General Election 2011 - Onchan

[VinnieK]

What Onchan needs are people who can formulate coherant solutions to the problems we face.

 

If these are the candidates I have to choose from so far, I'm annoyed there isn't going to be a "None of the above" option on the ballot.

 

I'd actually be happy with someone who had some kind of principles deeper than a vague mission statement cobbled together out of old buzzwords, and who could simply listen to prospective solutions and think intelligently about them, in particular with a view to recognising their merits and flaws, and make a decision.

 

My worry is that we'll either end up with the same old lot: be it the incumbants or some flash harry who in every meaningful way is exactly the same as them, but who happens to say what in our slightly fretful state sounds like the right thing. On that subject, I see Nick Veradi has fired the first broadside in the Chamber of Commerce's campaign against Tynwald

[Slim]

 

The one and only Administrator Hero Member

 

 

A few members have appeared, all with very similar opinions and lack of punctuation skills, all agreeing with each other. Hmm

[SugarBee]

Sure, I joined the new forum, why not?

 

James Corrin is not the administrator nor moderator.

 

Why gang up on him or anyone else?

 

Sheesh!

[guilty]

Well, there he is.

Zac Hall, an Eastern Airlines pilot, standing for LVP in Onchan.

Never heard of him.

[Lonan3]

Well, there he is.

Zac Hall, an Eastern Airlines pilot, standing for LVP in Onchan.

Never heard of him.

So it's Zac Hall vs Bugger 'all vs Sod 'all vs F**k 'all?

[VinnieK]

Where's Nessa?

[Slim]

I don't know if Vader is the candidate for Onchan, I've no idea who he is. The suggestion above that he is just reminded me of the old threads

 

There you go, he's admitted he's Vader on the other forum in his manifesto

 

Manifesto of James Corrin House of Keys Election 2011 Onchan Sheading

As an individual I cannot and will not make promises that I cannot deliver. But I can tell you my views so you will know what I will be fighting for if you elect me.

Constitution

The legislative Council should be elected by the people and not by the House of Keys. Members of Tynwald should get a flat rate salary and not be paid any extra for being ministers or members of departments or committees and should not receive expenses. They are paid enough anyway. The Isle of Man should go down the road that Scotland has and become more independent. To have a Governor presiding over us is colonial and in modern times is sick. We can still retain the Queen as Head of State without a Governor, and still be in control of our destiny retaining links with the UK or any country anywhere regarding advanced health care etc.

Taxation

No one who earns less than £10,000 per year should pay any income tax when one considers the tax cap of £100,000 given to millionaires.

Health Care

Government should make the funding of this a priority after the fiasco of spending 1.8 million to preserve that piece of junk called the Queens Pier in Ramsey bay yet denying vital anti-cancer drugs costing only 30k to a patient when the same drugs are free in Scotland. And in particular the scandal of down grading breast cancer care by replacing the consultant with just a general surgeon.

Education

To be fair the existing administration has got a reasonable track record on this and I would continue to support it.

Housing

With a minimum wage of only £6.10 per hour there are lots of young folk who will never ever afford to buy their own homes. Government should be building more local authority houses to remove the youngsters from the Rachman landlords praying on them. Council house rents have increased by 5% each year which has exceeded wage rises and pension increases. Council rent increases should increase by the consumer price index like pensions.

Transport

The user agreement with the Steam Packet should be annulled. That company has had its picnic and they are ripping the Manx off with their prices and restricting tourists coming here. How is it that recently for £20 you could get a sea cat return trip with a vehicle from Scotland to Belfast yet on the Isle of Man it costs much more. The situation is a joke.

The buses have been messed up by David Cretney MHK who has allowed his managers to change schedules leaving the elderly at bus stops waiting for a long time only to have no bus coming. I think Ministers should be able to just sack on the spot civil servants who have messed up big time like Cretney's staff who have upset the folk that rely on the buses and lately the bus drivers.

Communications.

Manx Telecom has a monopoly. People on the Isle of Man are paying dearly for phone and internet connection when the same service is half the price in the UK than what we pay. The franchise to Manx Telecom should be cancelled and the infrastructure compulsory nationalized.

Industry

The DTI are not up to scratch. A friend of mine approached them for a grant to set up his business. The red tape etc, turned him right off. Yet the DTI has thrown money at the film industry and it has recently been announced the IOM has not benefitted at all. We need a change of admin in that department with a Minister not frightened to be a heavy weight.

Animal Welfare

Being a lifelong animal rights campaigner I think the anti-cruelty charities should receive grants from the Government to assist them and properly registered officials of these organizations should receive the same powers that RSPCA officials do in the UK.

To conclude

These are just a few of my views and I cannot write all of them or it would become a book. I have revealed my identity on this site and have done my best to answer questions leveled at me. I will continue to do so but it is the turn of you forum members to private message me and reveal your identity if you wish me to discuss any personal matters.

The election is a serious business so I can do without trolls.

If I do get elected I may achieve little but hopefully make some difference for the sake of my children and yours who will be here long after we are gone.

I once said as Vader years ago on a forum far far away…….

"We are only tenants of this planet and we have an obligation to leave it in a good state for those tenants after us"

That statement still stands.

Thanks for reading this everyone.

[Declan]

What kind of Trade Unionist thinks ministers should have the power to sack people on the spot?

[spook]

He may be naïve, maybe even gauche, but he does make some good points when you cut through the verbiage. He exposes matters that should be getting attention if not even causing outrage.

[slinkydevil]

I once said as Vader years ago on a forum far far away…….

 

[Slim]

He may be naïve, maybe even gauche, but he does make some good points when you cut through the verbiage. He exposes matters that should be getting attention if not even causing outrage.

 

It's the kind of stuff someone who's never been in government would promise. Lower taxes, more public houses, better healthcare and cheaper more frequent public transport. Everyone wants this stuff, including the ones currently elected. How do you pay for any of these things? Letting Ramsey Pier fall into the sea won't pay for these items. There's no solutions in his manifesto.

[guilty]

...more public houses,

 

That's it! You get my vote Slim. Bring on the beer.

[Slim]

 

That's it! You get my vote Slim. Bring on the beer.

 

 

 

Hehe. Doh!

[Topaz]

more public houses,

 

Slim, I think he meant more public housing, as in social housing, not public houses as in pubs. To be fair there are no solutions offered in any of the manifestos usualy.

I like the idea of James in the House..in fact I would be glued to the radio during the broadcast sessions of Tynwald. There would be no chance of him sitting there in silence or wrapping up disasters in politic-speak. If there is a bucket of sh*t to be emptied he will empty it, at the feet of those who filled it.

The fact that he fought back tooth and nail on the forums bears that out.

I fell out with James years ago, but I respect his political acumen. OK, so he is aggressive and upsets people at the point of delivery, but his faults are all out there and undisguised.

If he were to be elected, there could be a problem with him being thrown out of the chamber so often that he might not be able to get a word in at the appropriate time.But he'd find a way.

[spook]

Certainly what James has written is no manifesto, nor is it an appropriate document for anyone with any hope now or in the future of entering politics.

 

It will always now be trotted out to undermine anything and everything he ever has to say in the future and be used against him, but I have taken the trouble to read it and avoid reading what I wanted to read, but instead read what he had written.

 

It is best described as the wanderings of an innocent abroad. A fusion of indignation, frustration, complaint, and a hope for change. However to say that it contains no proposals is wrong, as it is wrong to say that it is filled with the unachievable.

 

His views on the IOMSP user agreement are at least fo interest. To have a monopoly supplier having their position even more enforced by them having the monopoly use of a vital interface between surface transport and our island is wrong in every way and smacks of corruption at least of process if nothing else and I have my own opinion on that. At the very least the monopoly of the use of the Linkspan should be abandoned.

 

His criticism of the inappropriate use of taxes on a piece of junk that is of no historical value, the Queens Pier in Ramsey, in the face of the present strange decisions being made about providing treatment to people suffering from cancer is also very valid, and at the very least opens up the need for greater debate to balance the nice but useless against the not so nice but life threatening when it comes to spending money.

 

James touches on taxation and the very odd and certainly politically inspired income tax cap. That tax cap is in itself of little real positive value to the island in monetary terms but its presence is a real cost and smack in the face to those on lower income, and so he opens up the opportunity to revisit our taxation principles in the face of changing circumstances, something that really should be done.

 

He then looks on local authority housing and the need for more accessibility to it especially for younger people.

 

He proposes increased building fo LA housing which should certainly be a top priority issue to the extent that it is affordable, but the debate on that whole subject should be extended to introducing limited time tendencies and a periodic means test that could include introducing a surcharge for the really well off presently in LA housing to take their rent above the current market level for rented accommodation as an incentive for those who could and should provide for themselves to do so.

 

If we read what he has to say not as a manifesto, for plainly it is not, but the thoughts of someone with things to say and concerns to express then it has merit.

 

It may well prove that on the night a number of people will want to get behind those views and vote for him in the coming election if for no other reason than to say “me to” because while what he has to say and the way that he says it may hardly be fit for what it is intended to be, he does make some very good points that reflect the feelings of many people.

 

Given the choice of an honest man with limitations, of a less than honest man with skills I would take the honest man any day.