Bernard Moffatt's blog

After the Alf (Lord) Dubs off Island entreaty about Crown Dependencies helping refugees we get a helping of local thought from Manx Radio talking to the homeless charity Graih:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/homeless-charity-calls-t...

The report intrigues me less because of its content and more the manner in which news is balanced.

Minister Geoffrey Boot MHK is on the spot over granting seismic survey licences for gas exploration off Maughold just as the IPCC says we need to turn the global thermostat down:

www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/climate-targets-may-prove-too-di...

Boot is generally trumpeting the Islands biosphere status so how asks the reporter are the two things compatible? Geoffrey avers we may have to park our aspirations for a while. He is not it seems a ‘Biosphere Buddy’.

ALF PLANS A ‘GIVEAWAY’ BUDGET!

I can exclusively reveal that Alf Cannan the Manx Treasury Minister is planning ‘a giveaway budget’ next year the detail is being worked on as we speak by his trusty sidekick Sheila Lowe.

Hang on don’t get excited! Alfs idea of a ‘giveaway’ follows the pattern of earlier budgets and earlier Treasury Ministers in that he takes from the less well off to ‘giveaway’ a wedge of public money and tax breaks to the Chamber of Commerce and business community generally.

Inspired by the earlier post I go in search of knowledge about Manx Agriculture and subsidies. Fortunately Catherine Nicoll is in the Manx Radio ‘portal’ talking to Famers representatives.

They outline the rural agricultural scene as they see it including the recent uncharacteristically dry weather which now seems to have been consigned to history.

The one million plus scheme for drought relief for Farmers hit a slight hiccup when Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper said he had been contacted by farmers who had told him that things were not as bad as they’ve been painted. Nonetheless Tynwald were unswayed by the member for Ramsey.

Agriculture Minister Geoffrey Boot refuted his concerns saying it was not the ‘impression’ that he had gained and at the Farmers Union (NFU) welcomed the scheme.

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’.

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.

‘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.