Blogs

I got this email yesterday ‘Dear Bernard, As an’ - Hang on lets just park that for a moment as MTTV have a ‘MHK Year 2’ interview and its the big one Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK.

Paul Moulton is with ‘the great man’ in the COMIN room with Howard sitting in ‘the big chair’. Paul presumably has the one Treasury Minister Alf Cannan sits in at Council meetings whilst eyeing Howard’s ‘big one’ enviously.

Urdd Gobaith Cymru (Urdd) is the largest organisation for children and young people in Wales, with 30% of all Welsh speakers in Wales aged between 8-25 being members. Since it was established in 1922 it has played a significant role in promoting a Welsh and Welsh-speaking citizenship amongst Welsh youth.  They organise a range of activities and develop projects that increase the use of the Welsh language  by children and young people. This includes 150 sports clubs that meet weekly and the Urdd Theatre Company.

The Health Services needs stability and that is something it patently does not seem to have at present.

Staff should be able to carry out their duties which help avert life threatening or life changing situations in an atmosphere of industrial relations stability. A key factor in workplace stability is good two way communications and yet the resignation letter from a Consultant in the Manx Independent points to the complete opposite of this.

Commemorations were held today in both Ireland and Wales to mark the centenary of the sinking of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company ship RMS Leinster. It resulted in the deaths of 564 people in the single-largest loss of life on the Irish Sea. The RMS Leinster had just set sail on 10th October 2018 from Dún Laoghaire in Ireland and was bound for Holyhead (Caergybi) in Wales, when it was sunk by a German U-boat in the closing weeks of World War I. 

Despite what some in the Keys may think I don’t hang on their every word so it was only today that someone told me that Chris Thomas MHK had added some cryptic mutterings on his MHK Facebook page about me on International Day of Older Persons. Apparently Chris has two Facebook pages I hadn’t worked that out either - its awful when you are old and slow!

Chris is always giving me advice and he joins a growing band of ‘Bernie obsessionals’ such as Treasury Minister Alf Cannan MHK who mentioned me in his budget speech and that lawyer chappie who...well wasn’t very pleasant.

Seventy seven candidates passed their Cornish Language Board exams this year and successful students were presented with their certificates at a ceremony at Lys Kernow on 15 September.

The new Grand Bard, Liz Carne, congratulated the students and praised the work of our volunteer teachers.

MTTVs ‘MHK Year two’ are heavy going I’ve missed most although I did savour the ‘Thought and Teachings of Chairman Robertshaw’ MHK. I also watched part of the Clare Bettison MHK rendition before killing it. However I watch the Daphne Caine MHK one all the way through.

The big plump juicy story of the day is a bit like its persona. Its Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK and the Tynwald Order Paper. To get to it I have to ferret about on mainstream and social media which is a cacophony of dross

Manx news is all over the show. IOM Today have caught up on the Manx Radio loss item and although they focus mainly on the facts they make sure they also home in on some of the juicy salaries for senior staff up there. They also chuck in the assertion that Manx Radio are doing ‘knockdown’ rates for advertising which of course the station of course deny.

“International Atomic Energy Agency study two decades ago: concluded that concentrations (of Technetium 99 etc) in the Lough were broadly similar to those measured elsewhere along this (Irish) coast”

Yesterday I reported on the controversy over the dumping of dredged spoil from Carlingford Lough in the Irish Sea to keep the waterway to the busy Port at Warrenpoint open.

Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) will close the three day SNP Conference in Glasgow today with a message of "hope and optimism".  Her speech will have a constitutional theme and point to the opportunities offered by an independent Scotland. She will say: "The Westminster government stumbles from day to day and disaster to disaster. It's hard to watch that unfolding calamity and feel anything other than despair.

"So it is up to us - now more than ever - to offer optimism and hope.