Getting in a flap about nothing
JERSEY’S decision to make it illegal to feed gulls is a bird-brained example of government overstepping the mark.
Quite why the heavy hand of the law has to be invited into what should be a simple case of public information and advice is hard to fathom.
As a Guernsey ornithology expert puts it: ‘Who would police it?’
Thankfully, this island’s States has no plans to go down the same daft path.
Not just because gulls here are nowhere near the problem pests they are in St Helier. Let us hope it is also because Guernsey authorities recognise that it is not in the island’s interests for every minor antisocial act to land people in court.
A criminal law book that is bursting at the seams with trivial misdemeanours does not indicate a society in control. If anything, it is the opposite.
For every new law that is created must be more than a paper tiger. Somebody has to enforce it, otherwise you may as well tear it up. For Exhibit A look at the rules governing dog mess and the seeming impossibility of getting a conviction despite all the ‘evidence’ of wrongdoing.
Policing such laws takes up valuable officer time and clogs up courts which should be free to expedite far more serious matters, of which there are many.
If there is a genuine problem, better to educate than to criminalise. Tell people why feeding gulls leads to property being damaged, mess from their droppings and can spread disease.
If they choose not to listen, keep reinforcing the message. Do not, however, imagine that it is a proportionate reaction to send down squad cars full of officers with notebooks and stern faces.
In this case the new rules also offer a confusing environmental message. For, as ever, the law is a blunt instrument and Jersey’s public nuisance regulations make it a potential criminal offence to give food to ‘wild animals, birds, insects, reptiles and fish’.
Their politicians are now having to explain quickly that they do not want islanders to stop feeding wild birds.
Guernsey is not immune from the bureaucratic need to over-legislate – high hedges and bonfires come to mind. But at least in this instance it has refused to get in a flap about nothing.