Blackajah

I wonder how much has been saved in terms of police/court time and resources as a result of medicinal cannabis being made available on IOM.   

15 hours ago, Moghrey Mie said:

This is grossly unfair. If you looked at Manx Care Board meetings you would realise they are constantly looking at cost savings. They have more control over their spending than most government departments appear to have.

They are still a VERY expensive later of higher management - various heads of this and that all on HEO & above rates and no evidence anywhere of them giving anything like value for money. 

1 hour ago, Declan said:

I'm not sure it makes much difference who we vote for. The Government is always returned. 

There was quite a large vote against sitting MHKs last time - especially ministers. I'm pretty sure the Labour, Lib Van, Green, Wallenburgh and Stu Peters voters thought they were voting against the status quo. Whilst in Peel where 70% didn't vote for Minster Hamer and 93% didn't vote for Minister Boot - were they voting for "same again". 

The problem is a programme for government is never put to the people to support or reject. It's drawn up by a Chief Minister, who is only selected after we vote. 

Additionally, MHKs don't have the support of political party infrastructure and membership or their own researchers to propose ideas or courses of action. So rely on what the senior CS propose. And they're not answerable to the electorate but to the organisation. 

 

There were far better non-status quo candidates standing than the above.... voters just weren't brave enough.  

3 minutes ago, monasqueen said:

Surely the time to learn lessons was when Abbotswood residents were all dying?

Yet now we are only just being told that "lessons will be learned". How many years does it take?

As long as it takes an MHK to work out his/her chances of reelection. 

He has the powers to make a noise about it and be seen to be standing up for his constituents, like any MHK.   If folks are unhappy then  write to him and remind him that he's here to serve not to rule. 

4 hours ago, TheTeapot said:

"The thing is, there was no global road map,"

There are lessons to be learnt. 

For the Isle of Man it is simple. You say "We have enabled people to access cannabis through private prescriptions, that cannabis is for the prescribee and them alone. We acknowledge there are a large number of people who find cannabis to be beneficial and we'd like to go further. So people who wish to grow their own can now do so, under licence. The licence costs £200 per year, and the produced cannabis is for the grower and their household alone. This change does not mean cannabis is legal, people granted licences to grow their own are asked to be discrete and are reminded that cannabis remains a scheduled drug, and the supply to others is definitely a criminal offence. We will keep this under review for the next few years before deciding on any future changes. It is down to you the people to appreciate this change in direction, it is your behaviour that will inform our future policy."

Exactly this. 

Well, yes, there is that. 

10 minutes ago, thommo2010 said:

There are far to many MHK'S who quite simply are trying to further their own beliefs/agendas rather than have the interests of the constituents.  

Well duh!  Why do you think most of them stand in the first place?   

We basically spend 4 years moaning about the ineptitude of our elected officials - and then we go and elect the same shower again.   As an electorate, we don't turn out in high enough numbers to REALLY make a difference.    The prospect of having snouts pulled out of the trough may help to encourage some to work FOR the people instead of just collecting a fat salary and making the odd comment that makes them seem 'in touch'.   

My cats cost me a fortune, insurance, food and vets, plus boarding fees for when off Island.   Plus they're fussy so I will be donating a load of Whiskas to this new food bank.   Still wouldn't swap them tho' -  furry little f****ers

Absolute wank of the highest calibre - only to be expected from the Chamber of Cronyism I suppose.   Also disgusted with the NPM (another surprise there) for displaying it on their webshite.   

17 minutes ago, 2112 said:

New Treasury Minister Allinson is really spouting the bullshit today on the NPM. He says that the island reserves are solid but we must be prudent. I wonder if that is a way of saying that the GMP will have to freeze, starve and do without as IOMG have a wish list of pie in the sky and wishful thinking ventures that they have subscribed to? There is prudent and there is prudent. Years and years of mismanagement of the islands wealth, and when things are sticky, it’s Treasury Minister is stubborn and oblivious to the needs of its citizens, especially when it’s utilities are a monopoly, and there are additional costs of living on an island.

Incidentally I’m not advocating wasting money, but a civil service staffing review, and a review of general expenditure wouldn’t go amiss, and savings used to get through the cost of living crisis. 

The amount of resources wasted is phenomenal.  They should start there.  Agree with everything you’ve said! 

How far will AC go though?  Those who have already gone were in untenable positions after the tribunal findings.  What’s he going to do about the time / money wasters and non-jobbers (various heads of this or that bollocks) everywhere else?  What’s he doing about the Debacle of Infrastructure?   

12 hours ago, Ringy Rose said:

It is achievable. Everything is with enough investment.

The vaccines booking system doesn't run on Medway, it's based on a Microsoft Dynamics 365 system. Vaccines run on the same system as the testing and the travel.

Is there a need to make what is really a temporary system talk to Medway?

They had the oppo to buy a fully integrated system a while back, but chose not to.    Even a temporary addition to Medway would take weeks or more to install and test.    Believe me I'm in a position to know.   

Thought bringing back masks was as a precaution against omicron?  Not reducing 'case' numbers which weren't a problem last week before it was  considered a 'scariant of concern'.      Stick to spewing on the bus Juan.    

49 minutes ago, Danoo said:

Ah, the mysterious Long Covid that we have been brainwashed into being scared of and that certain members of this forum keep banging on about as one of the pillars for the justification of their desired mitigations. 

And it's a favourite subject of the Doomwankers on Twitter.    If we don't all die, we're all going to get 'long covid' and be permanently affected/disabled.   It really is ridiculous.   

Don't let the Twitter Doom coven hear any of this - they'll be after you with pitchforks!  They're still on there screaming for masks and other mitigations.  

19 hours ago, Ramseyboi said:

I see them on social media but never in real life.

Who are these people who wants masks, restrictions on Gatherings etc?

Mostly people who want to WFH / have a quiet retirement at everyone else's expense.  Perhaps they can all club together (one or more of them are in receipt of at least one generous pension) and buy an outer Hebridean island.    They can all move there and pull up the drawbridge.     

Until 2007, patients were only sent for 4 or so weeks prior to their appointment which was far more efficient.    Then in 2007 the health minister determined that 'every patient leaving their hospital appt would have the letter for the next appt in their hand' thus forcing patients to be booked and sent for up to a year in advance!       Many efforts and suggestions for improvement (including reverting to this older method) have been made over the years but have always been either rejected by management.     

16 minutes ago, Banker said:

The doom coven are mainly those who never frequent hospitality business or go on holidays etc so restrictions don’t matter to them.

Whilst Dr Ranson may have been correct from a purely medical point that borders should have been closed earlier but what about the 1000s of residents who would have been stranded & subject to an arbitrary weekly limit on arrivals to be incarcerated at Comin prison?

Many more vulnerable people & children would have suffered being banned from returning home 

Agree - I'd go further and say that families should have been allowed to visit  last year - sponsored by family members here and strictly adhering to the isolation/quarantine rules, but what do I know? 

4 hours ago, Nom de plume said:

There are still people on this Island who would happily have us living like that until (in their minds) the virus magically disappears. Which it won’t.

They are the same people who are assisting our struggling local tourism & hospitality market by daubing the hashtag #plagueisland all over Twitter.

They are the single biggest collection of self centred whoppers I’ve ever had the misfortune of encountering.

Their age demographic is telling.

Yes absolutely.     And they're very fond of spouting forth wisdom on social distancing etc, but when enquiring how they would fund restrictions like this on business, there is only silence and repetition of fatality figures as though others aren't aware of them.    They're a doom coven who appear to want restrictions forever.    

10 minutes ago, offshoremanxman said:

There’s a lot more of it going about sadly as this all goes on you can’t escape it on Facebook now. Not sure if this is right but was talking to someone who reckoned there was about 20 nuts who turned up at that meeting and that video was simply the loopiest episode in a whole series of bizarre questions pitched.

They really needed to get someone scientific in (with no invested interest in anything other than sanity and truth) to say "You're all barking mad if you believe this sort of shite,  now go home and due something useful".   That would be a video worth watching.     Unfortunately however, things have got to the stage where if you try and ignore or challenge these people, they will automatically assume you're "in on the lie..... sheeple, baaa etc".    Perhaps laughter is the answer.     

This pandemic, if nothing else, has opened my eyes to the fact that many people whom I've always considered to be sensible and rational, are out and out nutters / conspiraloons.    Spouting theories (gleaned from Youtube, Fox news etc) that I don't think even a self-respecting sci-fi author would use in the most outlandish of novels.    

Whilst I agree that Manx Care has a lot to do in terms of improving services and reform, I've always felt that more should be done to manage expectations.     I worked in a patient facing role at Noble's  for quite a few years and patients were phoning a few days after referral by GP, asking when they were to be seen, not having been informed that there was a wait.       There are still quite a few no-shows and again, little is being done to manage these.   Patients were also quite surprised and sometimes taken aback at being discharged from a consultant's clinic when there was no need for them to be seen again.   It was as though they needed to be looked after by a consultant rather than a GP.     

3 hours ago, offshoremanxman said:

Or a local authority. Onchan binmen might die if you don’t double bag your rubbish and quarantine your snotty hankies for 72 hours. Absolute rubbish https://www.three.fm/news/isle-of-man-news/protect-bin-men-from-virus-plea/

This is up there with the people who still 'quarantine' their post - and spend ages scrubbing every inch of their Tesco trolley with those wipes.   All whilst not wearing a mask.