'Talking Heads' meets 'The Wind in the Willows'

Its an overcast morning I smell rain and immediately regret devoting yesterday to ‘arts domestic’. However I’m up early and raring to go so its the North and a bracing walk with a coat or retail therapy in the covered confines of ‘the citadel of shopping’ - I’m a wimp I opt for the latter.

On the way back from ‘town’ in a steady moving flow of traffic I think ‘don’t be such a curmudgeon put the radio on’. It's Talking Heads and it's the usual aimless mix of irrelevance but strangely relaxing - I muse I must be going soft - even the music is quite soothing. As TH disappears into Mandate PM I once again toy with the idea of a switch off but its Howard (Caine). I like Howard he’s an excellent newsreader precise and if you’re lucky there’s a quip or pun at the end of the bulletin. I’m disappointed the last item is about Wallaby road signs but no quip - such is life.

The main item is Chris Thomas MHK and ‘Minister of Something’ (obviously back from his holidays) talking about growth and GDP things are going well says Chris but we must be cautious.

Chris reminds me of ‘Moly’ in ‘The Wind in the Willows’ he seems very wise but I wager spends a lot of time with his eyes closed. Still Chris is always cautious and I muse I wonder when Mrs T serves up two weetabix instead of one at breakfast does he spend minutes agonising over it.

Item two is Tim Glover with government statistics on employment. Its a comprehensive report and includes reference to the ILO measure which takes some of the gloss of the governments front line jobless pretence. I still think we won't know about real unemployment until we have some idea about population movement I think we are seeing the greatest population displacement of the employed for years - look around you.

Later there is a slightly zany item on ‘a new health care vision’. I can’t make head nor tail of it and muse I wonder what's happened to my NHS dental service realignment it seems to have got lost between Douglas and Peel. I wonder should I ring David Ashford MHK direct he seems a nice lad but then I think ‘no he’s probably to busy delivering visions’ - sounds almost Catholic!

Manx Radio drifts on through the International news and I’m nodding along with it I’m definitely going ‘gaga’. But then the main Mandate course is Kate Beecroft MHK talking about Brexit. It's a confused piece - at least Kate is confused. She seems to be wanting Howard and his acolytes to give an honest appraisal she may as well be asking for ‘pigs to fly’. I think ‘no more flowers for you Kate from Howard’ and hit the off button. Now whats for lunch?

Links:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/gdp-up-by-7-4/

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/slight-increase-in-unemp...

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/health-care-vision-prese...

Image: Stuart Peters of Talking Heads

Bernard Moffatt