Manx Post dispute: Mr Micawber's wife turns up!

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for postmen and women Mr Micawber's wife Emma turns up played by Howard Quayle MHK.

Emma's (sorry Howard's) maxim of course was that despite all his foibles 'she' would ‘never desert Mr Micawber’. Our modern day of version Mr Micawber is Alfred Cannan MHK who is micro-managing the Post Office dispute from Treasury HQ.

Publicly of course Howard is reasonableness personified and whilst Alfred and ‘Julie Garland’ MHKs may have their feet firmly on the neck of the CWU members Howard tries to extend a more paternalistic persona.

‘HELLO HOWARD (note I’m shouting) no one is asking the community to subsidise the Post Office but we were bloody delighted as it subsidised us to the tune of millions for decades - milked of by the Manx Treasury’!

‘If only’ says Howard ‘everyone would see reason and except the realities of the day all would be well’. The Post Office made a loss recently Howard avers - no it didn’t if you discount the money it paid to treasury. Anyway since when did having fiscal difficulty signify a death knell? Some industries have made losses for decades such as Agriculture but we don’t let the fields lie fallow.

Meanwhile Engineering would grind to a halt if government grants had not been made for over four decades to keep it afloat. By the way some of those grants questionable - I know where the bodies are buried!

As Brexit approaches and some poor lambs in the business community are ‘a bit lost’ Laurence Skelly is happily writing cheques for thousands of pounds ‘to help them out’. It seems only postal workers have to be dealt with firmly. It reminds me of my father telling me about swimming lessons in the Army in 1943 - they just lined them up on the edge of the deep end and threw them in. Obviously Alf is applying British Army swimming lesson philosophy to the Manx post Office meanwhile Howard is being ‘Emma’!

All the time Manx Radio report this drivel as if its sensible and another day passes as the Isle of Man drifts from being surreal to dystopian.

Here’s the link:

https://www.manxradio.com/…/post-office-should-reconsider-…/

Image: The poster says ‘Fighting for Future’ if they fail this fight their future is bleak left to the mercy of those scallywags on Prospect Hill!

Bernard Moffatt