NOWHERE has the influence of the Business Party been more apparent than in the recent States decision not to approve Monday 10 May as a bank holiday.

I say this in the light of an informal conversation I had a few years ago with the retired head of a banking group.

The conversation turned to media relations, and in particular a call the banker had received from a JEP journalist some years previously. The journalist had asked the banker whether the Jersey branch would be open on Liberation Day (which at that time was considered a taboo).

The banker admitted to me during this informal conversation that he had blatantly lied and told the journalist that the doors would be closed on 9 May. In fact the offices had been open as usual and all staff had been required to report for work.
The banker in question is now a Very Important Person with a public role. The journalist he had spoken to, all those years before, was Yours Truly.

Those who argue that there is no need for an additional public holiday – in addition to the formal Liberation Day celebrations – say that most people just think of it as a day off, immaterial of what it stands for.

You could say that about any holiday – Christmas, for instance, or Easter, or Whitsun. Who but a handful of the devout regard these with the true religious respect that brought them into being in the first place?

Equally, who needs a two-minute silence every year? Two minutes’ silence is two minutes of non-billable working time. Surely no business can afford that.

I never lived through the Occupation, nor the Second World War. I was one of the lucky ones. And OK, these things are no longer with us. We can walk the beaches without fear. We can wander in and out of the concrete monoliths that scar the landscape, at will, without being shot at or sent away to camps. We have more than enough to eat. But does that mean that it’s fine to forget those who didn’t have these freedoms – as well as those who still don’t have them?

War is perpetual. As we speak, youngsters from the Island are fighting someone else’s war, ostensibly for ‘their country’. People are still living in fear, being denied freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom to cross borders, freedom to do or say anything that does not tally with the ruling regime. And it would take but a whiff of political madness to set a course for a Third World War.

Shame on those politicians who are not prepared to to bring to public consciousness, once again, the fragility of peace.

Raise your glasses – to higher prices
NOW let me get this right. The Liberation Group, who howled like mad at politicians for trying to put a higher duty on beer, are putting up the price of beers.
And if the Liberation Group are putting up the price of their beers, other brewery groups are bound to follow suit, as sure as beers are beers.

So instead of the States coffers getting blessed with extra impôt duty, the breweries are going to be pocketing the extra cash that we would have paid in any case if the States had agreed to raise the impôt duty.

The Island publicans say that they have to put the prices up because the breweries that make the well-known brews – Guinness, Grolsch and the like – have increased their recommended price. But is that ‘recommended price’ the UK recommended price? Or the wholesale recommended price? And what relevance does either have to the Jersey market, which is based on a different tax system?

In fairness, the Liberation Group say that their own home brew will not be going up in price. But if you don’t fancy a Mary Ann or a Middle Jersey – and are drinkers really asking for a pint of Middle Jersey? – then you’ll be paying several pence more. I call that nifty thinking.

Of course the politician that won the impôt war, Deputy Sean Power, is currently far, far away from here, having his three-week relaxation break.
But it’s OK for him – of course he will be drinking Middle Jersey, because the Liberation Group has named it after him.

Crime conference agendas
A NUMBER of online readers have chosen to comment about the recent international financial crime conference, which I believe was hosted – and possibly paid for – by the States.

The comments seem to fall into two camps. Those against are generally unhappy with the finance industry in general, and Jersey’s tax haven activities in particular. Those in favour are pleased that the States have chosen to play the global game of anti-money laundering and are being seen to do the right thing.

There’s been a good deal of focus on the keynote speaker, UK MP Stephen Timms, who also happens to be Numero Uno in the UK’s treasury department. Indeed, it is Mr Timms who holds the key to the whole of the UK’s tax strategy, including the Finance Bill which is updated every April, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs – which chases tax evaders (including offshore) – and also European and international tax issues.

These various matters are weighty ones indeed for Jersey’s finance industry. Currently there are several rather large threats lurking in the wings that could take away a number of business advantages. One of these is the proposed EU directive on alternative fund management, which could leave non-EU jurisdictions completely outside the system when it comes to funds business – the very thing that Jersey’s financial whizzes have been working to increase.

Another, of course, is the ongoing EU Code of Conduct on business taxation – which has already left a gaping hole in the finances of all three Crown dependencies by forcing them into a position where they have had to adopt zero corporate tax. Then there are proposals to change the EU savings tax directive, whereby all kinds of structures – even trusts – may be forced to report any personal gains to the relevant tax authorities.

So in fact it was a very good move indeed to invite Mr Timms to speak at a gathering in Jersey with the objective of finding better ways of recovering the assets of financial crime.

In reality, each will have had their own objective. No doubt Mr Timms will have been wanting to get the message across that trying to do the UK tax authorities out of money they believe they are owed will not be tolerated.

And no doubt our Chief Minister, Senator Terry Le Sueur, will have been equally keen to make sure that Mr Timms saw the best of what Jersey offers in terms of transparency, honesty and integrity. Because he knows full well that should Mr Timms so desire, he could make life very difficult indeed.