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Report here on Crown Dependency News about (Lord) Alf Dubs asking what support the Crown Dependencies are giving to provide homes for youngsters from conflict zones in the Middle East.

Dubs himself was a child refugee from Nazi Europe so he understands at first hand the plight of these in some instances very young people who have lost parents and are surviving in dire circumstances.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK had a ‘work out’ earlier in the day with Kate Beecroft MHK. Kate was trying to get Howard to answer some simple questions. However the questions were close to the bone. Its clear to Kate that the Chief Secretary is running the Island. She queries politely is he doing his own thing or is Howard overseeing matters. The Chief Minister gets really cross and adopts the John Bercow style of parliamentary behaviour.

Chief MInister Howard Quayle MHK will be much too stretched preening himself for the media today as he delivers the State of the Nation address to worry too much about poverty so I thought I would help him out. ‘The boss’ seemed to be having difficulty getting his head around the concept so I thought why not send him to New Zealand?

Howard famously trotted off to New Zealand for a jaunt some years ago when he was Health Minister accompanied by short-lived DHSC CEO Mark Charters (aka Father Fintan Stack) so its an obvious choice to resolve his ‘poverty conundrum’.

Originally posted October 2013 by Myghal Map Serpren

In Kernow, the time of Halloween or Samhain, is known as Nos Calan Gwaf and is widely celebrated. Popularly linked to St Allen or Arlan a little known Cornish Saint, it is also known as Allan day.

A 19th century account informs that:

ALF MUSES OVER SOMEONE CALLED ‘HOWARD QUAYLE’

Earlier in the day I’m focused on the forces of darkness later on it's ‘The Dark Prince’. It's the Alf Cannan MHK Year 2 interview on MTTV and you know that while you can give Ann Corlett or Martyn Perkins MHKs a miss and fade Clare Bellison MHK out after a few minutes with Alf - it's a must watch.

Originally published in 2013

The ancestry of modern Halloween, which needs no introduction here, leads on a straight line back to Samhain, the Celtic feast day of the Dead. One of the four annual feast days of the Celtic world, Samhain was such an important feast day that it did not escape the notice of Julius Caesar as he ravaged Celtic Gaul who remarked that the Celtic god of death and winter was worshipped on this day.

If you're planning a visit to the Isle of Man during the winter season, this would be a great opportunity to visit the forthcoming exhibition about Archibald Knox at the Manx Museum in Douglas.

Beginning mid-October, this will be a rare chance to see a host of items designed by Knox with many of them from private collections and, until now, unseen on the Island.

‘We don't have any ‘forces of darkness’ we just have COMIN and the Chamber of Commerce’.

I’m not a ‘god squadder’ - even if I have taken to beatifying a few Ministers of late but I couldn’t help homing in on the news item about the late Archbishop Oscar Romero who is is line for ‘the big one’ from the Pope.

Oscar famously took a stance in El Salvador over injustice and inequality and of course ‘the forces of darkness’ got rid of him.

The latest raft of surreal statistics arrive from the Manx government and induce the same sense of despair that this regime has lost all touch with reality.

I’m looking at the TV broadcast licence which is due for renewal at the end of next month and thinkings this can't go on!

At the moment we pay the UK licence tax (that's what it is) and also pay about a million a year to Manx Radio. The Station meanwhile makes no secret of the fact it wants ‘a shed load of money’ to have another revamp!

I’m all in favour of having a MANX public service broadcaster and if the money was coming IN FULL from a returned percentage of the broadcast licence I would say ‘carry on’.