TO paraphrase Julius Olsen’s opening sentence in his recent letter to this newspaper, it is extremely difficult to understand his objections to what he describes as a ‘prescription for disaster’ – a new supermarket or, to be more precise perhaps, a supermarket not owned and run by the two firms already here.

In support of his assertion that such a move would be totally unnecessary, Mr Olsen says: ‘We have a wealth of supermarkets, shops and farm shops spread over our small Island that serve us very well. To attempt to have another superstore is
unthinkable, it will have short-term benefit and terrible consequences.’

He goes on in much the same vein, claiming that local shops would close or much reduce their outlets, it would ruin growers, create considerable unemployment and that outfits like Tesco would pay no tax.

Turning to his last point first, will Tesco’s be exempt from GST and will their staff not pay Jersey income tax? I’m only a simple country boy who still does sums on the back of a fag packet, albeit with the assistance of an electronic abacus, but somehow I doubt that young Philip Ozouf, who now presides over the biscuit tin under the bed at the States Treasury, would let them get away with that.

I just wonder if Mr Olsen realises just what the ordinary bloke on the bus to Leoville – or Jardin d’Olivet come to that – thinks about the possibility of Asda or Tesco opening up in competition to the ‘wealth of supermarkets’ we supposedly have.

I reckon Mr Bloke, and particularly his version of Herself, would rub his hands with glee at the prospect. The local shops Mr Olsen refers to are few and far between if you discount the ones run by the same firm and in reality we have only two
supermarket businesses, the Co-op and what used to be Le Riches but that’s changed its ownership and/or name so frequently that I’ve lost track.

If Mr Olsen is in any doubt about how very many local people feel about the prices they pay here for basic commodities then perhaps he should take a trip down to the Elizabeth Harbour and look at the Jersey-registered vehicles coming off the St Malo car ferry. He’s bound to recognise someone he knows and if he asks he’ll
probably find out they’ve done one heck of a lot of shopping across the water.

I know of just one instance where twice a year a couple of young women with families take what’s called a people carrier across to St Malo. They remove the back seats before they go and not only do they come back laden with the basic foodstuffs and commodities to which I referred earlier, but they’ve also bought clothes and footwear for their families as well as Christmas and birthday presents. Just looking at the
figures suggests that they’ve not only saved enough for a nice day out with lunch in St Malo but there’s a considerable amount more in the kitty.

As to the argument about where to site a new enterprise, I agree that the middle of town is certainly not the place but I would suggest that there is enough relatively unproductive land about which is next to an already built-up area to house what after all is nothing more than a big shed – probably not that much bigger than some of the aircraft hanger lookalikes already in existence. No one seems to complain about those, do they.

Mr Olsen suggests that common sense must prevail. I reckon most of the working
population would hope that common sense does indeed prevail and that lot in the Big House don’t kick this idea into touch, as they’ve done so often in the past when they’ve thought that someone might actually make a bob or two out of one of their decisions. We’ve missed too many of those boats, thank you very much, but if I don’t stop there I’ll start banging on about Fort Regent, the great white elephant on the hill that has tried to be all things to all men and has finished up being about as useful to most of the population as a chocolate fireguard.

One of the most thoughtful letters I’ve read recently – apart from Sir Dick from The Docks’ rant about firemen, that is – was from Pierre Theron who asked why that lot in the Big House seem to be so hard on cyclists. His points about healthy lifestyles, helping rid the roads of congestion and pollution and the like were very well made and I don’t quarrel with any of them.

However, and it’s a big however, the judgment of our elected representatives might well be clouded – mine certainly would be – by the dangerous menaces who make up what I’d argue to be a sizeable minority of cyclists. I shall relate just two of many instances to make my point.

Herself and I were returning from visiting friends out in the sticks just past the lovely Leoville in St Ouen and were driving through the 20 miles an hour zone at St Peter. Despite the fact that there were pedestrians taking advantage of slow moving traffic to cross the road a small posse of these lycra-clad lunatics overtook two or three cars which were being driven within the speed limit.

The second was when I crossed the road outside what used to be the Fifty Shilling
Tailors – later John Collier – and how I wasn’t knocked over by one such menace coming from New Cut into New Street I’ll never know.

The slipstream damn near ruined my new haircut. Does that answer your question, Mr Theron?

And finally … well, they’ve finally taken over the asylum. Another seven figure amount being shelled out just to make sure people do their jobs. This time it’s doctors, who by my reckoning run lawyers and vets a mighty close race in the money stakes.