Further concerns raised over new maritime legislation in Jersey
'Lack of clarity'
The panel said it would like to see a copy of the agreement so it can "better understand the impact on the resources available".It has also requested details on the current legislation around careless or dangerous operation of a commercial vessel while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.Chair of the panel, Deputy Montfort Tadier, said the proposed legislation put forward by the Minister for Sustainable Economic Development has a "lack of clarity".He said there were questions over how it would be policed and where the different responsibilities will fall.
Mr Tadier said: "The panel is aware that budget constraints mean the States of Jersey are having to carefully consider how their resources are used."The panel has already made it clear that we are concerned that a specific offence relating to the operation of a vessel while intoxicated has not been included in the draft regulations." He added: "Before we make any further recommendations or amendments to the proposition, we need to better understand how the current proposals would impact existing resources and what any further changes could mean for the police or Harbour Master."The panel will present its findings and recommendations to the States Assembly ahead of further debate on the draft regulations, which is due to take place in October.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
I wallowed in booze for four decades. Here's what five sober years have taught me
Everyone needs a hobby, and for 40 years mine was booze. I was 17 when I drank enough to throw up for the first time, and 57 when I stopped. In between I spent most nights, and thousands of lunchtimes and afternoons, with at least a gentle buzz on. One cheeky pint would turn into three, four, a binge. I blacked out. I had fumbling, regrettable sex. I vomited out of cars and on to lawns. I drank wine at 50p a bottle and £15 a glass – and a sea of lager, lager, lager. There was vodka flavoured with everything, from raspberries to rhubarb and bacon, plus gin and armagnac and amaretto and tequila and eggnog and crème de menthe and Baileys and sherry and blue curaçao and bourbon and cider and Kahlúa. Some evenings I would laugh and laugh and laugh; other times drinking felt more like a grim duty. I talked bollocks, I slurred my words, I lost the ability to speak, I had drunken arguments. I stole a huge block of cheese, a library book, a punt, a traffic cone. (I was arrested for the last one, and when I was being cautioned the officer said I seemed like a bright lad, and had I considered a career in the police?) I slept terribly, waking to a splitting head and a sweaty fear of what I might have got up to. All this again and again and again and again. Account for inflation, and I spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on drinks I didn't particularly enjoy, meals I didn't need, clubs, taxis, all the crap you'd never buy if you were in your right mind. That's the price of a house down the drain. Most of this happened in London, when I worked in an office and there was always someone to drink with, but in my 40s I lived on my own in deepest rural France, and that wasn't much better. Drop in on a neighbour, even at 10am, and you'd be offered a tumbler of wine. My little house in the woods had a cellar, and booze flowed in and out of it like the tide: beaujolais, bordeaux, bourgogne, côtes du Rhône, corbières, corbières-boutenac; Grimbergen, Blanche de Bruxelles, Leffe Blonde, Leffe Brune, Leffe Triple … I arrived in 2003, and sat out that year's heatwave in a deckchair, drinking Pelforth in the shade of my favourite spruce, and using the bilberries that grew all around to flavour supermarket spirits. Every now and again, I would send photos of dewy glasses to friends back in Britain: look at me, I'm living the life, this stuff is practically free! My home was in the mountains, on the side that caught the storms. On summer nights lightning would hit the power lines, plunging the house into darkness. One August, as thunder shook the forest, I sat under the tallest tree, thrilling to the flashes, knocking back the vodka and oblivious to the fact that the next bolt might be aimed at me. Most evenings, though, I would open a bottle of rasteau and sit on the terrace to enjoy the sunset. One night, polishing off a last few glasses by starlight, I spotted a man with a rifle lurking near the house – and decided it would be a good idea to chase him through the woods, while shouting that I had a gun of my own, which I didn't. Most shamefully of all, I'd been drinking with my grownup daughter, and I dragged her along with me. I didn't wrong anyone so badly that I can't look myself in the face, but there are a lot of people I ought to say sorry to. It wasn't all bad. I had some lovely drunken meals, drunken chats and drunken romances. I'm shy, and booze helped me unbend, make friends and meet women. Without it, I might never have got more than a hug from the woman who is now my wife. All the same, the more I drank, the more I tired of the crap that went with it – not just the misbehaving and the hangxiety but the knowledge that none of this was good for my health. Ask Dr Jeevan Fernando, an associate at the charity Alcohol Change UK, how booze can damage your body and he'll mention liver disease, of course, and sleep problems, and osteoporosis and drunken falls. 'But one that I worry about most is the risk of dementia and cognitive decline,' he says. 'Heavy alcohol use is very strongly related to the decline and atrophy of your brain. There is a normal shrinkage that occurs with age, but alcohol can increase that – and the risk of dementia later in life. Then there's mental health. There is very, very strong evidence of a link to increased anxiety and rates of depression.' There's more. 'Also, chronic alcohol use is related to cardiovascular issues. You have a much higher rate of heart attacks, strokes; your blood pressure is worse. Alcohol is also a known carcinogen – heavily related to breast cancer, liver cancer, bowel cancer …' By my mid-50s, I had seen one close friend drink herself to death. Had I already pushed my own luck too far? I would occasionally attempt to cut down, to have just a few drinks rather than a session, but never got very far. One mouthful was enough to get me in the zone and wash away my resolve. 'This is nice,' my mind would say. 'More will be even nicer.' As for stopping completely, that wasn't on my radar. Booze was how I switched off after a stressful day, how I put a smile on my face. How would I relax without it? How would I fill the evenings? I could hardly become Teetotal Phil if I couldn't even visualise Teetotal Phil. But then, five years ago, on 2 August 2020, I just packed it in. This may not mean much unless you're a hardened drinker, but I have got through Christmas parties sober, and office leaving dos. I have survived two wedding receptions on nothing more than alcohol-free wine and beer. Oh, and cocaine, but I never set out to give that up. Joke! I have barely touched drugs in my life, apart from the liquid, legal, socially acceptable one. I'm not about to start now. I'm not going to lie: I don't socialise as readily as I used to. Right now, as I write this, I could be at a summer drinks party with my workmates. But I know that as the evening wears on we'd drift apart, like radios that can't hold a frequency. I'd bring everyone down, the dry ghost at the feast. This is a me-problem, as other non-drinkers seem to cope. Practice would help – but, although I have never thought of myself as tight, the new me struggles with the idea of paying 30 or 40 quid for a round when I'd be knocking back Diet Coke. How have I filled the hours when I would have been drinking? I watch more TV than I used to, and fuss over our two dogs, who soak up attention like hairy sponges. And I exercise – running, yoga, Hiit, calisthenics. A class here, a workshop there. I've set up some gymnastics rings in the garden. I'm studying to be a personal trainer. I'd like to learn to juggle. I meet more people than I ever did, and I can actually remember their names afterwards. I'm happier and more stable than I used to be, and now that I have learned there are other ways to handle stress, I don't worry that some disaster will send me back to the bottle. I was struck – and inspired – by something that the personal trainer Tara LaFerrara posted on Threads last month, after the sudden death of her mother. The two had a 'tough' relationship, which left a lot to untangle. 'I could have easily drunk alcohol during this time of grief, family drama and loss,' LaFerrara wrote, 'but I have not. Not one sip of alcohol in almost 1,000 days. Proud of that.' She gave up on her first wedding anniversary, almost three years ago. 'I just realised it wasn't serving me any more,' she tells me. 'I didn't like the taste or how it made me feel during or after. Now I sleep better, have more energy, more clarity, better relationships with my friends and my partner.' How did she take her mind off her mum? 'Getting outside in nature, walks, meditation, and working out has helped more than anything else.' And drinking? 'I wasn't tempted. Sitting in this pain and really feeling your raw emotions is wild.' The wild thing about my own journey, at least to me, is not that I gave up, but how easy it was. I had – still have – the occasional wistful longing for a cold beer on a hot day, or a glass of red when I'm cooking, but that's it. I didn't need hypnosis, medication or a support group, although I am not against any of those things. I didn't feel ashamed about taking antidepressants when I needed them, or getting therapy for insomnia and anxiety. I am aware of how very lucky I have been. Cold turkey will not be right for everyone. 'If you are a very heavy drinker,' Dr Fernando warns, 'abruptly stopping may cause withdrawal symptoms, so you should speak to your GP.' All that said, and without wishing to trivialise anyone dealing with addiction, not everyone will find abstinence an uphill struggle. What helped me? Clearly – and miraculously – my dependency on alcohol was far more psychological than physical. Despite the amount I had been drinking, stopping didn't give me headaches, or jitters, or overpowering cravings. And I was lucky enough to have a good marriage, to a woman who had also drunk her fill. Hannah was the one who first decided to take a break from booze, and I just tagged along, partly to support her. She wasn't a world-class boozehound like me, but she did enjoy a drink. 'Ever since I was little,' she says, 'it has been the ultimate treat, the ultimate reward, the ultimate celebration, the ultimate commiseration.' On the downside: 'As I got older,' she says, 'my hangovers were fucking biblical.' The day after my 57th birthday, 'absolutely annihilated', she announced she was taking three months off the booze. Ten days later, when I got back from a long-planned holiday, I followed suit. When the three months were up, we both decided to carry on. 'After a while,' as Hannah puts it, 'the idea of going back becomes absurd. And you think, 'Well, I could maybe drink on special occasions' – but I don't know what occasion could possibly be special enough.' There have been no dramas, no relapses, none of that tension you'd get between a spouse who gets sloshed every night and one whose body is a temple. We're closer now than we were five years ago. The only fly in the ointment is that 10-day head start. Unless she falls off the wagon, she'll always be slightly more awesome than me. I'm trying to get over it. A survey of British drinkers last year found 48% wanted to cut down or stop entirely. It's a similar story in the US and Australia. Do I have any advice for them? Nothing that would qualify me to open a detox clinic. But I will say that even if you think you can't give up, there may come a point when you find yourself pushing at an open door. And, however much you wish you had done it before, you may not have left it too late. I've had a lot of tests in the year or so since I started writing about health, and as far as I can tell my liver, brain, heart etc are all in good shape. My teeth are yellower than I'd like, which I blame on the wine, and there are broken veins in my nose and cheeks, but that's all the obvious damage. Despite those 40 stupid years, I'm hopeful I dodged a bullet. Maybe I was staggering so much it didn't hit me.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
It's not just about building houses – communities need infrastructure to grow
There is a very real danger that, in its bid to reform the planning system and build 1.5m homes across England at pace, the government will neglect the basic requirements of livable communities ('No shops, no schools': homes in England built without basic amenities, 27 July). As your article makes clear, already 'thousands of homes across England are being built without urgently needed community infrastructure'. The planning system cannot allow such fundamental aspects of quality, sustainable placemaking to be neglected. It would do well to recognise the solution offered by a landscape-led approach to development. Landscape is everywhere – not just in protected countryside, but in every high street and cul-de-sac. It is the setting in which we all live, study, work and play. By thinking landscape first and engaging landscape architects early, planners and developers can design-in essential community infrastructure from the outset, creating resilient places that deliver what people need. So, let's build quality as well as quantity by prioritising GöhlerPresident, Landscape Institute One of the problems with the way we build homes in England is that local people have no role beyond complaining and objecting. In one case in your article, the community offered to finish off and run a community centre if the developer would just build the shell. But the idea that communities could roll up their sleeves and build, own, run these things just isn't considered by our housing and planning systems. The developer considered and rejected the idea; the community had no say. In a small but growing number of places this opposite is happening. Communities are gaining a seat at the table in the design and build-out of new homes, and taking ownership of shops, playgrounds, open space, community centres and affordable homes. Developers have to work with, and negotiate with, local people over what is built. This little bit of leverage and agency, achieved through a community land trust, builds better places with a stronger sense of community. The Labour government has talked a lot about supporting communities. The prime minister recently spoke of people tired of being excluded from decisions about their own lives. Here's your chance, Sir Keir, to include them in decisions about housing by wiring community agency and ownership into the planning ChanceChief executive, Community Land Trust Network
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
British travellers have been fined £30million in 18 months for accidentally bringing migrants into the country - with only ONE successfully appealing the punishment
Brits have been fined an astonishing £30million in just a year and a half for accidentally ferrying illegal immigrants across the channel in their vehicles, the Daily Mail can reveal. Travellers have been slapped with thousands of pounds in fines under an obscure and highly controversial scheme designed to crack down on the waves of illegal migrants sneaking into the country. Drivers can be fined up to £10,000 for each illegal migrant found hiding in their vehicle when they return to the UK under the scheme - even if they were unaware of their existence. They can also be handed a £6,000 fine if they vehicle is not 'adequately secured' - even if no migrant is found. The penalties have been harshly criticised for punishing law-abiding citizens who report illegal migrants they discover and open themselves up for bumper fines. While those who don't report the illegal migrants, allowing them to freely leave their vehicles, avoid the prospect of a harsh penalty. The Daily Mail previously revealed that £25,662,299 in fines had been dished out by the home office under the Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme between 1 January 2024 and March this year. By the end of June that figure had shot up to £30,983,102, with no further successful penalty appeals, figures obtained from a Freedom of Information request show. That comes despite criticism over the policy penalizing right-minded citizens, with Sir Keir Starmer even forced to intervene in one case after significant public backlash. Although 6,825 fines have been imposed, just one person has been succesful in getting their punishment rescinded since the beginning of last year. There have been 140 unsuccesful appeals. Hauliers have typically been the target of most fines and coach companies can pre-emptively sign up for 'membership' of a civil penalty accreditation scheme which entitles them to a 50 per cent reduction in fines. The fines come as the Government attempts to crack down on illegal immigration, including small boat crossings, but rather than punishing smugglers, it is innocent Brits, wholly unaware of any wrongdoing, who have been penalized under the scheme. One public spirited couple were punished for reporting a stowaway in their van - sparking widespread astonishment and the intervention of the prime minister. Adrian and Joanne Fenton, from Heybridge, Essex, were fined £1,500 by the Home Office in March after reporting a migrant in their motorhome after returning from France. The couple were shocked to find a Sudanese man inside a bag covering a bike rack on their motorhome after a long drive back from Calais and immediately called the police, who took the man away for processing. Yet just over two months later, the pair were issued with the fine for failing to 'check that no clandestine entrant was concealed' in the camper van. Mr Fenton appealed to Border Force by making a 'notice of objection' detailing why he believed the penalty was unfair. While their fine was waived after growing public pressure, their 'liability' remained. A letter from Border Force said: 'The written notice of objection has been carefully considered and the Secretary of State has decided that your liability stands. 'However, after review of the case by a senior officer the level of penalty per clandestine entrant or person concealed being a clandestine entrant has been revised to UK £0. They are not the only innocent couple to unknowingly end up on the wrong side of the law, with a retired ambulance service worker previously warning Brits to be on high alert during Channel crossings. Great-grandfather Peter Hughes, 75, from Droylsden, Tameside, was initially fined a staggering £6,000 after a Sudanese man was found hiding inside his small camping trailer at the Port of Calais in France. After an appeal accompanied by substantial political and media pressure, this sum was eventually reduced to £150 - which he begrudgingly paid despite he and his wife, Anne, knowing nothing about the migrant's existence. Since the beginning of last year, 12,320 fines totalling £14,676,894.84 have been paid, although some of these were imposed previously. Only one appeal of 141 penalties has been successful. That triumphant appeal saw the Home Office rescind a Kent couple's £3,000 fine after they unwittingly drove two Sudanese migrants through Calais in their campervan. Lisa Russell and Geoff Evans were stopped by border officers in France on their return from holiday and were slapped with the penalty despite having 'no idea' a man and teenager were hidden in the bike rack of their van. But their appeal, the only successful one in an 18-month period, saw the Border Force 'exercising general discretion' and remove their penalty. A letter from Border Force said: 'Following a review of the case we have decided to revise the penalty, and conclude that you have demonstrated, to the extent required, that you complied with the regulations. 'The Secretary of State has chosen to exercise general discretion and exceptionally, on this occasion, your penalty has been reduced to £0.' Others have had their fines reduced with one haulage company paying £7,566 after an original £48,000 bill. Around 5,000 'clandestine entrants' were found last year at UK border controls in Calais, Coquelles and Dunkirk, according to a report by the immigration and borders watchdog. Inevitably, others would have managed to evade checks. Meanwhile, more than 25,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via small boats in 2025, a record at this stage of the year. A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are fully committed to stopping people from illegally entering the country and cracking down on people smugglers. 'It's against the law to help someone enter the UK illegally, which is why the Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme is there to ensure drivers take every reasonable step to deter illegal migration.'
