Bernard Moffatt's blog

I had one of my weekly sojourns into ‘the northlands’ today to stock up at the farm shop most relaxing. I love their produce which is tasty - par excellence! Carrots you would die for plus eggs that for once don’t defy the title ‘large’ unlike some you see on supermarket shelves.

It's a ‘help yourself and pay up in the honesty box’ operation. The only concession to the modern age is a CCTV camera I suppose that's inevitable. It does though make you hark back to an earlier time in Mann when there was more openness and trust.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle and his gaffe prone Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly are at the Labour Party conference. It shows a kind of paternalistic side to Howard given that a previous time Skelly had a ‘gaffe’ Howard took him away from the limelight (was it Vision 9?).

Skelly has now presided over the Economic Development Fund, Vision 9 and the disastrous Manx Rally fiasco (are there any more - mail me). Surprised that Howard hasn’t sent him to ROOM 101 rather than taking him for an outing to meet ‘the brothers’.

Alf Cannan gets a further helping in the portal and Tim seems to have a brand new white shirt for the occasion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=29&v=tT1R3sNIoqc

Although I’m caustic about these interviews it's not because they take place and provide me with an opportunity for cynicism but because they fail to realise any substance.

MTTV have nailed Howard Quayle MHK (Manx Chief Minister) down for the weekly press conference which is a relief. I was getting tired of seeing and hearing people like Alf Cannan MHK and Chris Thomas MHK who are kind of the Blackadder and Baldrick of Howard’s regime.

Reacting to the recent Manx Radio / Treasury Minister ‘love fest’ one commentator on the CL Facebook site said that Manx Radio should be ‘left to die a natural death’.

Strangely whilst understanding the reasons behind the sentiment I can’t share them. I have an unerring personal habit of sticking with principles once adopted including those adopted 55 years ago.

Cannan and Skelly remind me of Matthew 15:14:

"Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

The government policy to give away £50 million pounds of YOUR financial reserves has been ended the policy as with most strategies pursued by the Department for Enterprise has thankfully been a total flop:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/50-million-enterprise-de...

Manx Radio should be ashamed to peddle this nonsense from Alf Cannan MHK and Treasury Minister:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/treasury-takes-bold-step...

‘As I imagine myself gazing out on the flowing waters of the Dniester Media man is still droning on to MTTV!’

It's a kind of ‘media luvvie do’ at government house and MTTV of course are there. Somehow however from the start I get the sense Paul Moulton’s heart is not in it - unusual - maybe it's just perception.

He’s interviewing someone called Wilson who I’ve never heard of it turns out he's the Chief Executive Officer of Isle of Man Media - still none the wiser:

Earlier this month a Basque campaigners demanded answers to the issue of political activists who disappeared in Spain and France over the past over forty years. August 30th is International Day of the Disappeared.

This report (originally from Mediabask) from Breton site 7seizh:

http://7seizh.info/2018/09/06/sept-disparitions-non-resolues-dans-le-con...

YOU’LL GET ‘A TROLLEY IN THE CORRIDOR’ UNDER ALFS PLANS FOR HEALTH

Well ‘stone the crows’ if it isn’t ‘fake news’:

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=43002&headline=Health%20Departm...

Far from being in the red four months into the financial year the IOM Health Service is as usual underfunded.