ptarmigan

What’s it full of? Nappies I can understand….but most other stuff can be recycled.

I was really surprised that he was so defensive….didn’t seem a brilliant approach to your electorate.

The Paul moulton video is worth a watch if you have a spare hour…though I think you can safely fast forward through most of mr smiths opening speech.

Manx Gas use the MUA to buy their gas. All hedging decisions etc are made by manx gas, the MU just provide the facility to do it and charge manx gas the price. They don’t make anything on it. They stopped buying for manx gas briefly when they stopped paying in full. It’s all back to usual though. MU’s own hedges must be running out now.

joebean has it pretty much spot on. It was a very toxic culture. The problem is they now have a lot of vacancies to fill. And there's been little or no succession management, and good people who were counter to the culture have long gone. There are really good people in the Civil Service - particularly in technical roles - but it's a massive ship to turn round.

The other way of viewing the vehicle procurement is that it was being done piecemeal, expensively and with little thought for how maintenance would be done. Having fleets procured from one manufacturer gave IoM government more buying power and efficiency in maintenance and safety checks. a few years ago individual departments would send out an EO with a Purchase Order to buy a van when needed, there were few if any records kept of maintenance and they were driven till trashed. fair enough that had improved, but given scale of government purchase you’d expect there to be a fleet manager and synergies in maintenance. Maybe it went too far. But the principle was sound. on the general topic of Government, the CEOs at the top had gone rogue. There had been so many dirty deals and secrets done it had to be cleared out.

Have to kind of agree with this. Ian took on an ancient bordering on dangerous bus fleet with a highly difficult workforce (some v good and some very bad) whose terms and conditions were egregious. And turned it round in the teeth of incredible opposition.

The open roads safety is so much better, it feels safer as a resident and car driver driving round. Much less Wild West during TT. Though yes, luck does play a part. but 3 dead at the bottom of our road, and so close to spectators.

There needs to be a proper, not Tynwald, enquiry into how and on what DOI have spent the money on. The prom and the ferry terminal.

...

PAC is pretty much a waste of time, they have no experience or understanding in these areas. It should be outsourced to someone who does but the focus should be how does this go forward. Skelly says he doesn’t know how much more it will cost or how long it will take, which is honest but terrifying.

Just come back from uK where masks were commonly worn in shops and public transport.

In the 80s we studies merchant of Venice almost entirely in terms of its anti Semitism.

It’s OK for a CEO to waive financial regulations in certain circumstances, where the benefits of going with a certain provider are clear and there’d be nothing to be gained by going out to tender. I can see why it would be done as a trial. And it’s peanuts really. Volunteers clearing footpaths isn’t a bad idea. They are so overgrown and been badly maintained for so long They would take years to put right. my issue would be that not a lot of thought would have gone into it and no scoping done and the KPI are non existent.

Paul moulton interview with Tim. Quite entertaining.