Tuesday 17 February 2009

Jersey Boys

I now have two tutees from Jersey, one of whom will be sharing a house with another Jersey Boy next academic year. They pay full overseas fees. They wouldn't if they were, say, Slovakian.

Now, there might very well be a case for not charging a Slovakian that much, either. But these are British Citizens from a Crown Dependency. I used to share a house with a Manx in the same position. It is completely outrageous.

The dereliction of the Crown Dependencies on the United Kingdom's watch has been exposed by the global economic crisis. In the course of the greater integration that will necessarily follow, this is a wrong crying out to be righted.

4 comments:

  1. So why are you not campaigning for the Islands' to be fully integrated into the UK?

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  2. They never have been.

    But far greater control of their economies and their financial services sectors is on the way anyway, as also in several British Overseas Territories.

    If this little change is part of the deal, then so much the better.

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  3. Ireland was not part of the UK between 1707 and 1800.

    Surely the Kindom of Man and the Duchy of Normandy can be integrated into the UK. After all this was offered to the Maltese despite much larger cultural, linguistic and religious considerations.

    Concerning fees - same applies to those coming from Greenland and some of the Dutch and French territories. And unlike the UK, the Dutch, French and Danes give their overseas territories representation in their national parliamments and therefore have a say in the EU which they are not part of.

    Anomaly?

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  4. Lucky Crown Dependencies, not being in the EU.

    It's finished, anyway. Like devolution, and for the same reason, it will soon reach the stage where it will never formally be abolished (why bother?), but has nevertheless stopped doing anything.

    The scheme to incorporate Malta into the UK didn't exactly work out.

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