Bernard Moffatt's blog

I see this on Manx Radio News and right adjacent online is their we love the Chamber of Commerce strapline:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/promoting-the-constructi...

I muse is this an unpaid advertorial. Indeed does the Isle of Man population really care that five guys who seem to be some sort of advert for differing styles of ‘pilot shirt’ have come together!

In Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel ‘WE’ the sinister role is played by ‘the Bureau of Guardians’ a kind of Secret Police but not in the sense we view them as ‘WE’ is set far in the future.

In the Isle of Man you wonder if we haven’t reached our dystopian future already when you read how Isle of Man Newspapers is being denied access to banal information on how the government news machine works.

‘The evil men do say or plan is best hidden’! That seems to be the mantra of the Isle of Man government as indicated by the refusal to respond openly and in full to this fairly innocuous request from IOM Newspapers for information on government policy in dealing with the media:

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=42728&headline=Our%20FoI%20requ...

IOM Today has an article on food poverty and the problems of families who utilise the school meals system which is closed during the holiday period.

A couple of contributions to the piece from Chris Thomas and Alf Cannan MHKs caused me to raise an eyebrow especially as when I think of Chris and Alf I think more in terms of ‘self satisfied’ and ‘self-centred’ respectively.

Chris is still grappling with trying to ‘understand’ the problem. I mean there is this gem:

Saturday last was the 82nd anniversary of the stance of a group of pacifists and Welsh Nationalists to halt the construction of an RAF bombing school in Wales. Two years ago to mark the 80th anniversary I wrote the article below for the Celtic League.

The pacifist stance by Saunders Lewis, DJ Williams and Lewis Valentine is continued today in Wales by groups such as Cymdeithas y Cymod who are to the fore in the campaign against drone strikes and the use of Wales for developing drone technology. (Link):

What I averred last month has come to pass CPI is on the increase. The ‘fall’ last time was a construct simply an illusion as the government changes the way these things are measured.

If you are going to be a pensioner in these Islands off the coast of Europe apparently you get a better deal if you are Irish (ie 26 Counties).

Natixis which compiles a Global Retirement Index places Ireland in the top ten at No 7 in its 2018 index up there with Switzerland and the Nordic countries. The Republic had been at No 14 last year but has shot seven place up the list in contrast the UK which was ranked at 18 and has moved one place to 17:

I can be somewhat zany I have an irrational habit of hurling any missives from government immediately into the pedal bin which can have unforeseen consequences. Some of the offspring have remonstrated with me over this and I suppose it is a tad irrational. However just as I start to think that I’m slightly loopy some really zany individuals appear.

I mean of course ‘Travelwitch’ and I could have put money yesterday (and won) on the fact that they would pop up on Manx Radio today after yesterday's Liverpool berth announcement by Ray Harmer:

Today I was like William Wordsworth after doing my bit for the Irish Red Cross - ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ - so to speak into Douglas for a little retail therapy and then drifted back to Peel via a call up West Baldwin to see if things were really so bad in the reservoir as ‘Popeye’ and the MUA are predicting.

Trevor Cowin is still banging on about leachate disposal into what the government euphemistically call ‘a closed sewer’ system. Anyway good for Trevor! (Link):

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=42693&headline=Leachate%20inves...