Mann: ‘Sceptred Isle’ Being Turned into a Giant Cash-Point for Government

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NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Mann: ‘Sceptred Isle’ Being Turned into a Giant Cash-Point for Government

They’re arrogant, self serving, politically narcissistic and they want to empty your pocket. When will the worms turn? Other jurisdictions produce non-violent civil disobedience when will Manx people decide enough is enough

What do you do about a government that stopped listening that arrogantly piles charge after charge on the public whilst pretending the opposite is the case?

The current spat about charges for stands at Tynwald is small beer in the litany of increases that government has applied in the past few years. A sewerage charge introduced at £50 and rising, the withdrawal of pensioners benefits, changes to social security and pensions on the way – and there’s only one way they are going and that’s down!

This week people around the Island will see rates bills, most increased by above inflation, drop through the door. More importantly they are accompanied by a statement saying the government wants to consult on a new rating system. They want it to be more ‘accurate and fair’ this is Orwellian double-speak for ‘they want it to increase’.

Cynically, the government plays of one interest group against another. They have in recent years hiked the rates for social housing up by well above inflation knowing that a significant section of the property owning public would support this. However it is all smoke and mirrors and every section of Manx society is now impacted by charges, levies and licence increases.

The ‘Prospect Hill Cabal’ are not only voracious in terms of the fiscal impact their increasingly erratic policies generate they are cheeky with it.

Recently the Treasury Minister justified stripping a free TV licence of a pensioner of over 75 years by saying blithely that some pensioners could afford a Sky TV package.

All over the Island pensioners in some instances are struggling to pay utility bills (which increased here as they decreased in Ireland and the UK) or put food on the table.

It is not just pensioners all elements of society are impacted – some with secure incomes can weather the storm – but for others it is a nightmare. For all there is a realisation that this government is out of touch or out of control or both.

What is to be done? On some internet social media there’s talk about the next election and indeed some of the existing members of the house seem to take this seriously as evidenced by the indecent scramble to secure lucrative vacant positions in the Legislative Council.

Who would have thought 40 years ago that a body that produced independent thinkers such as the late Jack Nivison, willing to challenge the norms of the day, would be would become a refuge for rejects. Indeed the last refuge of a set of self-serving scoundrels.

Dispiritingly an election will bring no significant change as evidenced by those who have entered the ‘House of Keys’ before, only to become familiars of its narcissistic politics.

In other jurisdictions faced with such problems direct action was seen as the only road. In the United Kingdom one of the most significant and contentious figures of the twentieth century, Margaret Thatcher, was brought to her knees when she went too far and introduced the poll tax. A quarter of a century on in Ireland anti-austerity protests show no sign of abating and no-violent civil disobedience is the norm.

So what about this ‘Sceptred Isle’ which is being turned into giant cash-point by the current government?

When will enough be enough?

When will worms turn?

J B Moffatt (Mr)

Director of Information
Celtic League

09/04/15

(Please note that replies to correspondence received by the League and posted on CL News are usually scanned hard copies. Obviously every effort is made to ensure the scanning process is accurate but sometimes errors do occur)

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