I'm not part of their 'bloody region'!

The news is dire I check Manx Radio and see the Ben-my-Chree is not sailing tonight. I think ‘not again’ and then realise it’s still Friday's news. IOM Today is not much better so I go in search of enlightenment at our TV station MTTV.

Alex Bell is doing Review of the Month. I’m miffed I met Moulton in Government Office the other day and he asked me to be ‘on the benches’ as first reserve - now audio-video visual fame has eluded me again. It one thing to be blackballed by Manx Radio but now Moulton as well! I bring forward an advance New Years resolutions to be even more grossly offensive to journalists and the media than I have been up to now,

Still ‘Dinger’ is chuntering away about the month news and soon I stop being miffed because bugger all of any interest seems to have happened. Indeed it's so dire at one point Bell is asking Moulton for an update on the Mount Murray which used to be the Alex Inn but is now called something else.

The big news item of the programme is not the months news review but the fact ‘Dinger’ and Catherine Nicoll are going across the hall at Manx Radio to the large broom cupboard called ‘BBC’ to become part of ‘BBC Greater Manchester’.

This is interesting and may mean that instead of the 90 secs coverage every fourth day the Isle of Man gets we may be upgraded to two and a half minutes. All change at Manx Radio again it’s like musical chairs up there.

I loath BBC Northwest and I immediately make a further advance New Years resolution to support Manx Radio in its plot to get Treasury Minister Alf Cannan MHK to cough two million for a Station upgrade (plus ‘green room for Howard). If you haven’t got pride in your national broadcaster how can you call yourself a country. Never mind the odd bit of video in ‘the portal’ with ‘studio woman’ time to think big. We should be getting streaming TV from ‘the head’ by now. Blow the expense it’s the end of austerity and the Island is at the cutting edge of a new renaissance lets ‘get with the programme’ (literally) and have a National broadcaster ‘to die for’.

No more watching BBC Greater Manchester which annoyingly pretends we are part of ‘THEIR REGION’. Scrutinising its turgid 6:30 bulletin until the last minute when that annoying Diane shoves herself on the studio sofa in the hope you will not miss the 90 second item about the Isle of Man every fourth day.

Alex and Paul are talking about our biosphere status as I come back from my flights of fancy which just kicks me off again. The Isle of Man is the only country that has biosphere status and it's also probably the only country that doesn’t have a proper National TV station!

For the time my aerial will remain directed at Black Mountain to the West and I’ll be tuning into 6.1 News from RTE 1. You watch BBC Greater Manchester if you like!

Image: A region somewhere in a place called England!

Bernard Moffatt