Roger Mexico

Not miles, but I make it pretty near 250 yds [(37.73 miles X 1760)/260] so not a hairbreadth either.And of course some places around the Course will have more fatalities than others, so any memorials would not be evenly spread out. It's still a sobering thought though, and that's before considering all the deaths when the roads aren't closed.

But if you can get off the charge by claiming that there was no barrier enables anyone to go onto the Course, then anyone will be able to do so practically anywhere at any time. Any road closure would become impossible. And if I was this guy I'd feel annoyed that I had pleaded guilty under similar circumstances[[1]. But the legal restriction arises from the road closure order, not how many people are waving flags at you. The IOM Newspapers report seems rather confused (or maybe his defence was) and we'd probably not comment too specifically on it. Incidentally, although the accident involving Mercer took place at about Ballacrye Road, presumably he was sent back from where the previous accident had happened at Churchtown about 6 km further on. So maybe not the same sector (unless 'Up North' is all the same). [1] Incidentally we haven't had his sentence reported that I can discover (it was due on 20 August). As usual we get the first part of a court case from the Manx media, but not the rest of it.

My point was more that they don't need to be able to show most of the staff on camera, indeed it would only confuse viewers if there were too many named ones. It's just the way television is made. Similarly I suspect there would never have been any possibility of a second series. You'd really need to have started filming after the previous one was filmed for any sense of continuity. Because there is a lag on average of about a year between when this was filmed and shown, that was clearly never planned. And from the IOMG's point of view it would make it look more like a docusoap than a documentary - one series is enough to explain how the prison operates.

You'd lose that bet. We now have more details of the charges: Obviously there needs to be no further speculation beyond what information has already appeared in the public domain, but it's worth pointing out that prison staff being discovered smuggling contraband into prisons is far from unknown - there were 71 cases in England and Wales in 2017 for example where staff were "either dismissed, excluded, convicted or cautioned by police".

It's more than three, but they've clearly chosen to concentrate on a handful of 'characters'. That's just the way that such series work. On the whole they've been looking at different prisoners each week (except for the female ones and that's because there's so few), so to keep the continuity from week to week you're seeing the same members of staff, such as Margo Cain or George 'Stores'. Some members of staff (and quite a lot of prisoners) may have chosen not to appear and so are pixellated or it may be that they didn't bother to ask some to sign waivers. But it's mainly because that is the way television is made.

It's a strange report isn't it: It seems mainly to be based on the Facebook post, but you can't see why they would seize a weapon without arresting its possessor as well. And if no further detail has been released, how do they know they'll have more on Tuesday?

I wondered where Cregeen was, as Hooper seems to have been minding things for at least a month (he was covering him over the NEC delays on 25 July) and nothing has been heard of Cregeen since he was accused of bullying a week before that. For once this doesn't seem to be a mess of IOMG's making, so it's quite an achievement to manage to make yourself look bad with it. Usually you can just set the teaching unions against each other and stand back in this situation. Of course just as mysterious is the absence of any senior civil servants who you would be expecting to explain this situation, rather than leaving it to Hooper. But if they are all as clueless-sounding as the one in the NEC interview, that might be wise. I think you're being a bit optimistic thinking that extreme incompetence would be seen as reason for losing your job in this government though. Quayle would surely be in favour of people swanning off for a month to the Antipodes. Though he might think that Cregeen was letting the side down if he was paying for it himself.

But if you think about it getting along with each other is pretty much a necessity for a decent society. There is this paradox of law enforcement in a small community. Obviously there can be downsides of such chumminess (corruption, favouritism) but there can be advantages too (better information) and social restraints can also make people behave better than they would in a larger community.

This was always going to degenerate into the Four Yorkshiremen Sketch, wasn't it?

@ecobob is correct about the effect of privatisation (and Academisation) on schools in England, but it's worth pointing out that there is still a school means service in the Isle of Man. There are even standard menus on that site. That said they did manage their own style of mess by centralising catering services under the control of the DHSC with absolutely predictable results. And the exact opposite of the cost savings that were promised.Which of course then led to them having to split the schools catering off again. And smaller primary schools (all but the biggest ten) actually have their meals prepared by an outside company, so there is privatisation there.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=50442&headline=Prison officer to appear in court&sectionIs=NEWS&searchyear=2019 Well in the last episode Margo Cain did say that there were some of the staff she didn't trust. The fact that other people have been arrested in connection with this alleged offence may indicate that something more organised was going on, rather than just a one-off.

I listed the replies to Moorhouse from the CM before on this thread and the 'Nuffink to do with us Gov' response from DfE elsewhere, but it's worth listing what some of the various response from DHA were (question no in [ ]): Obviously most of this anyone sensible could have guessed, but it's interesting how much control and cooperation they did have. As Derek said the TV production companies don't want to get a reputation for distorting what happens, because they know that it will put other people off from working with them.

That was just about the reply to one of Moorhouse's more ridiculous questions: Though they must have asked separately as, to get it in the Examiner, they would have needed to know in advance before WQ answers were published. Of course they would never had had the power and in any case pulling the programme would make things look worse than broadcasting it.

Some interesting information in response to an FoI request was released this week ( ref: 931113; Manx Utilities replacement of manually read electricity metres/ Manx Utilities Authority / 22/08/2019)

It's all a bit of nothing. Here's the entire Written Question and reply it's based on: So there's nothing definite, just saying that they will look at in the context of other things.