wrighty

I'm surprised he's not giving it one more season with a Champions League slot next year already virtually in the bag.

Funding. Manx Care get told - “You are mandated to provide these services and you have to do it with this money” Councils - “We’ll keep emptying your bins, just half as often as you’re used to, and you have to pay another 12% this year otherwise we can’t” Is this right? Discuss.

My idea is that the CM candidates stand as MHKs as well, and in the seat with the successful CM candidate there are 3 elected (Top 3 if that includes the CM elect, or top 2 plus CM elect if it doesn't). I've always thought that the CM is too tied up in national issues to be a particularly effective local representative. And the successful CM shouldn't have to necessarily win his/her seat. It's possible that a good CM candidate may have alienated his/her local electorate by taking difficult decisions in the national interest. Being booted out because you voted to close the local squash club or whatever shouldn't bar you from the top job. I don't mind the two terms idea. Same as US, and from UK experience long serving PMs seem to outstay their welcome - eg Blair, Thatcher.

I’m not a massive fan of party politics as in the UK or even worse the US system. My solution would be for chief ministerial wannabees to declare before the election, and have a separate island-wide vote for the position. Other MHK candidates could declare who they support, and we could vote them in or otherwise with that in mind.

OK, so why? What’s the aim of the illuminati, or the lizard people, or whoever you think organises and covers up these multiple global conspiracies?

I don't have emotions.

I don't think I'm mixing up. I'm comparing the two situations. For me, if a criminal is sentenced to life, and they wanted to end it instead, why not?

I respect, and agree with much of what you say Gladys. But if someone were to murder one of my kids, and if I were satisfied that there was no doubt they'd done it, I'd end them myself. If the law allowed.

For all the antis on here, should death be a choice for the guilty party, rather than life without parole?

I somewhat agree - not necessarily that they deserve to die, but that they don't deserve to live. There's a subtle difference - I don't necessarily see death as a punishment for the individual criminal, but it is a pretty definite way of removing that individual from society, permanently. I cannot understand why the US get themselves tied up in knots over capital punishment. You can debate the moral philosophy of capital punishment for ever, but if you're going to do it, surely just do it. And if the US can't manage to do it why don't they outsource the job to Saudi or somewhere they're quite efficient at state killing. A flight to Riyadh followed by swift decapitation can't be any worse than 30+ years on death row, a botched lethal injection, another couple of years on death row, and then an experimental nitrogen asphyxiation can it?

Alabama - seriously, WTF? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68089279 And now I’m hearing someone worried that the nitrogen may leak out and harm bystanders, even though it makes up about 80% of air. These people are the leaders of the free world?

“Good metabolisers” could be a euphemism for alcoholics. Regular boozers often need more anaesthetic induction agents than average, for example. Until the induction of liver enzymes goes too far of course…

It was a joke, and not even mine. I'm pretty sure I heard it on one of the 6.30pm Radio 4 slots once. And the job titles idea too.

For the cruciverbalists how about... Banker, a confused consultant without talons? (4)

Good job you're not on the panel. You missed the word 'or' - if those with 5 or more words in their job titles can manage to explain to the old ladies then they'd be fine. I think my title only has 3 words - in my new world order I'd be asking for a pay rise because of that

My version of that is the old lady panel. You have 30 seconds to explain what you actually do to a panel of 3 old ladies, and if they don't understand you're sacked. Or sack anyone with more than 4 words in their job title. Or anyone with 'facilitator'.

Paracetamol is the same. Max dose is 1g 4x per day. It’s the codeine you’re thinking of. Mixed with paracetamol as co-codamol the otc stuff is 8/500 (8mg Codeine + 500mg paracetamol) and prescribed you might get 30/500 - almost 4x the strength of codeine.

Fair point, but both ends of the spectrum represent a tiny portion of the population. Most of us had our vaccines (at least initially) and are getting on with life not worrying about covid at all.

And it's worse than that. It's not just what people want, Manx Care have a mandate to provide certain services at a certain level. They can't just say we won't do XYZ to balance the budget. And if they suggest making money to balance the books (charging, car park etc) that's also unacceptable.

Wasn't that her best state though? The contest seems over before it's begun. Trump to be president in November 😩

As I understand it, it's generally safer for large vessels to be anchored out at sea during severe storms than be in port - nothing to crash into. Or it's at least safer to stay out than it is to try and land.

I think Armando Ianucci said the same - the thick of it was stopped because the stuff they were coming up with was not as funny/bizarre as reality.

To me it’s perfectly simple. The blue badge belongs to the person, not the car, and is so the person can have a wider (therefore more accessible) space closer to wherever they’re going. If they’re staying in the car park in a normal space. If they’re not in the car at all you shouldn’t be using the badge. I used one once, taking my elderly aunt to lunch. Will I now get a bunch of abuse like CrazyDave did for saying that? (Although it was across, so perhaps not?)

False imprisonment, which as crimes go is probably worse than parking in a disabled bay 🙂

That's the one I'm thinking of, but I'm sure Griff Rhys Jones has done similar.