Bernard Moffatt's blog

Report here from BBC (Isle of Man) on the call by Tynwald member Bill Henderson MLC for the return of the Chronicles of Man and the Isles currently held by the British Library:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-46724338

Bernard Moffatt

Assistant General Secretary
Celtic League

I hear the Manx Radio report on Minister Geoff Boots ‘Pauline’ conversion from being a climate change heretic. He is now ‘born again’ and extends an olive branch to the newly formed ‘Green Coalition’.

I wonder if he’s been summoned to the ‘headmaster's study and given a quiet talking to by Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK. After all Howard has enough on his plate with Brexit, Beecroft and Chris Robertshaw MHKs - not to mention the Social Attitude Survey which suggests that two thirds of the Manx population want to cast him adrift like Captain Bligh in an open boat.

The great Manx abortion debate is over the handmaid's have defeated the combined wrath of the Christian Soldiers, the Monarch (whose role was invoked at one stage) and prevaricating politicians not least the Chief Minister who at a crucial stage sat on the fence. It’s a good day for woman who will, subject to the anachronism of ‘the Royal Assent’, have the right to choose. Its a bad day for politicians no more free cupcakes delivered by ‘the maids’.

Its the dark days before Xmas and a political torpor has settled over the land. In the Keys they are talking about Brexit again it helps if you are an MHK to present things as if they are complex. Mumbling about how you enable the process to deal with a problem as yet still not determined by the United Kingdom enables you to look away from the food banks and fuel poverty.

For MHK?MLCs the real world out here is to frightening to contemplate best listen to the guidance of the Pisco Kid (aka Juan Watterson SHK) and adjourn for a good lunch at the subsidised canteen!

The Irish peace group PANA (PEACE AND NEUTRALITY ALLIANCE) hold a major conference in Dublin on the 16th of this month.

The theme of the conference is United States and NATO militarism and it launches a global campaign against US/NATO military bases (link):

https://www.pana.ie/

Like a modern day ‘Joan of Arc’, Kate Beecroft MHK, returns to the fray this week in the House of Keys. Last week in a reprise of ‘the Siege of Orleans’ she forced a humiliating climb down and apology from Manx Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK last week.

The news is dire I check Manx Radio and see the Ben-my-Chree is not sailing tonight. I think ‘not again’ and then realise it’s still Friday's news. IOM Today is not much better so I go in search of enlightenment at our TV station MTTV.

James Corrin at IOM News and Politics forwards an exchange between himself and reform Minister Chris Thomas MHK. Although I’m not a member of IOM News he shares some issues across and also carries some of Celtic League or my personal Transceltic ‘mutterings’

An article in the UK Guardian newspaper describes an ‘unprepossessing Victorian building’ on South Quay Douglas and you know the Island is in the news again as ‘a tax haven’.

The feature one of several in recent days reports on an investigation launched by the National Crime Agency (NCA) into funding provided to the Brexit leave campaign:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/01/isle-man-company-allegat...

‘Never apologise it's a sign of weakness’ so the saying goes! I’ve never subscribed to the adage myself believing that on occasion an apology is the best recourse.