Masters of Disguise.

Let’s have a quick look at the States Employment Board and how they‘ve been duped.

If our powers that be, and their very friendly media, are to be believed then the States Employment Board are responsible for employing, or appointing, some expert masters of disguise who are actually really bad people that are trying to make or government look bad, you don’t believe me?………. Well read on!

First of all they are/were ultimately responsible for the employment of Simon Bellwood. A highly competent and able social worker with fine credentials and pedigree in Social Services and in particular Child Protection………………..or was he?

Mr. Bellwood was employed by our States to work up at Greenfields, formerly Le Chennes, children’s secure unit up at Five Oaks. Despite his, up until then, very successful career in this field and indisputable qualifications he is/was infact a complete madman and trickster, part of a very large organization attempting to make our government look bad.

He had managed to dupe, one would imagine, a wealth of people employed by the SEB into believing he wanted what was best for our most vulnerable children in the States “care” system. But it didn’t take long before his alter-ego raised it’s ugly head! He started making claims like the regime(s) up at Greenfield were actually abusive towards the children they are supposed to be caring for! Can you believe that? One minute he is a competent, well respected childcare professional with a CV to prove it, the next thing you know he’s making wild and crazy accusations that effectively our government are abusing children! One can only assume he was a master of disguise who’s real intentions were to make our government look bad, and rightly so he was got rid of, and thank god there’s not too many of him around!

Not to be out-done this seasoned delusional Jekyll & Hyde character took his absurd accusations to an even more delusional and deceptive character than himself! Yes I know you can’t believe it but wait ‘til you hear this!

He took these claims to a man called Stuart Syvret who was the Minister for Health and Social Services who turned out to be a real master of deception. Stuart Syvret had successfully duped no less than 15,000 people to believe he was going to serve their best interests by representing them as a States member, so in comparison Simon Bellwood was a mere amateur of deception, no matter how many people he had deceived it was nowhere in the region of 15,000. On top of this he managed to get our States Assembly to elect him as Health Minister.

So Senator Syvret’s alter-ego subsequently raised its ugly head and he started making equally absurd allegations but being the true pro that he is, Senator Syvret went a couple of steps further! Not only did he agree with Mr. Bellwood, he started saying that Civil Servants should be held to account! Well what to do? Get rid of him and thank god there’s not too many of him around!

But there was!

The seasoned master of deception that the (now ex) Health Minister is, he managed to dupe a group of people called The Howard League for Penal Reform into believing that what he and Mr. Bellwood were saying just might actually be true, that our government have been engaging in illegal and abusive treatment of the children in their care.

And would you believe it? The Howard League for Penal reform were also masters of deception and disguise! They too just wanted to make our government look bad and they were even more seasoned at trickery than the master himself because they had managed to dupe THE WHOLE WORLD into believing they were some kind of authority on how’s best to care for children!

They came up with a report that in all intense and purposes agreed with all that Simon Bellwood and Senator Syvret said and it really didn’t make our government look very good! Our government, and it’s media, couldn’t have the good people of Jersey being duped by such a gang of professional tricksters and downright unbelievable stories of illegal and abusive regimes, Civil Servants being held to account and all that!

No that just wouldn’t do.

The good public of Jersey needed to be told something much more believable than that and as luck would have it they had just the two men and the media to do it.

You see while all these shenanigans were going on with Syvret, Bellwood and the Howard League for penal Reform there were two other masters of deception and disguise that were trying to make our government look bad and had managed to convince the government that they were good honest cops!! But they weren’t!! I know I can’t believe it myself!

These two slippery individuals went by the name of Chief Police Officer Graham Power and Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper. Now these two characters really had honed their skills in the art of deception! They had spent most of their adult lives fighting crime locking up Child Abusers, Gangsters, murderers and such ilk and even duped the bloody Queen into decorating them! The Queen for god’s sake!! these guys really are the con artists of the century. They had a long and distinguished career in several Police forces and locked up many a bad guy at considerable threat to themselves and their families all so they could come over to Jersey to make our government look bad.

Deputy Chief Officer Harper started saying things along the lines of children were horribly sexually, physically and emotionally abused and possibly by people who were employed by our government, which again would mean that Civil Servants might be held to account and our government would look bad.
Luckily Deputy Chief Officer Harper was retiring so at least he will be out of the way. But what about Chief Officer Power? Well since the government knew he was part of the “make Jersey look bad gang” along with Bellwood, Syvret and the Howard League for Penal Reform, they just had to play him at his own game.

They would pretend they are doing everything by the book, suspend him, and get their top Civil Servant to destroy his notes of the suspension hearing, you see sometimes you have to set a thief to catch a thief, play them at their own game. That’s a sign of a good government, one that can play these slippery tricksters at their own game and able to think outside the box.

So for the believable story the public needed to hear and the men to tell it. They were Mick Gradwell and David Warcup and their story had to be believed because it is a story that just couldn’t be made up.

During his investigations Deputy Chief Officer Harper and the police forensic and archaeological team he had managed to dupe discovered, at a Jersey Children’s home, some 65 teeth with a number of them still having root attached suggesting they did not come out of the child’s mouth before death. They also discovered what was identified as a piece of child’s skull. The alleged child’s skull, it has been reported, went on to change size, shape, wait and texture and then mysteriously disappeared!

So with the Howard League for Penal Reform and their ghastly report, Syvret, Bellwood, Harper and Power all conspiring to make our government look bad. Mick Gradwell and David Warcup, with the help of the ever so friendly media held a press conference to coincide with the releasing of the HLFPR’s ghastly report and told the public something much more believable than any of the tricksters could dream up.

That is the children’s teeth that still had root attached and that could not have come out before death were in fact teeth that were left out for the tooth fairy! The alleged piece of child’s skull that allegedly changed weight, size and texture before just vanishing was a piece of coconut!

So let this be a warning to any future slippery shysters that want to come over here and start talking about child abuse, cover up or any such like to try and make our government look bad. Just remember any evidence, documentation or commendations from the Queen you might have, you’re not going to fool the good people of Jersey.

Our government will know just what you are up to and so will their media!

Human Rights Group AGM

The first Annual General Meeting of the Jersey Human Rights Group will be held on Monday 23rd November at 5.30. The meeting will take place in the States Members Lunch Room, States Building. You should arrange to be in the Royal Square before 5.30pm outside the Members' entrance in order to be let in to the building by Deputy Bob Hill.

Do Jersey children have rights?

Apologies for the past ill-treatment of thousands of British children are being uttered in Australia and Prime Minister Brown is working up towards it. But who will apologise for the treatment that British children receive today and who gives a damn about children in Jersey?

We should not “kid” ourselves that Deputy Judy Martin’s well meaning but inadequate reforms will do anything very useful. The Health Department’s funding sounds ok but it is just a cosmetic sticking plaster remedy for the immense and far reaching problems that face children in Jersey.

It is time to get realistic.

November 20th is UN International Children’s Day and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has been around for 20 years. Yet the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) has prepared a damning report which shows how children’s rights in the UK continue to be abused on a systematic basis. Children under detention are especially vulnerable and English child protection services “are not fit for purpose.”

The problem lies not with the UN Convention but with the entrenched failures of governments and the public to embrace change.
Jersey still refuses to ratify CRC and very few people have even bothered to read it.

The Childrens Rights Alliance is fighting in England for the full implementation of CRC there – but NOBODY is doing so in Jersey. There is certainly no alliance of like minded people promoting children’s rights in Jersey although there has been no shortage of reports published in the past few years – usually by outside organisations.

As is usual in this island, where prima donnas outnumber the chorus, working together for a common cause seems to be reserved only to the pursuit of profit. The pursuit of protection for children is very low on the agenda.

Those people who have experienced child abuse in Jersey, either at first or second hand seem to find organised and effective lobbying especially difficult. Understandably, there is a great deal of personal anger but it does not translate easily into coordinated campaigning - and professional bodies and so called elected representatives are noticeable, for the most part by their absence. When did Jersey ever have a campaigning GP? Do Jersey doctors and other health or education professionals NEVER make a policy statement on anything of public interest?

How is it possible that the thousands of professionally qualified people supposedly engaged in children’s welfare, education, justice, punishment, health, housing and recreation have so little to offer by way of public comment? Don’t they have children of their own?

The Swine Flu jabs currently being offered demonstrate just how the “official” line is seldom if ever challenged by other “professionals”. How shall the general public in Jersey ever become better informed if professional silence is maintained on so many matters?

In most communities it is the professionals who lead the public debate. In Jersey, like so many others, the professional are restrained from speaking out or even giving advice to lobbyists and our 250 Jersey qualified lawyers are hardly human rights pioneers. When did the Society of Jersey Lawyers last call for ratification of CRC?

So don’t be fooled into believing that any current official Jersey initiative will address the many problems for children. Without active and coordinated lobbying every abuse that you can imagine will be inflicted in the future just as it has in the past.

The starting point for Jersey’s reality check is ratification of CRC. That won’t solve any problems on its own but without it - the rest is a more or less total waste of money, effort and time.

Submitted by Thomas Wellard.

Jersey Stitch - Up, Cover - Up and Denial continued…..

Deputy Bob Hill says “it’s a Stitch up” and here Constable of St Helier Simon Crowcroft says it’s a cover up (in so many words) - but what really is “it”?
Why has Graham Power the Chief Officer of the States of Jersey Police been under suspension for 12 months?

These 2 “people’s representatives” cannot be dismissed as renegade States Members or trouble makers, they are both long serving and responsible public servants and both have policing pedigrees too. So just what is really going on? Why on earth would anybody want to rubbish the career of such a respected and senior Police Officer as Graham Power? What is the hidden agenda and when oh when will the Jersey tax paying public ever know the truth?

There are many such questions that need to be answered and if and when any complaints against Chief Officer Graham Power are proved to be unfounded, who shall then carry the can for this expensive fiasco?

White Poppies for peace in Jersey.

Remembrance on the 11th of November is dominated by the Red Poppy theme and sales display boxes seem to be on every shop, pub and garage counter besides street sellers trays.

This year Team Voice has distributed a few white Poppies for peace as part of the long established Peace Pledge Union (PPU) campaign.

We have been pleased how many people have said that they have been trying to obtain a White Poppy for years in Jersey and we hope that the white alternative might become a regular feature here every November.

We are pleased too that some States Members accepted White Poppies to wear - often alongside their existing red British Legion flowers and badges.

Submitted by Thomas Wellard.

The White Alternative.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

The Voice previously posted a blog on the Complaints Board Hearing of (illegally?) suspended Police Chief Mr. Graham Power HERE. We posted that the argument(s) made by the Chief Minister’s Office for withholding “information” sought by Mr. Power was “dive behind the couch cringe worthy.”

Today, after a media embargo, the findings of the Complaints Board have been put into the public domain and if anybody doubted the absurdity of the Chief Minister’s Department’s argument then you must read the Complaints Board’s findings in full. And then bear in mind in an answer to a question from Deputy Bob Hill in the States when the Chief Minister stated that he “wasn’t embarrassed” about his legal rep attempting to defend the indefensible at the hearing.

The Complaints Board have found in favour of Mr. Power and it is impossible to see how they couldn’t have.

Mr. Graham Power had been trying to obtain some “information” from the Chief Minister’s Office for NINE MONTHS! And during these NINE MONTHS he has been fobbed of with all sorts of excuses as to why he shouldn’t have it, including the argument that the “information” he requires isn’t “information”!

One must be aware Mr. Graham Power is a very experienced and highly regarded Police Officer and he is well used to appearing before Tribunals and preparing legal arguments. His performance at the hearing was impressive but try to imagine how difficult it would be for the average member of the public to present a case in similar circumstances but without legal knowledge or representation.

Even as the laws now stand Graham Power’s access to this information should have been a mere formality and all the time and resources devoted to this Complaints Board hearing was so wasteful and unnecessary.

How much better things could be if we had a proper Freedom of Information law in Jersey which would require our government to disclose such materials and would give teeth to the Data Protection Officer who would be empowered to call for the release of information if asked by a member of the public.

This is a small, but very significant battle won by Mr. Power and is testament to his determination to uncover the truth. Joe public would not have stood a chance in getting this far.

This, in the opinion of The Voice, is another nail in the coffin of Senator Terry Le Sueur as Chief Minister and must reinforce the “very strong” rumours for his January exit.

To view the Complaints Board Hearing decision in full you will have to go the;
statesassembly.gov.je site click reports (near the top of the page) and then click R115/2009.

Below are copies of Press Releases of Mr. Graham Power and the current Chief Minister.

MEDIA RELEASE BY THE CHIEF OFFICER OF THE STATES OF JERSEY POLICE FOLLOWING THE PUBLICATION OF THE RESULT OF HIS APPEAL TO THE STATES OF JERSEY COMPLAINTS BOARD IN RESPECT OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION.

THE CHIEF OFFICER OF THE STATES OF JERSEY POLICE, MR GRAHAM POWER Q.P.M. HAS RELEASED THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT FOLLOWING THE PUBLICATION OF THE DECISION RELATING TO HIS APPEAL IN RESPECT OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION REGARDING THE TIMES AND DATES ON WHICH DOCUMENTS PROVIDED DURING HIS SUSPENSION WERE ACTUALLY CREATED. IT IS UNDERSTOOD THAT THE GREFFIER TO THE STATES HAS ALREADY PROVIDED THE MEDIA WITH COPIES OF THE DECISION UNDER EMBARGO. THIS RELEASE IS SUBJECT TO THE SAME EMBARGO.

Full details of the background of the case and the arguments submitted by both sides are to be found in the findings of the Board, which have been provided to the media separately. They have not therefore been repeated in this release.

The Chief Officer has said:

“I am obviously pleased that the Complaints Board has decided in my favour. I hope that the Chief Minister will now make use of the opportunity given by the Board to reconsider his decision and provide the information requested. The provision of the details of the times and dates on which the suspension documents were created will be an important step towards discovering the truth behind the reasons for the suspension, and whether the public, the States and the media, have in any way been misled by any of the statements made to date by Ministers or by others acting on their behalf.”

Note to Editors.
Editors may consider that the findings of the Complaints Board set a precedent which has important implications for future Freedom of Information applications in the island. It is recommended that they be studied in full. In particular the ruling of the Board on the Presumption of Openness, required by the Code, and its consequential impact on the burden of proof, may be particularly significant in respect of future media and public requests for information made to government bodies. This is referred to in various parts of the document and in particular paragraph 6.1 which states “it is clearly incumbent on the Chief Minister to justify why he is refusing to disclose the information that Mr Power is seeking and it is not for Mr Power to justify why he has requested it.”

From the current Chief Minister
The Chief Minister, Senator Terry Le Sueur, has responded to the findings of the States of Jersey Complaints Board set up to consider a complaint by the suspended Chief of Police, Mr Graham Power.

"I fully accept the findings of the board and will ensure that the information requested by Mr Power is provided as soon as possible," Senator Le Sueur said. "The findings of the board have clarified our understanding of the Public Access to Information Code of Practice and our policy will be revised in the light of this."




Submitted by Team Voice.