THE silly season is upon us again – that time of year when slow news days stretch over a period of weeks and journalists seek out stories wherever they can.

Throughout the northern hemisphere, with parliaments and courts in summer recess, the usual wide-ranging hard news stories dry up, freeing up column space for more frivolous items.

The way the inmates of Charlie Chuckle’s Laughter Factory have been performing of late, it is true to say that the entire year in Jersey is the silly season. Like a never-ending Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, it seems as if the States has stopped its clocks. No doubt there is many an issue when JEP readers check the date to make sure it is not April Fool’s Day.

Countries worldwide have comparable slow news periods. The French refer to the slow summer as la morte saison (the dead season), and in Germany it is known as Sommerloch (summer news hole). More curiously, the Dutch, Norwegians and Poles draw on an old English expression from the 17th century and call the silly season ‘cucumber time’.

This silly season, the national media continue to occupy themselves with Gordon Brown’s leadership problems and the ludicrously low rating that allows young children to see the latest Batman movie.

Jersey has the Battle of Flowers as a rich source of community interest, with colourful stories to fill pages and air-time and make us all feel good over the first half of August. Moreover, it is wonderful to see so many smiling faces beaming out from the pages of the JEP’s Battle coverage.

As the petals fade, so will those smiles as the ongoing controversies of GST, the global credit crunch and escalating fuel and energy costs resurface to compete for the headlines.

For the national newspapers, peak holiday periods mean reduced sales, so to maintain the figures, news desks seek out rib-tickling tales. A typical silly season story which grabbed the headlines last week featured a care home in Cornwall which brought titillating fun to mealtime by having a male staff member serve a 90-year-old lady – at her request – fish and chips while he wore nothing but a brief thong under a see-through pinnie.

Frivolity aside, there is the usual plethora of tales of woe, tragedy and disaster to wake us up to the obvious fact that the world does not end at Bouley Bay. This is a realisation Jersey has had rammed home with force this year as the national and international media have focused their attention on the child abuse inquiry surrounding Haut de la Garenne.

With time on their hands and stories to find, we can no doubt expect a Fleet Street hack or two to find any excuse for a nice little summer excursion to our shores to seek out salacious tales for the downmarket Sundays.
Unfortunately, there is a coterie of Island critics ever ready to indulge in hyperbole to give them the stories they want by painting a picture of an Island on a par with Ceausescu’s Romania, with free speech stifled by an oligarchy. Rule by the few? A political system in which power rests with a small, wealthy, militaristic, hereditary or spiritual élite? More like rule by far too many.

Once the floats have wended their way back to the parishes, we can expect aspiring politicians to turn their thoughts to nomination papers in readiness for the autumn elections. Like sitting Members, they will all be coming up with newsworthy schemes to make sure that everyone knows who they are and why they deserve our votes.

To herald these momentous ‘wonderful Wednesdays’, tens of thousands of pounds of our hard-earned cash are being spent on reminding us to vote – and in three languages at the last count. Would it not be cheaper to follow Australia’s example and make voting compulsory? It will be interesting to know, when the dust settles, just how much it panned out per vote.

As a person who has, since attaining the age of majority, exercised my franchise and never failed to vote, as well as campaigning for candidates and signing nomination papers, I am finding it nigh on impossible to summon up any enthusiasm. While I remain optimistic that a budding charismatic champion of the people is about to ride in from the sunset, the dominant cynic gene in me knows that come the new year, things will not have changed that much.

That depressing thought is being echoed not just in the streets and chemins, but also in the corridors of power.
Will those who bleat on about the unfairness of Jersey’s supposed oligarchy be putting their heads above the parapet come the elections to test public support for their claims?

A fine example of standing up for one’s convictions was shown last week in Beijing when four British protesters made a mockery of Chinese security by climbing a 120-foot lighting pole close to the Olympic stadium to unfurl a banner proclaiming ‘One World, One Dream, Free Tibet’. Their inspirational act was captured by the international press and was beamed around the world.

In normal circumstances they would have faced the full wrath of a régime that forbids freedom of speech, curbs the right to demonstrate peacefully, censors foreign news broadcasts and blocks internet access to its people.
Their extraordinary act had more meaning than George Bush’s criticism of China’s human rights record before he accepted the country’s Olympic hospitality – proving, yet again, that the actions of ordinary men can overshadow even the most media-savvy politicians, no matter how important they are.

As for those who say that there is no freedom of speech in Jersey, when was the last time anyone was locked up for years with no charge or trial, or their family persecuted, for exercising democratic rights in a peaceful manner?
In Soviet Russia there was a saying: ‘There is no truth in the news and no news in the truth.’

Let us enjoy the silly season while it lasts and be grateful that we have a free press to bring us stories as serious as the Russian invasion of Georgia and as trivial as a male nurse serving fish and chips in a thong.