Peter wrote:
There used to be a railway
There still is a railway! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderney_Railway
Sounds good :) Let’s think about end of May (between Wedding and honeymoon) or end of June (after honeymoon).
Great – let’s do that 
I will bring Justine.
BTW – those pics were taken with the new Samsung S7. Over-saturated, over-sharpened, the stock camera app has various bugs and has no image adjustments, and 3rd party camera apps (needed to get the colours right) are even more buggy. As they say, “technology” is what they call stuff which should work in the future 
Nice photos.
I’ve been there a couple of times, but would be up for a repeat visit later in the summer. It would be a flyin that I could actually fly myself to
Peter wrote:
For example the Isle of Man is not UK but it is in the UK VAT scheme – you pay VAT there, and last I heard they were saying they make enough out of VAT to run the island and might have zero income etc taxes
Unfortunately, not quite. We’ve got a sizeable deficit at the moment. There is a “common purse” agreement with the UK, and the UK gets the lion’s share of our VAT, the only VAT that stays on the island is for things that are produced solely in the island. Everything else the government gets 1% of the VAT to pay for the collection of the VAT. This was rebalanced further in the UK’s favour about 4 or 5 years ago, so they get the lion’s share + some extra. Doesn’t help that the Manx government is very wasteful and too many civil servants are overpaid and have a massive, unfunded, unsustainable pension scheme (paid for directly by the taxpayer). 10% of our government spending is just on civil service pensions.
RobertL18C wrote:
presumably the local economy is mainly tourism?
Finance I think.
Great photos and write up, presumably the local economy is mainly tourism?
Peter wrote:
this is like 1950s England.
I hope the island can preserve this unique atmosphere.
These great pictures reminds me on our trip to EGJA in July 2015, many thanks ! Locals adviced us to try the same restaurant in the middle of the town as the oldest and the best one.
They didn’t ask to see any ID for me. The GAR is the Terrorist Act requirement. Why they want the GAR at their end too I have no idea.
It doesn’t matter – there are automated ways of filing these and the autorouter does it for example (if you set up all the pilot and passenger data on it). It is the 12hr notice which is really stupid. The only way to avoid this is to fly via Bournemouth, Biggin, Oxford I think or a few others. Or of course Cherbourg. All a big hassle.
I don’t think the Channel Islands are UK, as such… it’s a very complicated debate which I know nothing about. For example the Isle of Man is not UK but it is in the UK VAT scheme – you pay VAT there, and last I heard they were saying they make enough out of VAT to run the island and might have zero income etc taxes
Nice trip But why do you need police officer to check you on arrival? And GAR? Isn’t it UK also?
