WHAT extraordinary times we live in. Last week we had Meltdown Monday, Tottering Tuesday, Black Wednesday, Wobbly Thursday and Frantic Friday — and there’s more to come, according to those in the know.

During the course of last week staff at two firms in Jersey — Merrill Lynch and HBOS — found that they had new bosses overnight.

Market turbulence is certainly nothing new, and the mantra so far from senior practitioners in the Island has been ‘We’ve seen it all before’.

But what has not happened before — at least in relatively recent experience — is the overnight takeover of financial institutions by rival firms or, in some cases, governments. Deals that in ordinary times would have taken months and hundreds of lawyers to iron out are now being transacted in less time than it takes to boil an egg.

The reason for the speed of such takeovers is likely to be that the firm being acquired is in no position to argue.
These are, in effect, bale-outs of companies that have come a cropper, most likely as a knock-on effect of exposure to the United States sub-prime mortgage debacle.

The buyers won’t have to drive too hard a bargain to get the price they are looking for and in the long term will have got themselves a brand new source of revenue that would otherwise have taken years to build up.

It is undoubtedly true, as many have told me in the past couple of months, that there are opportunities to be had for those with cash in pocket and a good eye. However, the after-effects of such deals will inevitably take time to filter through.

The acquirers won’t be able to get to grips with a totally alien culture quite so quickly. The further away the deal is from the Channel Islands, the less likely it is that an office in Old Jersey will feature on their radar until much further down the line.

At the moment there has been no talk of job losses on this side of the Channel, unlike the UK, where tens of thousands are predicted to lose their employment at some point in the not too distant future.

But inevitably takeovers look to rationalisation as a means of claiming back some of the purchase price.
The new owners won’t take long to look for ways of capitalising on their new assets. Whether they consider it prudent to lose the offshore advantage of having an outpost in Jersey remains to be seen.

But by the end of the last recession, in 2003, there was a bit of a queue down at the Jersey Advisory and Conciliation Service. People who had recently been made redundant were wondering where they stood in relation to employment rights.

Since then, of course, the Jersey Employment Law has come into force. But legislation on redundancy is still waiting in the wings. The JACS website does make this clear: ‘In Jersey there is, as yet, no legislation that provides for statutory redundancy payments or defines what should happen if an employer decides to lay off employees.’

.SO yet again our po-liticians have been sleeping on the job. And, this being election time, they not only expect us to vote them in again, but are making enormous efforts to convince us why we should.

A prime example of what could arguably be called ‘abuse of privilege’ was witnessed at last week’s meeting of the 7.45 business breakfast clubs on the morning after the first hustings meeting. Invited speaker Economic Development Min-ister Philip Ozouf used the occasion to outline his manifesto to a captive audience.

ONE thing I hadn’t realised before is that there is only one woman among the 21 candidates standing for Senator. Why is this? Are women not interested in politics? Are they simply too busy coping with the demands of a work/life imbalance?

Perhaps they see the States Assembly as an uncomfortable place for a woman to be. Or maybe the time-wasting aspects of political life are just too unbearable to think about. Whatever the reason, it is a brave woman indeed who dares to step into the den of beasts that the States Assembly has become.

Judging from the performance of the past three years, politicians are just as likely to get into a punch-up in the States Chamber as they are on a night out on the town.

Add to this the serial bullying that is a given in politics, the strain on a family — really, who would want their nearest and dearest put through the States mangle? — and the inevitable sexism that permeates every aspect of society, and the conclusion to which most women probably come is that even if they have the political acumen, better ideas than most and the strength to withstand the posturing of more ambitious fellows, it isn’t worth it. Life’s too short.

The sad but inevitable consequence is that ‘softer’ issues — like employment rights, or nursery places, or the price of groceries — will be put to the back of the queue. Then in 2011 we might see these things wheeled out for another airing, just in time to catch the 50% of the population who have just as much right to vote as the other (but more vociferous) half.