1066 AD is etched into our memories. William Duke of Normandy (of which Jersey was a part), King Harold and the Battle of Hastings should never be forgotten. Nor should 1204 AD when King John of England, then Duke of Normandy, "lost" all of Normandy except us - the Channel Islands.
Ever since then Jersey has been the meat in the sandwich: yes, a part of the Kingdom of Her Majesty but no, not a part of Her United Kingdom.
For the past few decades, Jersey's economy has prospered because of this. The finance industry relies on it. A good example is the position of foreign nationals who reside in Britain - but are domiciled elsewhere (born elsewhere and expecting to return elsewhere to retire and die). British taxes are only charged on the income of such folk to the extent that they bring that income, each year, into Britain..... But, bringing that income into Jersey is not bringing it into Britain. So Jersey receives - and invests - lots of money and assets for such folk.
But this is paralleled in Jersey's history many times.
Back in the mid-1700s, Britain had an import tax on cattle. Jersey was regarded as part of Britain so Jersey cattle entered without being taxed. A tempting wheeze was the importation into Jersey of cattle from Normandy, setting them to graze in a Jersey field for 24 hours, then their exportation to Britain free of import tax. This became very popular - all because of 1066 and 1204. The States passed a Law in 1789 stopping this practice and, incidentally, because no cattle imports were allowed from that year, the beautiful Jersey breed developed.
The 1789 parallel is being repeated in 2007 in connection with the finance industry - the States are busily passing new Laws that will show Jersey's willingness to be a good neighbour to Britain - and other countries.
These parallels provide certainty about Jersey’s unusual constitutional position.
Back, now, to about 4,000 years ago (see above) when Almighty God tested Abraham by instructing him to sacrifice his beloved son on a mountain in Israel. Abraham's story is recorded in the historic Scriptures of the Jews, carefully preserved by them as describing their nation and culture - written in Hebrew and translated into Greek centuries before Jesus came in AD 0. But AD 33 has the parallel - Jesus Christ, Son of God, was sacrificed then on a Roman cross in Jerusalem.
How about the Jewish Scriptures recording that, around 1350 BC, Moses instructed each family descended from Israel (all slaves) to sacrifice a lamb - and the blood of that lamb saved all the firstborn sons in that family from the death that plagued the whole population of Egypt and led to the immediate ejection of all those slaves.
Was there another parallel in BC 518 when the Jewish Scriptures recorded the life and teaching of Zechariah? He told that the King of the Jews would enter Jerusalem on a donkey and bring peace to the nations - and that this "shepherd" would be struck and all his sheep scattered. But that world blessing would follow.
How interesting that this man, Jesus Christ, around AD 30, upbraided his key followers when they asked him to explain to them a parable (Greek = parabole, meaning a parallel, an archetype), "Do you not understand this parallel? How then will you understand all the parallels?"
All the parallels in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures There are thousands. They, too, provide certainty, this time about the identity and work of Jesus Christ. |
