THERE was a time, in those halcyon days which followed this small rock breaking free of the General Post Office in October 1969, when almost literally the business of printing stamps was akin to printing money.

It was, as a television spiv might well have said, a nice little earner – and that is quite apart from the nice little earner some free sets for politicians and executives proved to be, before the great stamp scandal of the mid-1970s was exposed by this newspaper.

While there are those who would argue that the philatelic golden goose was killed off by too many obscure issues of stamps being produced, many of which had precious little to do with the Island – and others would argue with equal conviction that the downturn in popularity was not confined to Jersey, but affected everywhere – the fact that the independent Jersey Post Office was indeed a nice little earner, and has been for some time, is probably beyond dispute.

Now, we are told, the millions in profit this publicly owned outfit is currently making could very well turn into a loss next year because of the decision to open up an obviously lucrative part of its business to competition.

My interpretation of that – the ‘may well turn into a loss’ bit, that is – is that the burden of bearing that loss will fall on two groups of people because that lot in the Big House, who have political and, almost by definition, financial responsibility for the Jersey Post Office, will have one of two choices.

They can either tell the business to jack up its prices to cover the loss, in which case it’s the consumers who’ll have to shell out, or they can tell the taxpayers that they have to shell out to bail the company out.

Boiled down to basics, for the long-suffering Jersey public it’s very much a case of ‘any which way, you lose’.

What an utter mess. And all, it seems to this simple country boy, because someone has convinced a majority of our elected representatives that somehow competition in every conceivable area of commerce you can think of is the panacea, the answer to everything.

Of course, it is very difficult to argue with the contention that in many respects the Postal people have brought this upon themselves by poking their money-hungry noses in someone else’s business – notably by starting up in the telecoms mini-industry. This bolshie little crapaud takes the view that all this has done has been to give licence to those who wish to blight the countryside – not to mention the town – with masts for mobile phones.

Perhaps the growth industry that is the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority can come up with a lucid explanation (one that doesn’t simply presuppose that all competition is good) as to how the Jersey taxpayer will benefit from giving lucrative business from a publicly owned enterprise to a couple of outfits called Citipost DSA and Hub Europe, the local connections of which have so far not been made entirely clear to me.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the general perception of the JCRA’s intervention in the telecoms market that it led to local people losing jobs? The likelihood is that this JCRA ruling will probably do the same.

Still, the authority will no doubt draw comfort from the fact that its pygmy grandeur posturing elicited a financial penalty from a European national airline which made the grave error of not realising that this small and, to most outsiders, somewhat irrelevant dot on the world map is full of its own importance.

Am I the only person who finds that having a government body with the power to hand over the profits of another government body to a couple of companies – the principals of which are unlikely to live in either St Mary or Grouville – more than a little perverse? And is there anyone in the Big House with enough bottle to stop getting bogged down in trivia such as who gets elected when and start asking questions about this sort of profligate nonsense?

TALKING about profligacy, I see that the Economic Development department has shelled out yet another few grand – it certainly won’t be less than a five-figure amount, but we will never be told – to tell the Island and its tourism industry what most people involved knew already – there are too many attractions in Jersey and not enough people coming here to visit them.

Many of the Island’s secondary school pupils have been on the Trident work experience scheme in recent weeks – an excellent idea and one which, over many years ,has benefited both prospective employers and students – and it wouldn’t have needed more than a couple of handfuls of them, armed with lists of pertinent questions, to establish for little more than a bit of pocket money and being taken out to dinner at the end of it what some no doubt expensive consultants (imported, of course) have told the department.

The exercise examined the Jersey Heritage Trust’s activities and attractions – and before the snipers get the ammunition ready, Herself and I are fairly regular visitors to all of them – and said that drastic action was needed to return the trust to a proper financial footing.

What I would like to know is a bit more about the sort of jobs and salaries that are involved, given that almost every time the trust’s properties are referred to, there seems to have been yet another job title created.

A bit like education I suppose. There used to be English, history, maths and geography teachers who got on with the job of teaching. Now, each subject has a department with a head (and probably deputy also) with salaries to match.

AND finally … the statement by Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand that he intends to make the vote on a new police chief one of confidence is neither bullying nor intimidation. It is perfectly proper parliamentary procedure.