Possessive Parishes

Parish-named places - why are there so many unnecessary plurals or apostrophes? You never see Jersey's Something-or-Other... or Jerseys Doodads... it's Jersey Pottery, Jersey School of Corruption or whatever - like you see London Business School, Wibblesworth College or Fulchester Rovers, etc.

In the phone book, Grouville places don't need an s, and Trinity's School would look silly too, when Trinity School sounds perfectly reasonable. So why do the saints parishes (parishes named after saints, as opposed to saint's parishes belonging to them!) get so inconsistent?

St. Catherine is the place, not St. Catherines or St. Catherine's.

St. Brelade is the parish. Parish of St. Brelade. You want to name a bowls club after it? St. Brelade Bowls Club. Simple. So why do we get St. Brelades Church, College, Parish Hall, etc? (without even the apostrophe?!)

St. Helier seems to be well used - all as it should be - with no St. Heliers in the phone book.

St. Malos Town Center would look and sound horribly wrong, wouldn't it?

I reckon that if it's named after the saint then an 's is correct, but if it's named after a place that is named after a saint, then the name on its own should be used, unmodified.

St. Martin School sounds more logical to me. You'd think a school of all places would get it right!

Vote 4 Senators, not Deputies?

(Updated since first posted)

For some time now I've felt that voting has been a waste of time. There are 53 members of the States, and how many do I get to vote for? 12 Senators, 1 Deputy, and a "Connetable" if I'm lucky and someone contests the post.
14.
Out of 53.
My calculator reckons that's 26.4% of the house I can vote for - only just over a quarter of them.
Wow.
Remind me why I should bother voting?

Many of the things that really irritate me - meddling changes to St.Helier - are beyond my control. I may spend about half of my waking hours in town (being an office worker) but because I live in another parish I have no say in who the Constable is, let alone the rest of the parish appointed Roads Committee, etc.

I would have to be really stressed about any particular issue to directly contact any of the States Members.... but the fact remains that I shouldn't have to... I should have been able to vote for them in the first place.

I firmly believe that an Island Wide Mandate - Senators - for all States Members - is the way forward. I admit it would make voting tricky, with absurdly long ballot papers unless the terms could be overlapped in time with a certain number up for election each year, but at least that would keep politics in the public eye and keep issues fresh if there was an election every year.

I can't imagine convincing enough people...
.. but I feel I must protest somehow.

And the way to protest is as follows...... if we have two different elections this year, one for Senators and one later for Deputies...... then all we need to do is turn out in force for the Senatorial election and stay well away from the Deputies.

Obviously it would take a lot of like-minded people to participate for this to affect the results enough to make a noticeable difference.

But it's worth a try. What better way to register a protest about unreasonable undemocratic representation?

I'll vote for Senators. But not for a pointless Deputy (just one of 53). Who's with me?

Update:
I've seen the error of my ways. Looking at it from an angle of the democracy depending upon 12 different opinion polls, it's vital that every elector plays their part and has their say, no matter how few candidates that's for. If everyone does their duty, then the sample sizes can be almost reasonable and the overall result isn't as bad as I originally thought.

I'm very much in favour of voting. We're lucky that we can, are we not?

All the dissatisfaction people have with our government is entirely due to their own collective apathy. We truly do all suffer from the government the apathetic majority deserve.

GST on Air Display programme!

I always buy a glossy programme for the air display, important to support the worthy cause and all that. So I popped into the newsagents in Bath St on my way past, grabbed one and put a fiver on the counter. As I was putting my wallet away and was about to leave, the assistant asked me for the further 15p....... GST!!
As she already had my fiver and I was holding my purchase it felt a bit too late to complain (and 15p wasn't going to ruin me), so I paid the extra charge wearily and left.
But the principle of the thing has annoyed me. Taxing the worthy cause? Whatever next?!
I think the States should make a donation to compensate, at the very least.

Next year (if there's a display next year) I will buy one from somewhere where the States don't get their greedy paws involved.

Ferry Fair?

Is it very fair to expect a ferry company to operate all year around, when only the summer months are profitable? Why must they take a financial hit in the winter, being bullied into only being able to keep their ramp permit if they provide a service all year long?

Surely in the classic free market the abundant times should be available to all comers with open competition, and if the winter time is loss-making than the States should - if they insist upon having a service provided - put those months' service out to tender and subsidise it?

*cough*buses*cough*millions*ahem*

Or am I missing something? (I daresay I could be... so let's hear from you....)