Amadeus

Difficult for civil servants maybe.

I heard him waffle on the radio. So poor, trying to pull the old “but surely you don’t want us to fire nurses and firemen” angle while not mentioning management bloat elsewhere with a single word. Hopeless.

https://www.gov.im/categories/tax-vat-and-your-money/income-tax-and-national-insurance/benefit-in-kind/ and so they did. They really hate the working public, don’t they?

You can enter garbage data into their newsletter form. It doesn’t validate. I heard.

Well relax kids, we’re all just ungrateful.

That’s the UK. Nothing to do with us. The UK market is its own little universe. You’d be better advised to look at the recent Entain case and how it will affect pre-regulated markets. The IOM eGaming business model will change drastically in 3, 5, maximum 10 years when even the last Asian country starts to regulate and issue their own licences. I’m talking to the regulators out there and can see what's happening. What concerns me slightly is that IOMG does not currently have a future strategy for an industry that contributes around a quarter to the Manx economy, nor do they even seem to have a proper understanding of the bigger picture. Maybe it’s different if you’ve been living and breathing this industry for 20+ years. I can see where things are going and what needs to be done, but I’m not sure others can and it’s not my job to tell them. And now that the civil servants actually running the place have shown that they’re willing to raise taxes to keep their empire going, while not being able to see what sort of signal this sends (or not caring) I’m very concerned that we are going to enter a steep downward trajectory soon. It’s harder than you think to sell this place as a business destination. Trust me, I do it every day and have done so for many years. IOMG is not helping with this budget. Not at all. There is little to no commercial awareness or understanding and I’m starting to diversify away from here. I love this place but the people running it clearly do not.

There are similarities between local and national government for sure. I don’t think we are as bad as the lot up the hill though.

You run it like a private company instead of a tax payer funded free for all, with allowances for frontline services of course - but the basic principles to run it efficiently aren’t exactly rocket science. Plenty of people around with the required knowledge but they’re usually too busy working and earning more money. That’s why you end up with the manager types you get in IOMG. Many are otherwise unemployable holders of non-jobs. They have also managed to create a self serving ecosystem that makes it hard to get rid of the dead wood. Change is possible but requires Herculean efforts and MHKs actually willing to work together and do the right thing.

Lucky the health minister doesn’t have any more urgent matters to speak about. Can’t wait for him to order the DoI business prevention officers, aka parking wardens, up there to ticket everyone.

Well it was about recycling really and it’s working. We were 20 years behind everyone else on this. This budget was an eye opener on how warped the world view up the hill really is.

What's that coming over the hill?

Can we stop wasting money on climate change stuff while we are still happy for cruise ships to come here please? And 20,000 bikes of course. It doesn’t add up.

Well he’s probably working on his next election campaign as we speak.

Except we all know this won’t fix manxcare. They’ll be back for more next year, with some more excuses why they can’t run it properly despite being highly paid and funded. Today was a dark day for the island.

Oh I think we have already established that he’s one of the boys now. Sorry Stu. I know you will disagree and say it’s not easy as backbencher yada yada but actions (or lack thereof) speak louder than words.

This is going to be a fun day

Manxcare needs getting rid of but let’s start with the useless health minister. Good luck getting re-elected.

None presumably. Instead of getting the bloated manxcare management structure under control they increase taxes. Tells you two things: MHKs don’t run the show and don’t have a clue what’s actually going on. Unbelievable budget.

It’s hard enough to sell this rock as a business destination. At least I would expect a politician to understand how crucial reliable air links are if we don’t want to look like some outdated backwater. Then there are the many other reasons, including more and more overseas TT fans who want to spend good money here but struggle to find flights. But hey, at least we have Premium Parking.

I don’t want to hear about bins again. The issue was salty enough.

Nice of them to fix the name of the publication I write for. Original article here: https://agbrief.com/news/philippines/18/02/2024/188bet-moves-its-license-and-operations-from-europe-to-the-philippines/ I haven’t worked for 188BET in years but still know them of course. Great company who treat staff well. Yes it’s a loss for the island but operators come and go. Sometimes somewhere else is a better fit and there are still plenty more coming.

Well I only know the GSC procedure which presumably is stricter than the one for a taxi permit. They do other background checks, open source searches and require foreign police checks if you have not lived here five years, plus disclosure of all past convictions no matter how long ago. I still have the RTLC paperwork here but never found time to file it, but why not email the commission and ask?

Extended DBS check. And presumably the RTLC does additional checks into the person, although not sure. One would hope so anyway.

That’s probably one of the most disappointing posts you’ve ever done here. You’ve basically given up and are riding the gravy train now. Didn’t have you down as a quitter.

Precisely this. Ask anyone in healthcare here and they will tell you manxcare is just another layer of management and tons of unnecessary data collection and general BS. Sadly turkeys don’t like to vote for Christmas and the civil service that is actually running the island is only interested in keeping themselves well fed and underworked. Any tax increases would send a disastrous signal like Albert said. The fact IOMG is still expanding instead of finally getting smaller tells you all you need to know.