'Ask not for whom the Bell tolls' It tolls for Alf!

Oh dear government do seem to be getting themselves in to a pickle. I mean there’s one thing giving someone like Trevor Cowin (or me) the bums rush over a freedom of information request. However now they seem to have provoked the ire of the Islands only newspaper group:

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=42284&headline=Our%20Steam%20Pa...

Of course folk being folk if the government do find some flimsy fig-leaf for keeping their Steam Packet buy-out under wraps then many will shriek cover-up and doubtless the Examiner will be printed with a blank front page marked CENSORED.

The main impending political casualty in all this of course will be Treasury Minister Alf Cannan MHK. Its looking increasingly to some as if Alf’s method for securing the ‘Islands lifeline’ has some flaws. Indeed it’s as fateful as Captain Lindemann’s decision to opt to sail the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen through the Denmark Strait - and we know how that ended!

Of course should Alf face political flak his colleagues will rally round no doubt. Although to be honest Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK has been looking rather jolly of late as if he’s expecting good news such as Alfs embarrassed departure from the COMIN table.

As for other Ministerial colleagues I can't really see people like Harmer. Boot and Malarkey ‘throwing themselves on their swords’ for Alf who they probably regard as a bit of a prig anyway.

If I was Alf I would make sure all that info is published but then of course as its a Cabinet Office issue the final decision will be the Chief Ministers, Maybe the Chief Minister had a plan to deal with Alf all along the cunning devil!

Image: Alf or ‘Ellan Vannin tragedy two’!

Bernard Moffatt