Manx CPI rises - What next from 'Cruella' life for stealing sticks.

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.

We are told that the increase is driven by oil price rises well there is likely to be no good news there in the foreseeable future. If global energy prices are rising in the summertime there is only one trajectory henceforth further up!. Another uncertainty is Brexit with former Cabinet Ministers in the UK using euphemisms about ‘suicide vests’. It's not a bad analogy. Sometimes I think COMIN collectively have ‘metaphorical suicide vests’ strapped on waiting to detonate them when they can do most harm. Perhaps I muse that's why Howard is always making those peculiar grimaces when interviewed by Moulton - his vest is obviously uncomfortable.

Joking aside rising CPI announcements disguise the real inflation in our economy felt by many workers tied in for almost a decade to below inflation pay increases while those on fixed incomes and other vulnerable groups starve or freeze. Pensioners meanwhile should stop getting hyper-aged and just die!

The utilities public and private will make things worse. Manx Gas can’t wait to put up prices and are possibly only deterred by the forthcoming OFT report - but have no illusions that will be a damp squib. Manx Telecom going by the Manx Radio Sunday Mannin Line seem to be enraging their customers by the curious pricing mechanism that takes your money but gives you ‘nothing’. Although on MT I stay quiet these days you can only handle one ‘customer experience’ a year. ‘Popeye’ at MUA meanwhile continues the work started by Alf Cannan (aka the patron saint of high electricity prices) by waiting in the wings to tax you further on water, sewage in addition to our already stratospheric electricity charges.

Don’t think to return to more traditional forms of heating either. Remember the lady who took a bundle of sticks some years ago was jailed by resident Court ‘Cruella Deville’, the Deputy High Bailiff’. Given inflation the custodial tariff for a bundle of sticks these days is probably a life term!

Image: The Manx Courts you always get a fair crack of the whip - usually across your back!

Bernard Moffatt