Ministers get memed on new Facebook page

Tuesday 21 March 2017

Politicians have been scratching their heads as to how to up Jersey’s dwindling voter turnout for some years now, but a new social media page might have the answer to just that – by filling islanders’ feeds with politically charged memes.

‘Jersmeme’ – launched last Thursday on Facebook, and already with a fanbase 10% the size of some Senator's mandates – has been grabbing locals’ attention with its sharable satirical political pictures.

While one references Senator Philip Ozouf and the International Finance Centre build, another shows two pictures of Reform Jersey politician Deputy Sam Mézec – one suited, and another with playing with his band, Flashmob – captioned, “Get yourself a guy who can do both”.

Others extol two stalwarts of the island’s club scene Koko and Kasbar as an “iconic duo”, while Guernsey also enters the satirical firing line.

But it’s also about poking fun at islanders themselves and the ‘first world problems' they face, such as high-cost shipping deliveries.

The ‘meme master’ behind the page, who chose to remain anonymous, told Express:

“I set up the page as a similar page was set up at my university, and thought it was high time Jersey had one - there's so many inside jokes that make Jersey unique so why not make the most of it?

“While the aim of the page is to just be light-hearted, I feel like it could be an opportunity to make a comment on the decisions the States of Jersey make - though I never want the page to become too serious, it's meant to just be a laugh.

“Hopefully it won't be long before Guernsey make their own page, though if they do I'd just have to ensure Jersmeme remains better, as is customary between the anything between the two islands."

Commenting on the new page, and his newfound meme fame, Deputy Mézec said:

"It's absolutely hilarious and fair play to whoever made it. Given that politics is usually seen as pretty uncool and dominated by out of touch old people, I'm quite glad they're drawing attention to me being a guitar player in a rock band and showing that I am still a normal person (well, sort of). Our gigs at Chambers this weekend will be interesting!

"It's [the Mézec meme] had 380 likes so far, which is almost three times the number of votes I lost by in the senatorial by-election last year. So if has any impact at all in making young people pay a bit more attention to politics and come out to vote, then it can only be a good thing."