'For he's a jolly good fellow'

I’m surmising that if you walked past the Claremont last week as ‘the Chamber of Nonsense’ were holding their AGM you would have heard a rousing chorus of ‘for he’s a jolly good fellow’ as Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK was carried round the room shoulder high.

No word as yet of the AGM. Not like the Chamber to keep a low profile - where was Moulton he’s usually the Mack Sennett of these events. The Chamber did post a nice pic of some cheese on their Facebook page just to rub it in to all food bank users that some of the wealthiest people on the Island were getting free scoff. The picture confirmed my decision to stick firmly with ‘Pilgrims Choice’ - you ‘buy local’ and feed the Chamber for free if you want!

The Chamber must be delighted with the current economic performance of the Island with GDP up by 7.4% as most of the wealth created is going to them.

In the news release pushed out by the propaganda wing of the government and faithfully recycled by Chamber member Manx Radio ‘the great man’ is quoted as saying:

'This report shows that there has been a real increase in personal income for our population. This demonstrates the confidence and commitment that business have in the Isle of Man.

This of course is for our consumption and to make it clear that we are all sharing in the economic miracle that is the Isle of Man ‘A good place to live and starve’. But it’s a myth!

Later on Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly MHK, who is rapidly assuming the role of footman to the business sector, makes it clear where the money is really going he’s quoted as saying:

‘It is really encouraging to see corporate profits growing across all many of our sectors,

When you think about it the footman analogy is quite good as this is more like ‘Gosford Park’ the film than a country with Howard as the Butler and Skelly as one of the ‘jack the lad’ footman. I’ll leave you to fill the other roles. But most of us are just the peasants from the village who don’t even get a walk on part changing the beds.

Leaving aside that the government press release intrigued me. When exactly did Howard and Skelly make these utterances attributed to them. Did Howard much to the astonishment of the family just announce this at breakfast yesterday and jot it on a postit. Did Skelly become seized with the inspiration and compose his spontaneous utterance as he made his way up in the executive lift in St George’s Court?

Personally I don’t think that Howard or Skelly said what's attributed to them at all I think it was just made up in the Cabinet Office. Indeed I’ll put money on it. Maybe I should do a Trevor Cowin or IOM Today and submit an FOI asking at ‘what day at which place and at what time did they say these things’.

You see the government go on about ‘fake news’ but they are the greatest exponents of the art. They have a Department dedicated to crafting spontaneous garbage out of thin air to stuff in Ministers mouths. How can Facebook with one of two malcontents like me compete with that weight of expertise especially when its reheated and spoon fed to you all from Douglas Head. That's what we are reduced to a government of make believe with of course the exception of Chris Thomas. We all know what Chris said because it was recorded in the portal and he went on and on and on!

Remind me how Gosford Park ended - they never did catch the villain!

Bernard Moffatt