Roger Mexico

I think Easthope and Cubbon were a sort of spin-off from J H Cubbon the builders merchants, but that would have been long after Fred Cubbon had anything to do with it, he seems to have been a priest from the 1930s. According to their own website: Quine & Cubbon Printers was first established as a partnership in 1933 in Port Erin by Douglas (Paddy) Quine and Alfie Cubbon, whose son Marshall became curator of the Manx Museum. The partnership continued there throughout the war years, run by Alfie, as Paddy was involved with the Navy. So there doesn't seem to be a link with the other Cubbons.

It's a bit "the worst person you know" but Hooper actually has a point here. Bride has been subsidised by the quarry rates for many years, though you can bet any subsequent costs caused by the quarrying have to paid for by central government. They're now complaining because the very system they have benefited from means they have to pay some of it for shared services. Taking all the money off then would be poetic justice. It won't happen of course, because Bride is in Cannan's constituency and rich people, who think everything they do should be subsidised and no one else should get anything, are basically the sort of people he represents generally. And it wouldn't be as funny as my suggestion of declaring Bride a fly-tipping zone and watching the gardens and houses of the Commissioners disappear under a mound of discarded fridges. But it's not a bad idea.

Because Cabinet Office contains the people who run the payrolls and so they will have access to the total amounts. You'd imagine that the information would be passed on to DESC (and individually to schools) and that either could tell you, but at the moment the whole civil service seems intent on not telling us what their employees earn, what they do and even how many of them there are.

To some extent it's because the risk from a lot of the other things that kill people in this group have dropped. There are fewer, less fatal accidents (both transport and industrial); deaths from diseases like TB and AIDS have reduced massively; fewer people smoke, so heart attacks are down. But even (UK) suicide has fallen over the years from its peak, which was as long ago as 1934: And that hints at something which is rarely discussed. One of the biggest drivers of suicide is economic deprivation. According to this HoC research paper: People living in the most deprived areas of England have a higher risk of suicide than those living in the least deprived areas. The suicide rate in the most deprived 10% of areas (‘decile’) in 2017-2019 was 14.1 per 100,000, which is almost double the rate of 7.4 in the least deprived decile. and, though rates are still lower than in the 80's, they have been generally rising since 2008: However it's true that middle-aged men are particularly at risk (this graph like the above also from the HoC Briefing): Figures (like the Manx ones) are also from 2022, though regarding the 90+ figure they say "given that this age group has a lower population, it is not yet possible to say whether this is a trend".

It's actually a fairly common situation. Paradoxically, depressed people rarely kill themselves in the depth of a period of depression, simply because they don't have the energy to do so. It's often when they are recovering, but dread a relapse that they decide to kill themselves, because they can't bear to go through it all again. Having got some energy and agency back they may secretly plan to do away with themselves and may even appear cheerful because they have made the decision. It's very much 'disordered thinking' but it can feel attractive to someone who has been suffering a lot. Of course this means that the right professional support is needed after they are 'out of' the worst of it and if mental health services are too quick to release them as a problem solved, then they may be more vulnerable than they seem.

Yet more cancellations today, though it's worth pointing out that these lists aren't that reliable. I was twice hit by buses not turning up last weekend - neither was on the relevant list. But when a service is stretched to its limit, anything can have a knock-on effect and cause further problems. Manx Radio had a story yesterday based on a Written Question submitted by Faragher. It's worth looking at in full (which isn't very fully): What operational issues have resulted in the cancellation of bus services; how long he expects them to last; and whether they are linked with the fulfilment of private contracts. [Question W-202401- 1232 published on 11 09 2024; Answer received on 01 10 2024] The Minister for Infrastructure (Mr Crookall): It is important to note that the vast majority of Services have operated as normal. The operational issue for bus vannin is recruitment. Driving staff only need to give two weeks notice. The recruitment process and training take considerably longer than this. Low level loss of service will continue until new recruits become operational. At this point it is not possible to give a date. The cancellation of core bus services is not linked to the fulfilment of private contracts. You'll notice that it took them 20 days (just under the maximum allowed) to reply with these few unhelpful and illiterate words (it's almost as if Crookall actually wrote it himself). And it's also untrue. The main problem clearly isn't recruitment but retention. If you're complaining that people can resign quicker than you can train them, then your problem is them resigning. Rather than acknowledge that the employment model they have been using in recent years has predictably failed, they are just reducing services more and more and keeping on doing the same things hoping for a different outcome. Edited to add: When waiting for one of the non-arriving buses last weekend, I got in conversation with a passer-by who turned out to be a former bus driver who would no longer work for them, even for casual work on his free times. Why? "Bad management".

It's just about possible, here's the Hebridean Princess in Peel in 2013, but that's a tiny ship (50 pax) and even those a bit bigger will need to ferry people on and off. Peel had a couple calling this year (including the Hebridean Princess which seems to be regular) but it's not going to expand beyond these really small vessels and other ports are even less possible. It's basically just pretending it's an all-Island thing. Cruise tourists will be paying a lot more, but the Island won't be receiving it. Cruise ship excursions are notorious for their high profit margins, indeed it's one way the companies make their money. At best the railways and MNH for example will be getting their usual discounted group rate that for example coaches pay, assuming an even lower rate hasn't been negotiated.

To some extent. But the increase was over 120 and there's only about 40 in DHSC so duplicating all that would still leave over 80. So there must be other reasons as well. Those figures are also 18 months old, so there may well have been more added since. For example I think the 'transformation team' have been moved from the Cabinet Office to Manx Care in that period (and the 2016 DHSC figure will include Public Health since moved the other way). And there's all these extra things like the Wellness Centres.

That's very unfair. Earlier this year I found a piece about him meeting someone for the Cayman Islands only last year. Poor man must be exhausted.

Manx Radio ran a story on the topic on Monday afternoon and later amended it to include a statement from Manx Care[1]. It doesn't really make much sense: "In order to bring Manx Care into balance this financial year there is a need to focus on specific areas where spend can be reduced with immediate effect such as bank and agency expenditure, freezing of vacancies, purchasing of goods and services, off island commissioning etc. "As part of Manx Care’s financial recovery plan we have taken the decision to reduce the number of elective theatre lists by 5.5 lists per week for up to a maximum of six months in order to reduce expenditure on bank theatre and anaesthetic staff which are currently required due to a number of vacancies within both the theatre and anaesthetic teams. "These reductions will be within ENT, general surgery and gynaecology. "Theatres and anaesthesia on average have been spending £84k per month on bank staff costs in the first four months of 24/25, although this has been reducing in both areas since August thanks to the appointment of new permanent staff, a trend that is likely to continue throughout the year. "Modelling has taken place within ENT, gynaecology and general surgery which indicates that based on the current waiting list position, the reductions in weekly list allocation will not cause those specialties to exceed the sustainable waiting list size. "This is the number of people on the waiting list to maintain an 18 week wait between being added to the waiting list and being admitted for surgery. "This approach means that the efforts that went into funding and delivering recovery and restoration phases 1 and 2 will not be wasted as the objective of the programme was to get waiting lists to the sustainable waiting list size on completion of the programme. "In addition, after reviewing theatre productivity data, it has been identified that there are opportunities to improve theatre utilisation, particularly within general surgery and gynaecology, i.e. using the remaining lists more efficiently so that they can operate on the same number of patients in a reduced number of lists, thereby reducing the actual impact on patients. "The weekly theatre planning meeting is leading on improving theatre utilisation by challenging surgeons to make the best use of the theatre list time allocated to them. "Manx Care has recently been successful in recruiting substantive anaesthetic and theatre staff who are planning to join Noble’s Hospital over the next few months. "Appointing new substantive staff members to the organisation is a positive development. "Therefore as the requirement for additional bank cover reduces with the new permanent staff coming into post, the need to maintain these theatre lists reductions will be regularly reviewed as the opportunity to save will diminish and theatre lists will be reinstated accordingly. "In the meantime the theatre team is taking a flexible approach to planning these reductions which will ensure that any urgent or cancer cases can be accommodated and any delays avoided wherever possible. "Manx Care appreciates that taking this action is not ideal but is committed to minimise the impact on patients, restoring the theatre lists as soon as possible and meeting the requirement of our financial recovery plan." Agency staff can be horrendously expensive, but bank staff tend to be less so and replacing them may not make big savings if you include other employment costs. So it doesn't make much sense. [1] Manx Radio increasingly do this, which is good in some ways, but they don't put a date or time on the addition which is most unprofessional and they usually don't 'boost' the story, so the reader has no way of knowing that there's more to a story they may have already read.

We do know there was a 30% increase in the number of civil servants employed by DHSC/Manx Care between March 2016 and March 2023 - and mostly since the creation of Manx Care. I analysed the figures over a year ago earlier in this topic and there's a link to the WQ it was based on. I don't think much of that will be due to renaming of roles, because much of that will have predated that period and the figures won't include anyone on nursing or medical pay scales.

But it is in a developed area. It's on the lawn outside the cafe. Most of the mock-ups trim too tight to show this, though this one from Manx Radio gives the game away: And this report on the consultation at Dalby says specifically that it's "a new sculpture by Bryan Kneale next to the Niarbyl Café building". It's right next to buildings and a car park.

I like that as well. That's the nice thing about art, it's not a zero-sum game. One thing that makes the heron work is that it has a slightly industrial feel because of the galvanisation and that suits Castletown which is slightly rough round the edges and all the better for it. It's not overly-manicured like a lot of 'historic' towns in England.

This is what I don't understand, because they haven't been. If you're going to make a big thing about cutting operations, you tell people about it. Instead the information has only come out because a backbencher asked a written question and they took the maximum time to reply. They started these cut-backs in mid-September, so it's clearly something they want to happen. The only reason I can think of is that they want to increase waiting lists. Then they can bring in some outside company to 'solve' the problem at great expense as with Synaptik, and we'll end up spending £20 million to 'save' £200,000. No doubt to the great profit of some people.

Yes according to this: Born in Sunderland in 1974, Darren Jackson studied model making and design with 1st degree honours. He then went on to work in London model making/special effects and as an ice sculptor which lead to competing in international competitions and symposiums representing the UK and the Isle of Man. Meeting Stephanie Quayle on a Latvian ice symposium in 2008, we teamed up to compete together and moved to the island in 2012 to start Farmyard Studio, we have created large scale works; Manannan, Loaghtan Ram for Manifest Music Festival, the bronze “when I grow up” sculpture outside the RNLI shop in Ramsey, Centenary Bull, Wildlife Park Elk, giant TT bike and many ice sculptures for events here in the island.