Keith

Presumably, if they applied for and received a music license this year, then there was trouble, the police could object to the license being granted next year, thus legally & easily bringing the evening entertainment to an end? Not saying that was the intention, simply offering an answer to the question.

But did they give good notice that they would take this line this year? Or did they (as it appears) leave it until the last minute, then raise the issue? If they told the organisers six months ago that they'd need a license and the organisers ignored them, then my sympathy will quickly evaporate. If the police announced this (as it appears) late last week, then that is pathetic.

"Police wrote to the organisers saying: ’Having reviewed the Carnival over the past few years it is evident that there are no families that attend the evening part of the event ...’ It's a good job no families were present to witness such an outlandish protest! Won't someone think of the children???

Only about £7,000,000 per year, so not too much.

I've been saying this for ages. Firstly, it would stop compliant MHK's being elevated for a cosy retirement. Secondly, it could reduce the motivation for some MHK's to be compliant in the first place. If a sitting MHK had to resign their seat before being allowed to be nominated, taking the risk that they could end up with nothing, do you think any of the recently elevated lot would have done so? Possibly David Cretney would, and would have been confident enough of support from the Keys, but the rest of them?

http://www.isleofman.com/News/details/14528/judge-shows-no-sympathy-for-burglars Neither made any admissions to the police when interviewed or pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, and details released along with appeal judge Tattersall's decision also show both had very long and extensive criminal records" "All three were armed with knives when they burgled the property, threatening resident Kimberley Collister, who was aged 20 and 25 weeks pregnant at the time. At one point Kitching swung his knife at her, across her stomach, but it hit a laptop she was holding instead of hitting her". Sometimes custody is also about protecting the public. With a long history of criminal behaviour and obvious aggression, he's had opportunities. The fact that he didn't even stop at the scene makes it even worse. I agree with trying to rehabilitate people but in this instance I will not lose sleep if he receives the longest time in prison that the law allows. I sincerely hope that killing someone changes Kitching for the better, but I hope it is a long time before we find out.

What time did you sail? Or do you live in Warrington??? The sailing is 2hrs 45min, so if they left at 3pm and arrived and arrived an hour early (allowing for disembarking) its little wonder they broke it for today!

Sat on board at the moment, I'd guess another 20 minutes or so before we set off, then sit in Liverpool rush hour traffic :-( Heysham bypass is coming along, once finished Heysham Port to M6 in about 10 minutes. If Steam Packet put a reliable fast craft there we could do Isle of Man to M6 in a shade over three hours including loading & unloading... *sigh*

Except of course, that's bollox. What would happen is a huge increase in traffic on the coast road in particular and the rest of the TT course. There would be more traffic through Laxey, Kirk Michael, Ballaugh etc. therefore more likelyhood of incidents affecting pedestrians. Also, far greater likelyhood of head-on collisions which are much more likely to result in fatal incidents. The coast road & Ballacraine to Glen Helen catch people out each year as it is. Far better to keep The Mountain Road one way, accepting an increase in incidents but statistically less likely to result in a fatality, although sadly they do still happen, but less than when The Mountain Road was left two-way. Also, by and large, people who are on The Mountain know the risks of being there are increased and therefore choose to accept that. Less confident drivers who are going about their daily business can choose the other routes and avoid some of the lemmings, if The Mountain is closed, they lose that choice.

Thanks Roxanne. I'd often wondered if he got a salary, expenses or did it as part of his CofE duties. £6,000 is quite a lot of expenses, I wonder how many hours he has to put in during a year?

How much does the Bishop get paid by tax payers to be an unelected member of government?

Thanks for the work that went into that (even more pleased that it wasn't a stupid question!) I'm even more annoyed that the Bishop voted for than my MHK, Cregeen voting that way. Cregeen obviously used previously being a union man to further his political career and is happy to dump on the poor & vulnerable in society when it suits, but the Bishop should surely have a conscience? When the Chief Minister describes a tax as "unfair", isn't that enough for the Bishop to object, even if he knew the vote would be lost? If the Bishop can't vote on conscience, then what on earth is he there for?

Apologies if I've missed it somewhere obvious, but do we know who voted in which way? Ta.

It is interesting that a few references were made to how the Summerland disaster had a positive legacy in the form of changing regulations to make the public safer. Yet in 1979 people died in the Woolworth fire in Manchester. There wasn't a sprinkler system, windows had metal bars and the foam in the furniture gave off thick black smoke, which stopped people from finding the emergency exits. It took until 1988 for the furniture regulations to be changed. Sadly, the lessons learnt were 'limited' until further loss of life. Despite these two horrors, we still experienced another entirely avoidable disaster in the Bradford City football club fire. If you have seen the video of the Bradford blaze, you can see the similarities between it and Summerland, in particular the speed in which the fire spread. You can also begin to imagine the heat that must have been given off at Summerland, for example, someone on the Bradford pitch suddenly becomes alight purely from the heat. Only after Bradford, did we finally reach a point where as a society we could say 'lessons were learned' and the public could feel safe to go shopping, watch football or have a night out with their children in a high degree of safety.

I do about 12 return crossings per year. Of those, about 8 are with a vehicle and about 4 as foot passenger. In years gone-by, it was about 15 to 20 but day trips for football have become increasingly difficult and often, because of winter sailings to Liverpool on Saturday morning and back from Heysham 02:15 Sunday, practically impossible. When I paid £80 for a return to watch a game of football, I decided enough was enough. The vehicle trips are almost all work related. I hate flying but I'm resigning myself to the fact that I will just have to do so. Next week's trip off island is a flight to Blackpool. More inconvenient in terms of carrying stuff with me and needing to rent a car but car hire & flight to Blackpool is massively cheaper than sailing. It has been generally similar in price for a while and coupled with my hate of flying, the boat just about won but it is increasingly difficult to justify the extra cost. Defending the useless agreement and opposing free enterprise could, just as likely, turn out to be an unpopular stance which would speak of political stasis and support for vested interests. Not that the election makes much difference because the same continuity govt will be returned no matter what policy decisions are taken. It could go either way but I am guessing the majority who complain to their MHK will be those affected by price rises or reduced services. They are probably the people who ring up their MHK if they have a problem with the bins Therefore when Gladys from No. 10 starts moaning that she can not get off the Island any more because the prices have gone up or their are fewer boats and wants to know want her MHK is going to do about it, I have not much faith many will say nothing just before an election The problem for the SPC in my opinion is that they have treated the public with disdain for many years. The management have ripped us off (as evidenced by the 30%+ profits quoted) and the 'front of office' staff are in the main appalling and at times down-right obnoxious (at the Douglas end). I will add that while the Liverpool land & fast-craft crew are a bit 'hit & miss' re customer care, the crew on the Ben are always excellent and the people in the accounts department, who I've occasionally had dealings with were always very helpful. Staff at Heysham are usually decent too. The SPC's 'tough, we're a monopoly, what you going to do about it' attitude has left them as a company that many people really don't give a toss about. I'm not sure there will be a ground-swell of opinion backing them, making it easier for the politicians to let them go. If they had provided a decent service at a decent price, the public would be up in arms. Instead they treated passengers like crap (from the management level) and now they reap what they sowed. Of course it could be argued that if they had treated all their customers (including freight) with respect and not left them feeling ripped off, they wouldn't be in this position in the first place? Like I say, it is sad and I really don't want to fly any more than I really have to. I would choose car & Ben over fly & hire any day of the week. And even though I will very really be affected by increased prices (so I fly more &/or travel less) or it potentially going under (definitely fly more) or reduced sailings (loss of convenient times, therefore fly more) I feel no urge to chase my MHK and badger him to protect the company. Incidentally, as a 'heavy user' of the years, scrapping the 'Sail & Save' where the average price of five sailings in any twelve months was knocked off the next sailing, equalled a 20% increase at a stroke. Also I now rarely get a 'special offer'. I would love to know how many 'day trips' etc they make available now compared to 10 years ago? I always used to be able to turn up on the day of sailing if I wanted to go to a football match and get a day return offer. The last time I just turned up (and paid about £80) there were 'no day-trips available' but the boat was far from full. So the 'basic' fare may be comparable but in real terms I believe passenger prices are greatly increased over the last ten to fifteen years. Oh... and I liked the King Orry, lots of room to sleep under the tables on the over-night sailing!