Roger Mexico

It's those white shirts. They make everyone look as if it's their first day at secondary school.

But the irony is that during lockdown it wouldn't matter where she was. If you can't deal with constituents and people in government etc face-to-face and have to communicate via phone calls, e-mails, videocalling and so on, then where you are located doesn't make much difference. So she was providing just the same service as every other MHK could under the circumstances Meetings of Tynwald and the Keys were all virtual and she seems to attended most of those, asking questions and so on. She hasn't attended any since they wen't 'live' again (though one she attended 'virtually') so it may be that she has to self-isolate for medical reasons. That could explain why she is stepping down now rather than just not standing again in 2021 (which is what I expected would happen).

Heart problems as well - though the statistician in me would like to see a 'blind' study with equal number of patients who hadn't had Covid-19.

I put the full press release (which has a bit more detail than the Manx Radio piece) on the Prom thread where I thought it was more appropriate. I don't know if it will have much effect on the Glencrutchery mess-ups directly, because no one will be going round the full loop except Longworth's pointless buses. But it might mean more people going into town.

No one seems to realise this, but Douglas South is not the solid council estate that people think it is - and that it was 40 years ago. This is because of the growth of housing in the Ballaughton part of the constituency. That polling district now makes up 62% of Douglas South (on 2011 electors) and if you add the bit of private housing in Pulrose PD (north of Groves Road) private housing probably now makes up pushing two-thirds of the electorate. At the last boundary review it lost St Georges PD with Hillside Avenue and the Lord Street Flats. Cretney had worked hard in the Ballaughton part, but it was noticeable that they didn't even try to put up a second labour candidate in recent years. But by then the MLP had just become the DC Fan Club anyway. I'm not sure that they have that much to throw at anything. I sure I saw something recently when they announced that membership was booming and it has soared to ... 35.

Really, when you think of how many lost elections, referendums etc since have been blamed on the Russians since, Martin Moore is a man truly ahead of his time. Yes it's amazing how cunning those Russians are. Actually getting elected at a by-election about a year before a general election is a pretty good way of making sure you get the next time. People still remember you and you're less likely to get lost in the campaign. The only exception I can think of is Joughin in Douglas East last time and that was after he'd been elected more or less randomly on what must have been the lowest number of votes since universal suffrage. Even then he only lost to Robertshaw by 7 votes. Speaking of records, is this the first time there has ever been a double by-election on the Island? (Assuming that is what will happen).

There's already a by-election due in the constituency of course. If she's stepping down with immediate effect they will need to get one sorted out fairly soon.

Meanwhile back on the Prom they're now deciding that two way traffic is a good idea anyway: (Manx Radio has a cut down version of this press release as 'new' but you might as well get it straight from the organ grinder).

The article is from 2009 and appears to be based on promotional material for an unseen TV programme. So hardly the most reliable source. There wasn't ever a 'white slave trade' - those sent to the Americas actually went as indentured servants. They were treated appallingly, often as badly as slaves, but unlike slaves their position wasn't for life and wasn't hereditary. The same thing applied to those sent across unwillingly as prisoners of war. Which wasn't confined to the Irish or to the Civil War period, though they do rather tend to magnify every wrong that Cromwell did and downplay those done by anyone they see as being on their side. As for the Bajan 'Redlegs', they're well known. They're now a fairly small community as some escape to affluence and others marry out. Whether they're as Irish as some claim is another matter - here's the High Commissioner for Barbados saying they are Scottish and I've seen other things suggesting West Country roots. In practice they're probably a mixture with a strong Irish component. The best recent article I found was on an Irish American website. Whether they are any poorer than their black rural neighbours, I don't know, but many of them are still very poor.

A little, but not as much as we would like. And last Tuesday's figure was exactly the same as the previous week's (also 155). The problem with assessing the UK Covid figures is that deaths are 'lagging' indicator. They tell you about who was catching the virus 3-4 weeks ago (it take an average 5-6 days to show symptoms and deaths occur maybe 2-3 weeks later). That's without all the other problems of lack of diagnosis and late reporting. There's clearly a problem in the UK with weekend reporting in particular (Monday's death figures are for those who are supposed to have died on Sunday) and you can see the pattern clearly on the chart in my link that shows the deaths by day. Cases should be a more immediate measure, but that depends so much on how many people you test and who they are. Even if you don't completely screw up your numbers like the UK has done, it's very difficult to compare infection rates over time because of changes to the testing regime (often very valid ones), never mind comparing between countries.

This happens every Monday[1]. I've been pointing out this happens every Monday since March. No bugger takes the slightest notice. (Including all those journalists who cheer about it every seven days. At least goldfish aren't paid to be forgetful) [1] Eg Monday 6 July 16 deaths, Tuesday 7 July 155 deaths.

What does half of that even mean. "[T]he world’s most effective border" - what more than North Korea? Most of the British media seems to have degenerated into putting out Government press releases with added gush. They make Gef look like Woodward and Bernstein. Pravda under Stalin would have been embarrassed by some of this stuff and London journalists don't have the excuse that they will be sent to the Gulag if they say the wrong thing - at worst they might not be invited to the odd drinks party. All it actually means is that the Government have given some mates of theirs contacts to deliver complicated systems about which they have no experience or knowledge, but non-delivery doesn't really matter because the purpose is to give your mates money.

Never mind Iceland, fishing by English boats off Newfoundland started in the late 15th century and continued from then on. There were rumours that even before Cabot landed in North America, Bristol fishermen knew of its existence although they may not have landed.

You could also use captured vessels for false flag operations - as indeed they did on some of the Icelandic raids. Galleys were mainly useful only on shorter distance journeys in the Mediterranean and in warfare where their speed and manoeuvrability were best suited. The leader of that raid, like many Barbary corsairs, was actually European (Dutch) and was also responsible for the famous raid on Baltimore in Ireland. He also captured and held Lundy Island for five years. Most of those taken as slaves by corsairs were actually sailors and some gained their freedom by joining the corsairs and usually converting to Islam. Others actually joined them directly for financial advantage.

Shoprite price rises have been complicated by the switch to Sainsbury from Iceland/Waitrose. Technically this happened January but the gradual using up of old stock meant that the new stuff wasn't all there till March, just as lockdown started to happen. The Sainsbury stuff (or at least what Shoprite charge for it) seems more expensive than Iceland's was. Sometimes by quite a lot. Tesco is also complicated by pre-Covid policy as they seem to have been trying to reduce the availability of their budget ranges and gradually raise prices on standard lines before the virus hit. One oddity I have noticed is that they seem to have dropped their Manx premium - the extra 5% or so they charged in the Douglas store over what you would pay in the UK on a lot of items in standard and budget ranges.