Legislation expected to be brought by end of 2025, with service for residents in place by mid-2027
Jersey is to move ahead with allowing assisted dying for people with a terminal illness after a vote in its parliament on Wednesday.
Legislation is expected to be brought before the island’s states assembly by the end of 2025, and an assisted dying service for residents to be in place by mid-2027.
Continue reading...Proposals deter ‘death tourism’ by requiring applicants to have lived on the island for at least 12 months
Jersey could legalise assisted dying for people who are terminally ill or have an incurable condition with unbearable suffering under proposals to be debated in the island’s parliament.
The proposals, published on Friday, may lead to Jersey becoming the first jurisdiction in the British Isles to allow assisted dying.
Continue reading...New government register shows how offshore jurisdictions used for ownership of nearly 200 properties including hotels and country estates
The royal families of Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar own more than £1bn of UK property via offshore jurisdictions, such as Jersey and the British Virgin Islands, the Guardian can reveal.
Nearly 200 properties, including hotels, London mansions and country estates, belong to a few small but super-rich dynasties, according to analysis of a new government register that reveals who is behind offshore companies that own UK property.
Continue reading...Kathy McGinness, who lived adjacent to flats that collapsed, died in hospital on Christmas Day
A woman injured in an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey earlier this month died on Christmas Day, taking the death toll to 10.
Kathleen (Kathy) McGinness, 73, who lived at Haut du Mont adjacent to the building that collapsed, died at Jersey general hospital.
Continue reading...As many as 12 people feared killed and criminal inquiry could be launched after blast at block of flats in St Helier
Twelve people are feared to have been killed and a criminal investigation could be launched after a suspected gas explosion destroyed a block of flats in the centre of Jersey’s capital, St Helier.
Five people have been confirmed dead but more are said to be missing, with the island’s fire chief, Paul Brown, saying he was no longer leading a rescue mission.
Continue reading...Police say there could be more fatalities after 4am collapse of three-storey building on Channel Island
At least three people have died and about 12 people are believed to be missing after an explosion in a block of flats in St Helier, Jersey police have said.
The blast at Haut du Mont, Pier Road, in the capital, occurred at about 4am on Saturday, less than eight hours after firefighters had been called to the site after concerns from residents, it was confirmed.
Continue reading...Fishing boat believed to be resting on seabed after collision with Condor Ferries freight vessel
The search for three fishers whose boat sank in the Channel after a collision with a freight vessel has resumed off the coast of Jersey.
Lifeboats and a search aircraft were launched at first light to continue to scour the area to the west and north-west of the island.
Continue reading...British government says move agreed during talks before Friday midnight deadline set by Brussels
The UK and Jersey governments have issued further licences to French fishing boats to trawl British waters in an apparent attempt to ease cross-Channel tensions.
The Brussels-imposed deadline of midnight on Friday for solving the post-Brexit fishing row passed without an agreement being announced.
Continue reading...Officials from France and UK to meet in Brussels after threats from both sides in post-Brexit dispute
Jersey has issued another 49 licences to French boats in an apparent attempt to de-escalate a post-Brexit row over fishing rights in which the UK and France have issued tit-for-tat threats.
The Jersey government said it was allowing another round of temporary licences until the end of January to allow time for new arrangements to be put in place, as the two sides prepared to meet to try to resolve the row.
Continue reading...No 10 threatens retaliation against French measures including port ban on British fishing boats
A major trade dispute has broken out between the UK and France after Paris banned British fishing boats from key ports, vowed to impose onerous checks on cross-Channel trade, and threatened the UK’s energy supply over a row over post-Brexit rights to UK waters.
The move prompted a dramatic response from Downing Street where a spokesperson for Boris Johnson said the UK government would retaliate over what was a described as a potential breach of international law.
Continue reading...French government pushing EU to take stronger stance in dispute over access to Channel waters
The EU could hit Britain and Jersey’s energy supply over the UK’s failure to provide sufficient fishing licences to French fishers, France’s EU affairs minister has said.
Clément Beaune, who is a close ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said action would be decided on within days and discussions were already in motion.
Continue reading...Locals in the port of Granville think the row between France and the UK over fishing makes no sense
If you look out to sea from the Christian Dior museum on the cliffs above Granville, you see the grey outline of what appears to be another part of the Norman coast.
It is. But it isn’t.
Continue reading...Their families have been fishing here for decades but despite promises of frictionless trade, the market for their fish is disappearing
Steph Noel, who has been fishing the waters off Jersey for almost four decades, could not see the point of chugging out to sea in his 8.5-metre boat, Belle Bird, this weekend.
“There’s no value in it for me,” he said. “It’ll cost me in bait and diesel but even if I have a good day there’s no market there for what I bring back.”
Continue reading...New restrictions and deep cuts to allowances mean both French and Jersey boat owners feel betrayed by Brexit
Dawn was still four hours away and the small Normandy port of Carteret was alive, some boats hurriedly unloading their catch for a rapid turnaround, others turning on their lights and firing up their engines for the first time that night.
Minutes after 3am on Thursday they had left the quayside and, in pitch darkness and a gentle swell, were pushing smartly out to sea to join a growing armada of 60-odd boats from Cherbourg right the way round to St-Malo.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson dispatches two gunboats to protect island from feared blockade
Boris Johnson has dispatched two Royal Navy patrol boats to protect Jersey from a feared blockade by French fishing vessels, in an escalation of a dispute over post-Brexit access to waters around the Channel island.
The move followed talks on Wednesday evening between the prime minister and the chief minister of the British crown dependency, John Le Fondré, who had warned Downing Street of imminent movements by French fishing boats to cut off the island’s main port.
Continue reading...The French maritime minister, Annick Girardin, warned on Tuesday that France could cut off electricity to the British island of Jersey in a dispute over fishing rights. The warning followed claims from Paris that Jersey was stalling in issuing licences to French boats under the terms of the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. 'The agreement provides for retaliatory measures and these measures of retaliation we are ready to use,' Girardin told French lawmakers.
Paris threatens to take retaliatory measures in row over post-Brexit licences for French fishing boats
Jersey has accused France of making “disproportionate” threats after Paris warned it could cut off electricity to the island in a row over post-Brexit fishing rights.
The maritime minister, Annick Girardin, warned on Tuesday France was ready to take “retaliatory measures” after accusing the Channel Island of dragging its feet over issuing new licences to French boats.
Continue reading...French minister raises electricity supply as point of leverage in dispute over access to UK waters
The French government could cut off the electricity supply to Jersey in an escalating row over post-Brexit fishing rights, a French minister has suggested.
Responding to questions in the national assembly, Annick Girardin, the minister for maritime affairs, said she was “revolted” by the UK government’s behaviour over its waters and France was ready to retaliate.
Continue reading...When I tried to return from Jersey to Australia, I had no idea the journey would lead me through 16 cities in nine countries, and take nearly five months
On the morning of 1 July last year, while sitting in my apartment in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, I got the phone call I had dreaded since I moved to Australia.
My dad was dying.
Continue reading...UK overseas territories such as Cayman Islands also may lose protection once afforded by UK’s EU membership
The European parliament is pushing for UK overseas territories including the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey to be added to an EU tax havens blacklist after the conclusion of the Brexit deal.
Sending a signal that tougher action on tax avoidance was required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of adding more nations and territories to the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions.
Continue reading...