Blogs

In Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel ‘WE’ the sinister role is played by ‘the Bureau of Guardians’ a kind of Secret Police but not in the sense we view them as ‘WE’ is set far in the future.

In the Isle of Man you wonder if we haven’t reached our dystopian future already when you read how Isle of Man Newspapers is being denied access to banal information on how the government news machine works.

‘The evil men do say or plan is best hidden’! That seems to be the mantra of the Isle of Man government as indicated by the refusal to respond openly and in full to this fairly innocuous request from IOM Newspapers for information on government policy in dealing with the media:

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=42728&headline=Our%20FoI%20requ...

IOM Today has an article on food poverty and the problems of families who utilise the school meals system which is closed during the holiday period.

A couple of contributions to the piece from Chris Thomas and Alf Cannan MHKs caused me to raise an eyebrow especially as when I think of Chris and Alf I think more in terms of ‘self satisfied’ and ‘self-centred’ respectively.

Chris is still grappling with trying to ‘understand’ the problem. I mean there is this gem:

Saturday last was the 82nd anniversary of the stance of a group of pacifists and Welsh Nationalists to halt the construction of an RAF bombing school in Wales. Two years ago to mark the 80th anniversary I wrote the article below for the Celtic League.

The pacifist stance by Saunders Lewis, DJ Williams and Lewis Valentine is continued today in Wales by groups such as Cymdeithas y Cymod who are to the fore in the campaign against drone strikes and the use of Wales for developing drone technology. (Link):

What I averred last month has come to pass CPI is on the increase. The ‘fall’ last time was a construct simply an illusion as the government changes the way these things are measured.

Dark tourism can be defined as tourism involving travel to places historically associated with death, suffering and tragedy. One such place hoping to take advantage of the increasing trend towards 'dark tourism' is Sligo Prison (Irish: Príosún Shligigh) in Connaght (Connacht) in the west of Ireland. This weekend the Friends of Sligo Gaol, hosted a conference on Crime and Punishment in 19th and 20th Century Ireland to mark the gaol's bicentenary.  The voluntary community group has been working for a number of years to promote the gaol as an important part of Sligo's heritage.

Yesterday was the anniversary of a significant event in Welsh history. On September 8, 1936 Saunders Lewis, Rev Lewis Valentine and D J Williams, a university lecturer, Baptist minister and school teacher, set fire to the partly built RAF aerodrome, near Pwllheli on the Llŷn Peninsula in north-western Wales. Welsh newspaper the Daily Post recounted the events of that day in an article yesterday. 

''Irexit Freedom'  is the name Hermann Kelly from County Derry intends to call a new eurosceptic political party in Ireland. Around 300 people attended a conference held in a Dublin hotel yesterday where a case was put forward for Ireland leaving the European Union. The plan is to now seek 300 registered voters and register 'Irexit Freedom' as a political party. They want to field candidates in the European elections and then in national elections.

If you are going to be a pensioner in these Islands off the coast of Europe apparently you get a better deal if you are Irish (ie 26 Counties).

Natixis which compiles a Global Retirement Index places Ireland in the top ten at No 7 in its 2018 index up there with Switzerland and the Nordic countries. The Republic had been at No 14 last year but has shot seven place up the list in contrast the UK which was ranked at 18 and has moved one place to 17:

I can be somewhat zany I have an irrational habit of hurling any missives from government immediately into the pedal bin which can have unforeseen consequences. Some of the offspring have remonstrated with me over this and I suppose it is a tad irrational. However just as I start to think that I’m slightly loopy some really zany individuals appear.

I mean of course ‘Travelwitch’ and I could have put money yesterday (and won) on the fact that they would pop up on Manx Radio today after yesterday's Liverpool berth announcement by Ray Harmer: