would cost normally.

But the bands need to find their own voice, record their own music, provide their own cast and be ready to get it all done in a day.

Their first creation is this for Steve Franco:

'3 am' Music video by Steve Franco from Andy Evans on Vimeo.

Steve posted the video to his Facebook fan page and had hundreds of views within a day or two of putting it up.

The video was recorded in his bedroom and shot in five hours, '3am' is the first in road to music video production by Fortress Island films.

Steve has also made use of Sound Cloud to host the music from the video for other people to download and play. 3am is the second single from his EP Sex Lies and Better Lives.

Graffiti is commonplace, we're all used to seeing tags on the side of walls or creative works of spray painted art hidden away in tunnels - but what about on packing slips?

Over the last couple of months little snippets of art, drawings of monsters, aliens and other creatures have been appearing on posts and polls around St Helier.

The work is drawn on to the customs slips you get from Jersey Post when sending a parcel off island and then stuck to the poll.

Have you seen them? Do you know who's drawing them? Share your pictures by e-mailing jersey@bbc.co.uk.

The picture at the top was taken just down from Boots in King Street, here are a couple more I've spotted just wandering around on a lunchbreak.

This first one was by the bike rack on the side wall of co-op:

And this one is slightly different as it features a couple of characters and was spotted next to the cash machines in Library Place:

And this was outside Homemaker:

Election day is a strange occasion, new BBC guidelines meant that we couldn't report anything while the polls were open other than that the polls were open.

In one way this was good because it gave me a day to make sure the 'election night live' system I'd spent a weekend building was up to scratch and to test it.

Unfortunately it also means you're sitting on stories when my first reaction is to post it straight out to Twitter then get more information and expand it into a full website article.

At the last election in 2009 I was running our Election live blog throughout the day with updates on turnout at each of the polling stations and other things that come out throughout the day.

So this time, after I'd checked the system, double checked the system, triple checked the system and then moved my computer to the BBC Jersey Election Studio - I was forced to close Twitter and sit on my hands.

But from 8pm it all started.

Although on a much smaller scale to the UK, using less flashy graphics - in our case an Excel spreadsheet (known as the Senatometer) on a plasma screen with a big red button called the 'Big Red Update Button' - we still had results, analysis and lots of statistics to pore over.

In the election studio we had presenter Roger Bara, political reporter Christie Tucker, Managing Editor acting as Statsman Denzil Dudley and guest politician Deputy Roy Le Herrissier sitting around the main broadcast table.

Then, sitting right behind Denzil was me trying to write short and pithy live-blog posts taking the best of comments from the studio team, Twitter and comments coming in, updating results as they're declared and keeping on top of social media.

And it was the social media that was the new factor in this election. From the start the goal was to engage with Twitter, Facebook and Audioboo.

Twitter was the main output, encouraging people to use the hash tag #jsyvote, which actually worked and writing updates from each count as it came in, keeping tally of the overall votes and sharing links to BBC Jersey and the Listen Live page for BBC Jersey on air.

The results on the night come in thick and fast, often with three one after another - so I revert to analogue methods for keeping track of the results.

I write them down on a piece of paper, then when there is a gap I spend time putting them all into the live election pages.

Then, after updating the result pages I'd head to the live blog page, post an update and then straight to Twitter to let people know there - then I'd take audio of the declaration and post it to Audiboo.

At least that was my carefully orchestrated, constantly practised original plan.

In reality I'd take the results, update the pages, head to the live blog only to find another result was coming in so it was back to the paper to take that result down, back to the results page and then send a brief tweet out giving on overview of the result so far.

It wasn't until the morning after that I finally managed to tidy everything up, tweak the pages and get it all the way I had it in my head for three weeks before the election.

But we weren't the only ones making use of Social Media on the night - Channel Television were live tweeting information from the counts through their reporter Gill and had live stats on their Election page.

And the next day Jersey blogs were poring over the results including Tony Bellows on his Tony's Musings blog - looking specifically at the election surprises.

Steve Smith, one blogger who has been writing about the hustings throughout the campaign, posted the results in a table to his Man with a Plan blog, and was tweeting throughout the night.

He wondered whether Syvret or the JDA was the big story of the night.

"#jsyvote stories of night: well done Senator le G; bye bye ex-Senator Stuart + what next for JDA?"

In response to comments about the collapse of the JDA, Deputy Geoff Southern wrote a blog post on the JDA Council Blog saying they've still got four sitting members.

"Many will present the result of the election as a defeat for the JDA. The reality is that I am a sitting deputy who is delivering effective opposition to the Council of Ministers and therefore lots of voters thought that there was no advantage in voting for me.

"Many people, on leaving the polling stations, said that they agreed with my policy but I was already in there."

The night has been good practice for the next election in 2011 when, for the first time, all three types of Jersey politician will be elected on the same day - Senator, Deputy and Constable.

The one thing I do know though - I can't do that one on my own.

This is a guest post by BBC Jersey Editor and election 'statmaster', Denzil Dudley, breaking down the statistics from the 2010 Senatorial by-election.

On election night Denzil acted as BBC Jersey's answer to Jeremy Vine, the man with all the stats - held on his self created 'Senatometer' - a complicated spreadsheet collecting results as they come in.

In an e-mail to BBC Jersey staff the morning after the election Denzil explored the statistics and what might have, could have and may have happened.

The by-election was to fill a seat vacated by former Senator Stuart Syvret, who lost it after leaving the island for six months.

Mr Syvret stood again as a candidate for the seat he lost, using it to make a case about corruption in the island's parliament.

There was criticism on some local blogs about other 'progressive' candidates standing against him.

Before looking at the breakdown, the first piece of information useful to know is that Francis le Gresley won by 2,361 votes.

This means that even if Geoff Southern hadn't stood and everyone who voted for him ( 1,085 people) had voted for Stuart Syvret instead, Mr. Syvret would still have lost by 1,277 votes.

Even if Geoff Southern, Nick Le Cornu, Gino Risoli, Philip Maguire and Peter Remon-Whorral hadn't stood and everyone who voted for them had voted for Stuart Syvret, he would still have lost by 720 votes.

There was also a clear division between the top three and the rest in terms of votes / % of the vote:

Le Gresley: 37.3%
Syvret: 22.1%
Ryan: 20.7%

Then

Baudains: 8.6 %
Southern: 7.0 %
and the others.

Stuart Syvret was lying third until the St. Helier declaration (the last one) when his vote raised him to second overall. Le Gresley won St. Helier by just 10 votes over Syvret (1,007 to 997).

The small turnout (26.5%) meant that by the time the results came to the "big two" (St Saviour & St. Helier) Le Gresley had built up such a lead in the "country" parishes that Stuart Syvret's task was almost impossible.

So, when it came to the last declaraton in St. Helier, in order to win the election, Syvret would have had to take around 80% of the votes cast.

The other story of the night was that the JDA vote simply collapsed - even in their St. Helier heartland -. If it was a disappointment for Stuart Syvret, it was a disaster for Geoff Southern. What price Party Politics?

Gerard Baudains beat Geoff Southern for fourth place and garnered a total of 1,329 Votes. If Geoff Southern hadn't stood, it would not have affected the final result.

There are discussions taking place in pubs, offices, message boards, blogs and websites across the island about the 'Jersey anthem'.

The trigger was Senator Jimmy Perchard who, according to Channel Television described the frontrunner for the title 'official anthem', Island Home, as "drab, miserable and boring."

Island Home was selected as the anthem of choice at a special event in 2008 by a panel of six judges and the audience - who collectively had one vote.

You can hear Island Home, print the score or download different versions of the song from the States of Jersey website.

Ours is an Island home
Firm on rock and strong by sea
Loyal and proud in history,
Our thankful hearts are
Raised to God for Jersey.

The beauty of our land
Long inspires both eye and mind.
Ours the privilege to guard its shore
So help we God that
Jersey might by grace endure.

The idea was to have something that could be played on important civic occasions - such as Liberation Day.

On the Planet Jersey message board Dundee suggested that it would be better to have a more popular sounding song, perhaps getting Nerina Pallot to create something.

"Why not get Nerina Pallot to pen a version, her music should fit most and it would certainly be in the popular bracket."

It was announced on the night that the winning song would be put forward as the islands prospective anthem to be ratified by the States of Jersey when it had become universally accepted by the island.

But Senator Perchard things the process needs to be started again.

"I do not want to see this anthem imposed on islanders without the proper process of adopting it," Mr Perchard told BBC News.

"I'm insistent it should be adopted formally before it's used at Liberation Day again or used officially to represent Jersey in the Island Games."

Other choices for an anthem include the traditional Jersey song, Beautiful Jersey and the Normandy anthem used as the island song in the past, Ma Normandie.

But other suggestions include Hedley le Maistre's Jersey Mon Vie and Sgt Pippons Proud to be a Bean.

The local stage at the 2010 Jersey Live music festival will have a wild west theme including a bucking bronco and costumes.

The Tease stage first made an appearance at Jersey Live in 2008 when it took on the guise of an English country garden tea-party.

It then returned bigger and better in 2009 as the Wild West Tease stage featuring - as well as a selection of Jersey bands - Victorian and circus costumes.

There was also a coconut shy, test your strength game, candy-floss, popcorn and more - it was run by and raised money for Headway.

In 2010 the stage will change again, to be known as the Wild West Tease stage with the volunteers running the area dressed up in cowboy and cowgirl costumes.

Beth Gallichan is from Headway and is organising the local stage at the Jersey Live festival. She said it's about changing it every year to create a unique, other world area.

"We look to change it every year just to keep it a bit more exciting for festival goers and for us really.

"The theme is a very important part of the experience so they get transported to a different part of the festival.

"We're looking at hopefully getting a bucking bronco and a tin-can alley," said Beth.

On the subject of Jersey Live - Channel Television have details of all the acts playing the festival on their Studio Jam pages.

The Jersey Arts Trust have launched a new website and a new brand along with it.

Announced on Facebook and built by Jersey agency TheObservatory, the site has a new website address at www.arts.je and a new logo.

The site was built by Ben Hickinbottom and Robbie Andrews of The Observatory and includes details of events, projects and information on applying for grants from the Trust.

I got in touch with the Jersey Arts Trust team and asked them to tell me more about the new site and what they want to use it for.

"It has the same purpose as the old site but is much easier to navigate and the information is more clearly presented; its purpose is to present information about upcoming Arts Trust events and projects, as well as independent projects that are supported by the Arts Trust.

"People can also find out how we can support their creative endeavours, through contacts, educational events and funding."

How can creative islanders use it to help them?

By visiting www.arts.je, people who have an idea for a creative project or simply want to learn a new creative discipline, can find information about educational workshops, use it to find out about local artists and their services, or find out how to apply for Arts Trust funding for their projects.

How long did it take to create?

Along with the rebranding exercise that is ongoing - we've created a new logo and artwork for the Trust - it has taken about 3 and a half months so far. This includes the original brainstorming meetings and various drafts and re-drafts.

The final stages of this rebranding exercise are the creation of a viral video that we hope will showcase the Arts Trust in the best possible way, which will be on public display soon. Watch this space.

Cost?

Design agency The Observatory have been incredibly helpful and understanding of our budget limitations as a charitable organisation, and as a result came up with a simple, functional and cost-effective solution, which we're all delighted with.

Steve Smith has been using his blog, The Man with a Plan, to share his thoughts on each of the hustings meetings at Parish halls around the island.

Each parish hosts a meeting where parishioners can quiz the nine candidates for Senator in the by-election due to be held on 16 June 2010.

The Candidates for Senator (alphabetical order) are: Gerard Baudain, Nick Le Cornu, Francis Le Gresley, Philip Maguire, Gino Risoli, Patrick Ryan, Geoff Southern, Stuart Syvret and Peter Whorrall.