Review of 2021: January to March

Friday 31 December 2021

As 2021 comes to an end, Express looks back at some of the highs and lows of the year. From political controversy to new covid variants, the Tokyo Olympics and claims that Guernsey is in one of its periodic housing crises. These are some of the headline stories we covered.

We start our review of 2021 with the story which dominated world and local news for another year: the covid-19 pandemic.

In response to four cases of covid in the community, the Bailiwick went into its second lockdown on 23 January, having been free of covid for most of the second half of the year before. This was not quite the New Year we all wanted.

January was the month when Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th US President, but only after his predecessor, Donald Trump, had watched his supporters storm the Capitol in a failed attempt to keep their man in The White House.

Also in January, one of the Channel Islands' most famous residents died. Sir David Barclay was 86. His twin, Sir Frederick, is the remaining Barclay brother in Brecqhou. 

In lighter news, plans were approved to construct an order point for Oatlands' new ‘drive-thru’. Joint owner Chris Coles said: "This facility will offer outstanding and healthy food, in the quickest possible time, due to significant investment in the latest technology."

Pictured: Oaty's Drive-Thru launched earlier this year.

In February, the States' Assembly agreed to transfer millions of pounds of untouched funds from a dormant bank account to charitable causes.

"At the moment it is impossible to ascertain [the exact sum] as some organisations have only estimated their position and different banks apply different criteria because they collect and store data in different ways,” said the Policy & Resources Committee's Treasury Lead, Mark Helyar. “However, the best estimate we have at the moment is a stable balance of approximately £3 million."

February saw the return of bubbles and other features of gradual exit from lockdown.

Recovery stage one began on 22 February when two households could bubble and outdoor gatherings were allowed again as long as they included no more than five people.

The impact of covid saw February's Fairtrade Fortnight go virtual. Guernsey was celebrating its 15^th year as an accredited Fairtrade island. 

February was also the month when vaccinations administered globally climbed past 500million.

Pictured: Fairtrade Fortnight saw people take part in an online quiz and a creative competition for children.

An early political controversy of the year was the revealing of Deputy Christopher Le Tissier of The Guernsey Party as an anonymous online troll. 

The story broke in March. Deputy Le Tissier has since been ousted temporarily from the States' Assembly after a code of conduct panel found he had broken the members' code in several places. The island awaits his return to the Assembly in July 2022. 

March was also the month in which Deputy Charles Parkinson seemed to demonstrate extraordinary powers of prescience about the re-opening of the Bailiwick's borders.

“I’m hearing that, on senior authority, our borders will be open by 1 August,” he wrote - in hindsight, rather accurately - on Twitter.

Pictured: Express reached out to Deputy Charles Parkinson when he made his claim about the Bailiwick's borders, but he preferred to let his words on Twitter do the talking.

Other news making the headlines in March included campaigners calling for the pardon of policemen arrested during the Occupation and the ‘King of Everland’ being handed community service for disobeying planning laws.

The first quarter of 2021 ended on an empowering yet sobering note with a campaign to give a voice to victims of sexual abuse in the Bailiwick.

Joni Nettleship spoke powerfully at one campaign event which was organised after the murder of Sarah Everard in London. She said: “When do girls' bodies stop belonging to them and start belonging to society? It’s not right. As a mother, I want to say that we understand.”