THESE days it’s never easy to introduce a bit of levity into this column, and given the tragic events of eight days ago, in common with the huge majority of this shell-shocked community, I’m really in no mood to try.

They say that hindsight is the only exact science known to man, and reading and listening to some of the printed, broadcast and online comments in all sections of the media, we seem to have had a bit of that, thankfully only from a small minority.

I don’t know about anyone else, but at times of great tragedy – and there can be few greater in relative terms than that Jersey is currently experiencing – my appetite for news is close to insatiable, at least in the immediate aftermath, and the relatively recent (for simple country boys like me) advent of the internet and online publications has in the past week served only to feed that appetite.

One moves from the television, with its multitude of domestic and international news channels (many of which referred to events in Jersey), to the computer with its variations on the newspaper theme, and then to the public having its say in the online comment sections.

I have never been tempted to indulge in online comment, perhaps because I am in the extremely privileged position of having an advantage over other readers in that I have this vehicle by which to express my views, but I can well understand those who do.

I have to say that with only a small handful of exceptions, the comments I read were dignified, appropriate, gentle and kind. What filled me with pride was that those from overseas – by definition anywhere but here – and particularly so from people who had worked or simply visited here, spoke of Jersey’s safety, its beauty and its community spirit.

From closer to home, there were comforting messages assuring a Polish community, which may have thought that this tragedy would bring with it divisions and perhaps alienation, that those who choose to make the commitment to make their homes here are and remain part of the wider Jersey family.

Of course there were other comments. One I read in The Times, which ought to know better but doesn’t, quoted a former Jersey politician playing yet another slight variation to a now familiar but absurd record. It would be interesting – but only very mildly so – to know who contacted whom, the former politician or the newspaper.

To people like that, and the minority of those online who claim that these events might have been avoided had certain courses of action been taken (20-20 hindsight yet again, I’m afraid), can I add my small voice to those who say that the time for comment and speculation about what lies at the root of this tragedy is after all the due legal processes have been completed, and not before.

By that time, as many of the facts as it is possible to know will be in the public domain, and I am confident that if there are lessons to be learned (and I stress the word ‘if’), then that will be the time.

In the meantime, let us allow those who grieve to grieve, and let us learn lessons from those who have spoken of Jersey’s safety, its beauty and its community spirit.

WHILE flipping over from channel to channel on television, I turned to the text service for BBC’s 24-hour news channel and looked up the south-west region, which for some obscure reason is home to news from Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Obviously, it’s also home to news from the south-west of England, and one of the things which caught my eye was an item on something known as the British Fireworks Championship.

The championship, now in its 15th year, was being held in Plymouth – on Plymouth Hoe, actually – for two days last week and the six companies in the final each had the opportunity to put on a ten-minute display to convince the judges that they were top dog – or indeed, top Roman Candle.

Plymouth City Council describe the championship as ‘the most anticipated event in the city’s annual events calendar’ and add that thousands of spectators would head to the Hoe for two evenings of entertainments culminating in the firework displays.

After the event, it was reported that the championship was worth £4 million to the city’s economy and an estimated 200,000 people actually went to see the firework displays.

As Arthur Daley might have said, it sounds to me like a nice little earner and not one to be turned down.

That, of course, is precisely what a crowd of tree-hugging jobsworths succeeded in doing here a few years ago when Terry McDonald announced that he was going to try to break a world record with his fireworks. Straight on the blower to their pet environmentalists among the hired help they were, and before anyone could light the blue touch paper and withdraw to a safe distance, the Boy McDonald was forced to abandon the venture, at considerable personal financial loss.

Polluting the atmosphere and in particular the sea were the official excuses – sorry, reasons – given. It really begs the question as to whether the sea at Plymouth Hoe is any different from the sea at West Park.

Well, it must be, because otherwise surely the championship there would have been called off also.

Or perhaps the Plymouth politicians and their hired help actually have minds of their own and are not like this lot over here who, when tree-huggers say jump, meekly ask: ‘How high?’.

Little wonder Plymouth City Council were last year named Best Achieving Council while the numpties we’ve got here are objects of ridicule.

AND finally …. Please tell me what will happen if the competition police say ‘no’ to the Liberation Group’s takeover of JJ Le Sueur.