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The Manx Chief Minister is making the news - quite literally. It's mightily annoying to some on Manx Forums who think the great man is getting too much air time on Manx Radio but for hecks sake he is Chief Minister of the Isle of Man and he did tell Paul Moulton of MTTV recently that during the summer recess its business as usual….so!

News is thin on the ground even Crown Dependency News is quiet perhaps Eddie Power is scouring MercoPress - expect some South Atlantic stories later.

Temple Church is situated in the small remote hamlet of Temple on Bodmin Moor between Bodmin and Launceston, and lies within the parish of Blisland, it is bounded on the east by the village of St Neot, and to the south by Warleggan and Cardinham.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Manx General Strike generally described as being a success. I should be a cheerleader for the event. My political party Mec Vannin is extolling its virtues and of course I am a creature of the Manx Trade Union movement so what’s not to like about it?

The story goes working people with their backs to the wall rebelled and thereafter the Isle of Man was a better place for workers. Well the first bit is correct but the last is way off beam.

‘Bloody grave robbers’ my friend, a well known Peel character since sadly gone to his own grave’ averred. We were many years ago studying - with the aid of a few pints - some archeological students who at the the time were excavating Peel Castle. You could say it was - on our part - an anthropological study aided by various local beverages of ‘Univeritystudentexciticas’ who had obviously had a good day at the dig and were chilling out by themselves imbibing.

With the centenary of the Manx General Strike due to be commemorated in July, the story brings into focus some of the deprivation suffered by local people at that time and the strenuous efforts of those who formed trade unions to push for reform.

One of the great bonuses of Tynwald having their extended holidays is that we will be spared excerpts from Tynwald or the Keys by MTTV plus ‘The Portal’ at Manx Radio of Ministers answering interminable questions. The coverage I find about as interesting as a Dulux advert that just features paint drying instead of that big dog.

Footpaths are emotive issues. Some of the recent posts by Celtic League Secretary Alan Moore - coincidentally sampling the footpaths of SW Wales at the moment - garnered a brisk take up on our CL Manin Facebook pages. The issue was the state of them and the ‘Bête noire’ Ray Harmer MHK DOI Minister. Harmer is in the mud so to speak again having pushed through Tynwald the rerouting of a footpath on the East of the Island.

Not all MHKs were happy (see link):

With the subject of control and restraint very much de rigueur these days I thought this video of the French police in action on May day was worth an airing. Of course what makes this especially interesting is that government officials of the Macron regime are also involved. Indeed presidential aide Alexandre Benalla was even helpfully kitted out for the fracas by ‘les flics’:

My thoughts turn to Leitrim and a mountain top and my late wife saying as the road along which I was driving suspiciously turned into two ruts down an incredibly steep hill: ‘Do you know where you’re going?’. I averred snappily that I did but was only reassured of my own certainty when about 15 minutes later a discernible road appeared again. Anyway we certainly got views not found on your normal ‘tourist trail’.