Select a region
This edition of Connect is one of extremes. From Christmas hedonism to New Year abstention. From end-of-the-year abandon, to start-of-the-year caution. From review to preview. As well as bringing your business year to a close, and setting you up for bad TV, family rows and too much cheese (Happy Christmas!) we also have to prepare you for the challenges of 2019. The first person to say “Brexit” will be force-fed Egg Nog for the rest of the year.
The truth, in both life and in Connect, lies somewhere in the middle, which is why we have put together a Christmas / New Year edition which caters for the most eclectic of tastes.
’Spice’ is provided by the Fool on page 32, who finishes his dyspeptic year by attacking the well-intentioned lunacy of charging landlords for empty premises - his view is that to do so would be a sure way to push rents up to cover the increased risk to property owners, rather than to usher in a new dawn of fully-occupied St. Helier streets, stuffed full of happy tenants gladly sharing Christmas cheer with their avuncular and benevolent landlords. Essentially, he argues that’s not how the market actually works.
But if comfort food is more your thing, then flick quickly to page 34, where we take a large slice out of the new Pizza Projekt, who have chosen to invest in St.Helier, and open a restaurant serving a type of food which is done regularly, but not often done well. Fresh with ideas, and ingredients, from Italy their mission is to take the humble pizza out of the supermarket frozen section, and put it back into the warm embrace of original home cooking.
And for those who simply want to pick at something new...well how about being a Jurat? On page 4, we take a look beneath the robes of this historic role, which sits at the heart of the island’s legal system. It is a role which is central to the public life of the island, and a thread running well back into the island’s history; but also one which many people seem to know little about.
Ok. I hear you. It’s been a busy year. And next year will be all about the ‘B’ word. If the Oxford English Dictionary has the power to add words to our language each year, then surely they will also have the good grace to delete this foul six-lettered spectre from our lexicon forever. But on the basis that doesn’t happen (more’s the pity) then for those fearing what 2019 will hold, we have a little light relief for you in this edition of Connect. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Deadly Diary, and his 12 days of Christmas on page 18; because once you read it, even Brexit will come as a welcome relief.
Enjoy Connect, and all the best for 2019.
