Wednesday 1 August 2012

Reform Jersey - A Review

Well first things first, thank you very much to everyone that attended our meeting on Monday. We were really pleased with the turn out (around a hundred people) and everyone really seemed to respond to what we had to say. The Electoral Commission sent an officer there to take notes and relay what was said to the members.

Videos are posted below of the main speeches from the panel.

I ended the night by reminding everyone there that the whole purpose of Reform Jersey was to create pressure from the people to the politicians to make it politically impossible for our voices to be ignored. The purpose of a political process is to empower the people, and we shouldn't need the consent of anyone when it comes to that empowerment. So it is up to the people to make it clear what they expect of this Electoral Commission and not let them get away with giving us anything less than what we deserve.

One member of the public who asked a question said "how much of a say do we actually have?" to which I responded that we have as much of a say as we choose to. If we all forget about it, this will blow over and nothing will change. If we all write in to the commission, and demand those three democratic principles, we cannot be ignored.

So please, write to the Electoral Commission (at ec@gov.je) and demand from them an electoral system that is fair for the people of Jersey. Every politician must represent the same number of people, the system must be simple and every person must have the same number of votes. This is the only way to make Jerseys system truly democratic.

My understanding is that the commission intends to release a preliminary recommendation later in the year before going across the island to hear the views of the public and decide on amendments. So I suspect that our next major push will be around that time to engage the commission depending on their preliminary recommendations.

In the meantime we will work to encourage as many people as possible to write to the commission demanding those democratic principles. So please make sure you do write in. They'll accept any submission, whether it's pages and pages or just a few lines, so don't worry about how it's formatted. If you just want to write in and say "I agree with Reform Jersey's proposition" feel free! If you want to write something and contact us to have a read and offer our thoughts, we are happy to do so.

So please comrades, get active and get writing, it's up to you!


Cheers,
Sam




My speech -




Deputy Le Herissier's speech -




James Rondel's speech -




Daniel Wimberley's speech -




Some contributions from the audience -

Nick Le Cornu -



Deputy Tadier -

16 comments:

  1. Its a shame you did not have anybody of real power in the States speaking. You could of done with at least one Senator.

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    1. Well the whole point of Reform Jersey is that it is nothing to do with the States. Having a high ranking States Member would have been sort of hypocritical when the message we were trying to give off was that the people are the ones that matter, not the States.

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  2. Seems like a good start to have a hundred people at your first meeting is very good by Jersey standards well done and good Luck

    Michael Nicolle

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  3. I still think you are wasting your time. The Electoral Commission carries on it's work regardless.

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  4. Its nice to see even two young and talented future Jersey politicians.

    Hope you two make others at least aware.

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  5. Sam,

    In my humble opinion, the old senior public of Jersey are very set in their ways, and conservative to the extreme. It is the youth that pose the biggest problem for the hard core of self interested politicians who pretend to listen and go through the motions of consultation, but have no intention of changing their hidden agenda.

    Why Hi jack the commission in the first place if their intentions where honourable ?

    You are respected and in a terrific position to rally the ( able to vote ) youth who's islands future is being wasted by the businesses and self interested players sitting in todays States, look at the private quango Jersey Development Company as an example operating at arms length from elected politicians !

    The young with focus are afraid of nothing and have a future. The good seniors will offer support, but true democracy at this time in Jersey history is just a wish, your friends and their friends on mass can change that for the better.

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  6. Thanks for the supportive messages guys!

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  7. Moving aside, I do not think many people are interested in this at all when fishing for opinion and the numbers say it all. Ok for arguments sake say 100 turning up at this meeting and add it to the submissions online how many is that? Less than 400 people and say we have 40,000 registered voters thats what, 1% of potential voters taking the time?

    When talking about politics there are a lot of problems eating people in Jersey right now like unemployment, negative equity, inflation and future financial uncertainty so this subject seems to be way down the list of importance for most people so it seems strange that some States Members are giving it so much attention.

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    1. That is the same point that is made by many in the UK with regards to the whole House of Lords debate and I don't accept it at all. A government is perfectly capable of doing more than one thing at a time. Dealing with the democratic deficit doesn't detract at all from tackling the other problems of unemployment etc. The only people that seem to bring up that point are the people that have a problem with electoral reform in the first place.

      I put it to you that if there were a meeting tomorrow about unemployment it would struggle to get more than 100 people at it too. That's just Jersey for you.

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  8. Every employment fair to date has attracted over a 1,000 so thats just rubbish.

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    1. "Employment fair" not a public meeting organised by a bunch of nobodies...

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    2. You just said it.

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  9. You are in a position to succeed at least in the long term. We are all witnessing a sea change in political communication. This change via the internet is available to a wide audience, but it is the youth vote which is most influenced by the web, especially social media. The group which best captures that audience and takes advantage of that technology can be propelled beyond the old conservative influence of the Jersey Way. Some political campaigns where I live have been heavily influenced by bloggers, facebook, and even rock concerts, which tied the campaign to a broader group with shared interests. It can be made relevant and cool - socially expected to demand greater social justice in Jersey. You need music, facebook and multiple other interconnected media to influence those who have remained apathetic about the old feudalist's power grab. You absolutely can do it successfully. They really don't understand internet and youth social communication well enough to see what's coming their way. Good luck.

    Elle

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    1. I cannot agree with this statement and would say the Internet is not making any difference at all to politics as voter apathy has, and remains, to be on a downward spiral ever since the Internet was invented! In the last 2 elections predictions on blogs like Syvret's and even Planet Jersey were miles out, with many people put forward failing badly. You will also note that some States Members who run their own blogs have failed to get in and many young people who use Facebook never vote or are not even registered to vote. We hear this claim a lot yet if there was any truth in it then all States Members would be running blogs and voter interest would be on the up not on the down.:-(

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    2. It is too simplistic to think a particular blogger will win any specific election or accurately predict its outcome by just blogging about it. However, in many countries most or all major political candidates have online presence, and those who can afford it employ experts in social media to reach targeted audiences and special interest groups. I would not say you can simply blog to win in any country but rather if you fail to make use of the internet you may lose. If a candidate says unpopular things on the internet, or if unflattering things are said about the candidate and that goes viral, well, there can be a devastating impact.

      Jersey will eventually become more influenced by internet communications, in much the same way. What communication changes and impacts may seem slow to you are astonishingly rapid in historic terms. Elections aside, the factual information flow in Jersey has been controlled by the sate media, but no more. The power of the net is available to those who "capture that audience," and several bloggers in Jersey have managed to capture and inform a wide spectrum, with some large measure of us being international readers. The recent articles in the Guardian pointed out the power of some great Jersey bloggers. Those who care to be well informed can now, for the first time, read what the Jersey government does not want you to know.

      Sam Mezec can rightly claim to have begun to make a difference in a very short time period by instigating much needed conversations about politics in Jersey, and I would bet in his favor in the long term - when it comes to having an influence. This blog and Sam's meeting efforts are in their infancy, but can expect to see increased impact, which even conversations like this demonstrate. This medium can favor many who use it well, but the cultural impact is disproportionately seen with younger internet users, who are the biggest regular users of social media.

      What I have not seen anyone do yet, in Jersey, is tie music and social events to politics. Maybe I am missing something, but that has a huge effect where I live. Rock music is a staple draw for "Get-Out-The-Vote" efforts, and we are seeing frequent use of that already in the run up to fall elections, here. It most often is facilitated by facebook invites at the local level. The arts and music venues in particular, are generally more associated with progressive politics, and I have wondered why that does not seem to be the case in Jersey. I have worked for years on both the arts side and the political side, and it can be a most effective partnership.

      Elle

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    3. Great idea Elle. I'm in a rock band over here, so maybe next election I should organise a "Rock the vote" gig!

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