Dear Government, what happens if Jersey moves?

Dear Government, what happens if Jersey moves?

It’s amazing what concerns the Jersey public to such as extent that they need to approach the SOJ for a FOI. That’s States of Jersey for a Freedom of Information request. It’s all acronyms these days.

Well, flicking through them this evening (as you do) we found quite a few that you’d expect – the cost of sale of public buildings, the cost of provision of government services and so on, then we came to this one. It seems that someone felt it important to ask the States whether or not they had a contingency in place if, at some point, the island were to move.

It seems that in August this year, someone was concerned that Jersey could drift to the Indian Ocean. Rather odd. They wanted to know if the government had a plan in place if the island were ‘suddenly to relocate’. It seems this person has a profound misapprehension about the geography of an island. It is pretty cool to think that Jersey is floating off the coast of France and that we could go somewhere warmer in the winter, en masse. Unfortunately such a thing is unlikely to occur and thus negatively affect fisherman, the point over which this FOI request seems to be concerned.

Unsurprisingly, the SOJ aren’t obliged to answer such a request if it’s seen to be vexatious. What a great word huh?! It means causing or tending to cause annoyance, frustration, or worry. As they’re so often on the receiving end of such descriptions I guess it’s good that they get to thrash that one out occasionally.

It’s good to know they answer serious requests though. If there’s something you’d like to know from your government or would like to see what others want to know, check out here >

www.gov.je/Government/FreedomOfInformation

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