Bernard Moffatt's blog

Our friends at ‘ForcesWatch’ forward their latest bulletin which includes details of their ongoing campaign opposing recruitment of children into the armed forces and the targeting of school for recruitment propaganda.

I find it ironic that the Isle of Man Department of Education and its Minister Graham Cregeen MHK had ‘the skitters’ when it emerged recently that a primary school may have exposed children to the influence of the Islamic religion when the topic of militarisation of children is effectively encouraged in schools.

The idea that we should accommodate a few refugees from the Middle East recently caused major concerns and the fallout continues a Freedom of Information case is still being fought out in the UK to access Manx Government (and Channel Islands) correspondence on the issue (CDN link):

www.facebook.com/…/pho…/a.790761064278269/2247248078629553/…

In Ireland An Taisce (the National Trust for Ireland) is continuing to aggressively pursue the government and its environment policy. The body recently had a significant victory in the Courts and now with ‘its tail up’ so to speak it's challenging a new Heritage Act which would allow a much more relaxed approach to the burning of upland heath.

“In its submission, An Taisce said that the current wording of the draft regulation would give “excessive legislative powers” to the Minister for Heritage Josepha Madigan TD beyond her legal power or authority.

Did you know some Greenland sharks are over four hundred years old. I didn’t but there is that and lots more in this BBC Radio Four programme about sharks by the Irish artist Dorothy Cross who indulges her love for the creatures:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/search…

My colleague the Manx Branch Secretary drew my attention to it.

With a woeful sense of irony the Chief Minister launches a survey into zero hours contracts however in actual fact it's one of those inept Peter and Jane type fill in questionnaires much beloved of MInister Chris Thomas MHK:

https://www.gov.im/zerohours…

Now before anyone gets all ‘arsey’ and says I have always got it in for Howard and Chris I beg to differ. In a COMIN of ‘none of the talents’ they are positively the only shining lights.

The good children of Cronk y Berry School in the Willaston area of Douglas (if the Manx papers are to be believed) may need to be prevented from exposure to Wahhabism and such like austere aspects of Islamic doctrine during RE but in Ireland children are made of sterner stuff and are on the march imbued by a desire not for spiritual fulfillment but to save the planet.

Green News ie reports:

“Secondary school students across Ireland have called for a mass protest next month to demand Government action to tackle climate change and our growing emissions.

Lounging in the sun on the bench at Eary Cushlin last Saturday it was hard not to think ‘god is in his heaven and all's well with the world’. Blissful silence and in the distance the Mournes and Slieve Gullion poking out of the Celtic mists to the West.

(Youtube report here from one of Mann's most important historic houses)

I’m sticking with MTTV I found an earlier interview with Manx Gas so enjoyable I go in search of more and am not disappointed.

Paul Moulton is talking to Charles Guard at Milntown. They really are talking not shouting at each other a la ‘the rumble in the jungle interview’ prior to Xmas about their differing perceptions of Manx Radio's performance;

The Manx Chief Minister this week gave a State of the Nation address to business folk that was divorced from reality. This is the true 'State of the Nation; in 2019

FOOD BANKS

FUEL POVERTY

BENEFITS CUTS

WAITING LISTS

HOMELESSNESS

CHILD HUNGER

ZERO HOUR CONTRACTS

POVERTY PAY

MEANS TESTING OF THE ELDERLY FOR CARE

MISERY FOR SOME

WORKERS RIGHTS TRASHED

FREE HOLIDAYS FOR MHKs

CASH FOR THE CHAMBER

BLISS FOR THE GREEDY FEW!

After the victory in the Irish High Court last month for An Taisce (The National Trust for Ireland) which effectively scuppered plans for oil and gas exploration in the Celtic Sea another pivotal case is in the Court.

This time Friends of the Irish Environment are seeking a judicial review in an attempt to block plans for a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) plant on the Shannon estuary.

An unlikely ally in the fight is the fate of the Bottlenose Dolphin.

Reports here by Green News ie: