craggy_steve

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/manslaughter-charge-against-four-anaesthetists-dropped/ Manslaughter charge against four anaesthetists dropped Deemster rules there was not enough evidence to secure 'safe conviction' Accusations of gross negligence manslaughter against four Manx Care anaesthetists, over the death of a patient, have been dismissed.

"The court also found that Public Health England failed to tell ministers what they knew about asymptomatic transmission," she said. "Mr Hancock has frequently stated how he wished this had been brought to his attention earlier." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-61227709 If IoMG, Magson, Cope & Ewart were so intent on following PHE as Dr Ranson repeatedly stated in her evidence to Tynwald , one does wonder whether Ewart was either fully informed by PHE, or perhaps similarly failed to inform ministers on IoM. Whatever, the High Court has clearly just trashed the reputation of the old Public Health England and its early Covid policies. Ranson's opinions look ever more credible.

A story from an acquaintance ... few years ago so not verbatim, but definitely the gist ... "I was summoned to 10 Downing St, and sat on the sofa in Tony Blair's office while he explained to me the vision for NPfIT, and asked me to be the Programme Director. I questioned the resources and finances and [they] explained the budget, five and a half billion or so, which was all for systems development. I asked about the budget for staff engagement and training, explaining that I thought these were essential for the programme to succeed and would need funding. Tony replied that the NHS staff were 'our employees and will do what they're told'. I turned down the job because I didn't see how I could succeed without significant effort in bringing NHS staff on board". Anyway, therein was the foundation for failure of NPfIT, it never stood a chance, crippled from the outset by an authoritarian politician as project sponsor.

It's a minority service, which a small number of consumers on the IoM have taken up because MT haven't reached them with fibre yet (if ever) and their DSL is awfully slow. I was lucky, my rural idyll was an early beneficiary of the fibre rollout, but if I were trying to WFH in an area with rubbish DSL and no fibre then I'd be a Starlink customer, the price is affordable if you need the speed.

Politician was Tony Blair, IT Salesman was Bill Gates. https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/npfit-mpp-2014-case-history.pdf

May well be, with a marginal profit history over recent years and facing increased input costs now, that the primary value in the company is its assets, principally the land / buildings. In which case closing the business and flogging the assets could get a better return faster for the shareholders than attempting to sell the business as a going concern. Hypothetically, I have no inside info, but that would be my guess.

IoM politicians managing, even if it's only "micro" managing? You's havin' a larff 😉

Yep. Problem is that there are many more people getting infected with covid than would normally catch 'flu, and it seems to be circulation in society for a much greater proportion of the year. So on an individual case basis Covid may be statistically (slightly) less lethal than 'flu, but there are many more cases. Shows how well we (humanity) have done tho'. Before vaccines the original strain of covid was statistically c. 18 times more lethal than 'flu. Now it's c 0.9 times as lethal or thereabouts despite Delta and Omicron being more lethal than the original strain. Phenomenal achievement. If we could find truly workable measures to reduce spread then it really would "be over".

Sad to say I think Putin's agenda is now clear. He doesn't give a shit about global opprobrium and sanctions, we're all pissing into the wind. His aim is to recreate the glory days of the USSR and if that means the New USSR is a global pariah with closed borders, captive subjugated population and almost zero external trade then so be it. That's what the old USSR felt like, and Putin was a happy bunny then. USSR vs Rest of World, it worked then, in his mind it could work now and would be better for Russia, and Russia has a good stockpile of nukes. Only question in my mind is which state is next on his list if he succeeds in reclaiming Ukraine. Obviously can't reclaim those which have since joined NATO without getting into a very big fight, but all the adjacent ex-Soviet non-NATO states are probably in play to create the largest bloc he can. I think the best hope is that he is assassinated by his own people, his control of Russia is nothing like as strong or extensive as the old Politburo used to have. Just my 2d. Utterly depressing.

Yellow Cover ...

Gov't will benefit from increased NI receipts simply by increasing the minimum wage, but yep, I think it's not unreasonable to expect an NI increase in line with the increase in the UK NI. A Win-Win for Treasury that probably looks irresistably tempting.

as she gazed upon

Maybe not until the end of the week? I thought I saw it reported that witnesses have given their evidence now, and this week is just lawyers and the tribunal exchanging documents until the tribunal gives a ruling on Friday?

Alf says it's all over from end March.

The scheme was a scam. I don't believe that any of the hotels or holiday cottages on the island were going to fall down or be teleported off-island by the little people for want of the money from this scheme. Sure, some over-extended visitor accomodation operators might have gone bust, but there were salary substitution grants available for the payment of laid-off / reduced-hours workers, so accomodation providers could have put their businesses in stasis - and some did. If accomodation businesses folded because they couldn't refactor their debts then new finance and new entrepreneurs would have emerged to buy and operate those accomodation units when the visitor accomodation sector became viable again. Many people on the island suffered. That suffering should have been shared amongst our community. Instead the nasty little cabal running Gov't decided to protect some above others, specifically it focused on protecting those like Quayle whose business might be associated with the very minor sector of tourism. It provided much less help to businesses whose focus was serving the people of the IoM, whether they be beauty salons, hairdressers, retailers, recruitment agencies, restaurants or cafe operators, and apart from salary support it was little help to charities & not for profits et. al. They were all expected to cope despite three lockdowns each directly caused by Comin's incompetence. The whole concept of specifically designating a sector worth less than 1% of GDP as "strategic" and giving it extra-extra-special support was corrupt.

I got precisely £0. My (part-time hobby) business was predicated on meeting people, face to face, for extended periods. Mrs is certainly "CV" and I probably am too, so carrying on was not sensible. Fortunately I don't need to work for money, but no gov't support mechanism for the likes of me so I'm out of work and living on savings. Far from being the only one. All those who got taxpayer support should be thankful, but those who took it while also getting a full tax-payer-funded Gov't salary need hanging out to dry - these handouts should have been structured as survival grants to keep people afloat.

Problem is that if they comment on twitter they get a prompt response from the Doom Coven 🤣

Got a feeling of deja vu... As I've said previously, "It's up to you whether you read my tweets or not. Not my problem if you don't have the self-control to refrain from glorying in that which offends you".

'cos Gov't has to be seen to be doing something - even if it's pointless. Happens I agree with you, but Alf has just given us the "it's not a race" line again in respect of removing border restrictions - just as it wasn't a race to get people vaccinated this time last year. Slo-mo for the sake of it, that way they can claim their actions were "considered" not hasty / panic over-reactions.

Not necessarily, although it does create conflicts of interest for the AG. But more to the point, the missing corporate manslaughter offence may mean that inividuals are prosecuted for manslaughter due to the systemic failings or dodgy policies of corporate bodies / gov't depts because there is no appropriate offence with which to charge the corporate body. etc.

I agree with you @Gladys. I think we also need offences of Corporate Manslaughter, Misconduct in Public Office and Misfeasance in Public Office. IMO we also need to revise the AG's Prosecution Code to remove the bias in favour of public servants, and the Code of Practice between the AG and the Constabulary which requires the Police to refer potential prosecutions of alleged offences by politicians, lawyers, police officers, senior public servants et. al. to the AG for decision about instituting criminal proceedings - these matters should be decided by an independent, not be allowed to create conflicts of interest for the AG. Can't see any of it happening. Our system is comprehensively stacked to favour and protect the interests of government above those of the residents.

Precisely why I specified "unvented". Here you go.... https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/v000125642/ There are other brands available https://www.medisave.co.uk/ffp3-face-mask-x20.html

If they're not symptomatic, and their employer consents, I can't see a big problem in allowing the Positives to return to work with the condition that they wear an unvented FFP3 / N99 mask at all times and observe good hygiene (hand washing, yada yada...) until their infection has passed. Obviously that's not going to be appropriate for all employers or all job roles, but it could significantly reduce the numbers stuck at home when they could be working.

Then don't listen. It's up to you whether you read my tweets or not. Not my problem if you don't have the self-control to refrain from glorying in that which offends you. Frankly, in your own words to TVOR, I think "You’re simply an obnoxious troll who clearly thinks they’re funny when actually you come across as very disturbed."

Idiot. That was about the change end of June, and I still think it was the wrong thing to do at the time. But what's done is done, can't go back on it, can't resurrect the dead, can't undo it for those who have long Covid as a consequence, or have lost income etc. etc. Right now I'd say there's no point in treating travellers any different from the rest of us. We have a high prevalence of Covid here, sod all point in testing arriving travellers at all - and they're probably less risk that the general population. All that the travel regs are doing now is creating more public sector bureaucracy.