Blogs

I bet next time I pop up before the beak (there has to be a next time my anger management equilibrium is defo starting to slip again) Manx Radio won’t be as discreet as they are in this story about firms dodging Tax and NI:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-business/well-known-companies...

The Manx media is banal at present. I’ve banged the chops in (Manx lamb of course) and have an hour to fill so go in search of news but there is none. Manx Radio is full of something called the Festival of Motoring which consists of sheep looking at empty roads. I ponder that Tim Glover is probably doing the equivalent of Gene Hackman's ‘cold turkey’ in the French Connection and screaming: ‘Get PAG, Travelwatch….anything’.

As part of Historic Environment Scotland (HES) five year Gaelic language plan Gaelic speakers, and those with an interest in the language are being recruited as volunteers at tourist attractions across the north of Scotland. The aim is to promote the historic origins of the language and its place in Scotland’s history. Urquhart Castle, Dunstaffnage Castle and Arnol Blackhouse on the Isle of Lewis are some of the attractions where such tours are planned.

Its doom and gloom time at IOM Today with the paper predicting a hyper-ageing population for the Isle of Man on the basis of UN reports. I have this mental age of hordes of people on zimmer frames collecting plastic on the beaches and getting bogged down in the sand. What will happen to the world's ocean when the Beach Buddies demographic age wise becomes critical.

Further protests took place today in Cardiff against plans to dump 300,000 tonnes of mud off the South Wales coast that has been dredged from near the Hinkley Point nuclear power stations in England.  Hinkley Point A stopped producing electricity in 2000 after 35 years of operations and Hinkley Point B has been generating electricity since 1976. Now EDF plan to extract the mud and sediment with the aim of drilling six vertical shafts for the cooling water system for the new Hinkley Point C power station.

Having a ‘rootle’ around, as that pathologist on the TV series ‘Endeavour’ puts it, on the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce website I see their equivalent of the ‘Organisation Todt’ is consolidating itself. Apparently the Construction Committee and the Construction Forum have both been doing the same things so they think they should harmonise things.

Tellingly they say:

‘In Iran the mullahs and their self interest and ideologically based agenda are destroying the economy in the Isle of Man we have the Chamber.’

The Chamber of Commerce will be holding their AGM shortly and in keeping with their new less showy and pushy style these days things seem to have been toned down. For example their will only to a two course meal but thanks to Isle of Man Creameries they shouldn’t to hungry as a cheese board is chucked in.

MTTV has wall to wall motorcycling but to be fair so does Manx Radio only over at IOM Today is there relief with plans for their ‘Isle of Man Awards for Excellence’. Sticking with the latter I suppose it's a tribute to the organising zeal that people can be ‘excellent’ in the face of so much Manx government indifference to suffering.

In what has been described as the best photograph of the Loch Ness Monster taken for a number of years, a 12 year hold girl on holiday has captured an image of "Nessie". The photograph was taken at around 7pm on 17th August. Charlotte Robinson, who was staying with her family in Invermoriston, when Nessie emerged some 50 feet away for about a minute. It then re-surfaced about ten feet further away and submerged again in less than sixty seconds, by which time the photograph had been taken.

Pope Francis (or Jorge Mario Bergoglio to non-believers like you and me) is on a visit to Ireland.

Bergoglio is a ‘nice guy’ (the narrative goes) and he met Leo Varadkar another ‘nice guy’. Leo had to politely tell the Pope off because of some of the Churches failings over child abuse scandals and Bergoglio was suitable contrite. However he has a way of masking is true persona. As part of the ‘nice guy’ image Francis steps out of the Popemobile sometimes to visit refugee centres or wash peoples feet.