Howard in the pulpit as Alf plays 'St Jude'

The big plump juicy story of the day is a bit like its persona. Its Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK and the Tynwald Order Paper. To get to it I have to ferret about on mainstream and social media which is a cacophony of dross

Manx news is all over the show. IOM Today have caught up on the Manx Radio loss item and although they focus mainly on the facts they make sure they also home in on some of the juicy salaries for senior staff up there. They also chuck in the assertion that Manx Radio are doing ‘knockdown’ rates for advertising which of course the station of course deny.

On Manx Radio itself the Islands ‘Kate Adie’ (Catherine Nicoll) is interviewing Clare Bettison about the prison, drones and mobiles. Catherine doesnt look to convinced or interested but Clare ‘drones’ on she is obviously back from her three months hols and doing a round of the studios.

The pièce de résistance of news is however tucked away in the Tynwald Order paper. ‘The Great Man’ (aka Howard Quayle MHK) will be giving his ‘State of the Nation’ address next week. I can’t wait and just hope Moulton is there to capture every scintilla. At the moment MTTV have Paul indulging his passion for ‘Telly’ with ‘the big boys’. He is on Douglas Head with SES who are showing him their ‘big’ dishes and is absolutely in raptures especially when told there are more big dishes to come. SES apparently can beam things out to the world and for a moment I imagine Howards ‘State of the Nation’ address being blasted out globally by MTTV kind of a polite version of Donald Trump's chair side chats in the Oval Office without the sexism.

Last year ‘Donald’ - I mean Howard was fixing the media with a steely glare as he berated ‘fake news’ I wonder what's in store this year. I would imagine that we could literally just get the same again in terms of his programme for government because as far as I can see he - and COMIN - have not delivered on what they promised last time. Chris Thomas would probably disagree but then when Mrs T says ‘these petits pois are nice’ Chris probably launches into a homily on what makes a good ‘pois’!

The Manx economy seems to be like that of North Korea in that they proclaim to the world that they are doing well while in actual fact people are starving. It's an apposite analogy as I see in the Tynwald Order Paper we are taking all kinds of sanctions against nefarious regimes including Mr Kims. Perhaps Howard should take the logical step and sanction his own government.

To add some light relief to the Tynwald Order Paper I see that Alf Cannan is moving something as ‘A Member of the Ecclesiastical Committee’. I hadn’t attributed an ecclesiastical bent to Alf and I suppose he sees himself as in the mould of St Thomas Aquinas however I see him more in the mould of St Jude - the patron saint of impossible causes. After Howards State of the Nation message you should all see that plainly this current COMIN and Tynwald is a ‘lost cause’!

Here are the links:

Tynwald Order Paper (16th Oct):

http://www.tynwald.org.im/business/opqp/opqp/2018-PP-0133.pdf

IOM Today (Manx Radio losses):

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=43311&headline=Manx%20Radio%20c...

Manx Radio (Nicol Bettison interview):

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/bid-to-get-powers-to-blo...

MTTV (Moulton with SES):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlF-kjAPAjs&feature=youtu.be

Image: St Thomas Aquinas - if only!

Bernard Moffatt