Blogs

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’.

The Royal National Mòd (Scottish Gaelic: Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail) is the most important of several annual  major Mòds. It is the main festival of Scottish Gaelic literature, song, arts and culture and often referred to as the Mòd. The festival began in Dunoon (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Omhain) on Friday night, with a special celebration honouring Scotland's Year of Young People. During the next eight days, (12 - 20th October) more than 200 competitions and events in Highland dancing, sport, literature, drama, Gaelic music and song will be held.

A ‘SAVING’ OR A ‘SLIGHT OF HAND’?

The Manx Independent has the two story about the Hospital Consultants and the closure of the Private Patient Unit online (see links) below:

Much is being made of the so called ‘saving’ to be made almost a quarter of a million pounds so has the unit been subsidised, Apparently not the saving is actually as I understand it a slight of hand.

Staff utilised on the PPU will be transferred as it closes to other duty this will cut down on the need to engage temporary locum or bank staff in the General Hospital.

The BBC recently reported that a pre-census survey by the Welsh Office of National Statistics shows 874,700 people are able to speak the language, up from 726,600 in 2008. Roughly a 20% increase. The data was published as part of the “Annual Population Survey” as a run up to the full census to be taken in 2021.

The survey shows an increase the number of Welsh speakers in every local authority except for a minor decrease in Torfaen, where there was a 0.5% decrease, and Flintshire, where numbers fell by about 6.2%.

“The argument should be conducted in the DHSC boardroom at Markwell House or the floors of Nobles. Instead we have ‘Mr Speaker’ asking questions in Tynwald about Consultants pay. Pretty rich from a man who didn’t even pay for his own paracetamol on that Falklands jolly!”

Ironically next week when Howard Quayle MHK, Manx Chief Minister, gets to his feet and delivers a ‘State of the Nation’ in Tynwald address will coincide with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (Oct 17th).

It's debatable if any new initiatives to tackle poverty in the Isle of Man will be announced we will probably have to wait for Treasury Minister Alf Cannan MHK to conclude his great budget ‘talkathon’ with the masses and even then I wouldn’t hold your breath.