Blogs

With a woeful sense of irony the Chief Minister launches a survey into zero hours contracts however in actual fact it's one of those inept Peter and Jane type fill in questionnaires much beloved of MInister Chris Thomas MHK:

https://www.gov.im/zerohours…

Now before anyone gets all ‘arsey’ and says I have always got it in for Howard and Chris I beg to differ. In a COMIN of ‘none of the talents’ they are positively the only shining lights.

The good children of Cronk y Berry School in the Willaston area of Douglas (if the Manx papers are to be believed) may need to be prevented from exposure to Wahhabism and such like austere aspects of Islamic doctrine during RE but in Ireland children are made of sterner stuff and are on the march imbued by a desire not for spiritual fulfillment but to save the planet.

Green News ie reports:

“Secondary school students across Ireland have called for a mass protest next month to demand Government action to tackle climate change and our growing emissions.

One hundred years ago, on 3rd February 1919, Éamon de Valera (14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975), a leading figure in Ireland's fight for independence, made an audacious escape from Lincoln Gaol in England. He was detained there as one of a number of political prisoners held by the British.  Eamon de Valera took part in the Easter Rising of April 1916, which was launched by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic. During the Rising he commanded forces holding Boland's Mill on Grand Canal Street in Dublin.

Lounging in the sun on the bench at Eary Cushlin last Saturday it was hard not to think ‘god is in his heaven and all's well with the world’. Blissful silence and in the distance the Mournes and Slieve Gullion poking out of the Celtic mists to the West.

(Youtube report here from one of Mann's most important historic houses)

I’m sticking with MTTV I found an earlier interview with Manx Gas so enjoyable I go in search of more and am not disappointed.

Paul Moulton is talking to Charles Guard at Milntown. They really are talking not shouting at each other a la ‘the rumble in the jungle interview’ prior to Xmas about their differing perceptions of Manx Radio's performance;

The Manx Chief Minister this week gave a State of the Nation address to business folk that was divorced from reality. This is the true 'State of the Nation; in 2019

FOOD BANKS

FUEL POVERTY

BENEFITS CUTS

WAITING LISTS

HOMELESSNESS

CHILD HUNGER

ZERO HOUR CONTRACTS

POVERTY PAY

MEANS TESTING OF THE ELDERLY FOR CARE

MISERY FOR SOME

WORKERS RIGHTS TRASHED

FREE HOLIDAYS FOR MHKs

CASH FOR THE CHAMBER

BLISS FOR THE GREEDY FEW!

After the victory in the Irish High Court last month for An Taisce (The National Trust for Ireland) which effectively scuppered plans for oil and gas exploration in the Celtic Sea another pivotal case is in the Court.

This time Friends of the Irish Environment are seeking a judicial review in an attempt to block plans for a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) plant on the Shannon estuary.

An unlikely ally in the fight is the fate of the Bottlenose Dolphin.

Reports here by Green News ie:

‘Our work to end poverty and homelessness in the Isle of Man goes on’. (Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK 1st February 2019)

I eventually get round to reading ‘the great man’s’ (aka Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK) words in his ‘State of the Nation Address’ given to something called ‘The Alliance of Compliance Professionals’ which sounds like a paramilitary wing of the Chamber of Commerce.

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.

When we reported plans in Ireland to phase out peat burning power stations and switch them to more sustainable biomass it seemed like good news. However Green News ie reports that US environmental groups are unimpressed:

‘The ESB said that the transition from peat to sustainable biomass at its Midlands stations is part of its “commitment to leading Ireland’s transition to a low-carbon future”.