A Bailiff worthy of the finest farewell

People will return to work to find valued colleagues have retired, significant birthdays have come and gone, staff have had babies, been seriously ill, left for other jobs or simply been fired.

For larger firms, it will take some time for the full consequences of fast forwarding life by six months or more to become clear.

For, lockdown or not, life moves on inexorably and without the daily dripfeed of workplace chatter it can be difficult to keep up.

Weekly Zoom video chats are no substitute for real life.

This weekend, of course, the island misses its most important anniversary.

Liberation Day will still happen and sterling efforts are being made to give islanders a small online taste of what might have been.

But virtual attendance is nothing like the real thing, especially when the weather is set to be sunny.

As the outgoing Bailiff says in his letter to all islanders, this would have been an extra special celebration, generating a carnival atmosphere that would have lingered long in the memory.

The end of the term of office of Sir Richard Collas on Sunday is, of course, yet another major event that has been waylaid by the coronavirus.

Sir Richard stayed on especially for the 75th anniversary of Liberation Day, so it is particularly galling that the event should be so unceremoniously curtailed.

It is also a pity for islanders that they will not get the best opportunity to bid farewell to a fine Bailiff, a Guernseyman who has carried the office of first citizen with good humour, dignity, intelligence and humility throughout his tenure.

The island is fortunate to have many quality leaders at this time of trouble, including the Chief Minister and the Lt-Governor, but it has been truly blessed over the past eight years to have had a Bailiff who innately understood how to bear the twin burdens of being head of the judiciary and States Presiding Officer without ever forgetting the value of a friendly word, a ready smile and a kindly gesture.