Non-Believer

Well, we've had a cowboy in the White House before now....

But as always, the slate will be wiped clean when the current administration is dissolved in time for next September's Election; no-one will be accountable for what went on. Personally, can't wait for the next kid's party magic show at the next Budget....

Bell is duty-bound to defend all aspects of the IoM/Pinewood business. This will include attacking any criticism, however well based or intended. The resignation of Christian must be essentially an embarrassment given the subterfuge and misinformation that has been spouted over Pinewood which at the end of the day was either Bell's brainchild or certainly got his backing. Is this another pillar crumbling?

Christian has departed because he has made his money. It was Kerching, cash out time. Simple as that.

Anybody with any business acumen whatsoever would suggest that the UA actually cripples the SP. The UA expects the SP to be like local buses. Running around only 1/3 full for 1/3 of the time. The difference is that the buses are funded by the bottomless pit of Govt. One freight sailing a day and one passenger sailing every 2 days would be nearer the mark. And the fast craft is the luxury sports car that we can't justify or afford to run any more.

IoMG took a punt. A desperate, £50M punt. They didn't have a mandate to do it. They've lost @ 2/3rds of the stake. Tales of unquantifiable benefits and making £2.5M back are just trying to bury the truth.

Flagged up on these boards on or around 31st March.

Right now, from little old me, if nobody else. And it needs to be chaired and staffed by authority outwith this Island, IMHO. And perhaps the remit could be expanded to look at some other areas of question as well.....

Which is precisely why FOI requests are to be limited only to concerns post-2010(?) and personally vetted by Bell himself, as proposed. I suspect that a) many skeletons rattle in many cupboards and b) a goodly portion of his psyche is control-freak. Remember the demands for "unity" upon his taking office, the prompt sacking of dissenters (Hall, Karran, Henderson). The man is a megalomaniac. Fortunately, largely confined to a rock in the middle of the Irish Sea.

There was a debate and vote for the pinewood investment which had a majority in favour. And as per usual one might wonder if half of them even knew what they were voting for? I doubt if anybody outside of Bell, Teare and maybe Skelly know the true facts of this, but I'm tempted to go along with Lib Van's appraisal of what's gone on. At the end of the day, our elected wise men have ploughed almost £50M of taxpayer's money into the Film Industry over the last 12-odd years. TANGIBLY, we have the remaining £10M-odd exposure, plus the £5M that we made an additional £2.5M profit on the sale of the shares. Therefore, simplistically speaking, we have £17.5M left of that original £50m. Therefore leaving £32.5M spent on a worthwhile cause or lost, according to your point of view. Now the story goes that this has brought all manner of intangible, unquantifiable benefits to the Isle of Man as a whole. Though being intangible and unquantifiable (arguably conveniently), nobody seems to be able to define exactly how. Particularly to the tune of £32.5M. It could however also be argued that this £50M might, under our current fiscal circumstances, with foresight, have been better spent elsewhere. Perhaps staving off NHS dental charges? Maintaining free school buses? Keeping Car Road Tax down for a couple of years maybe? Or even making an equally intangible dent in the MEA/Utilities Debt? Or keeping the Incinerator costs off the Rates for a bit longer....

It,s the new Bell/Teare/Comin policy to keep the IoM population at "economic critical mass" level.... "You can check out any time you want - but you can never leave..." (copyright Eagles, 1976?)

And the sooner, the better. One or two people involved in the "governance" of this Island appear to consider that they have risen above their accountability to their electors.

That'll be Eddie's Pinewood Random Number Generator again then.... I honestly think that this Govt. is squandering money in an effort to get rid of VAT evidence..it's got to be the only explanation ...

Surely the basic fact is that we've put £50m into a film operation. We've managed to get £2.5m back. Er, that leaves us currently looking at finding £47.5m just to get back to where we started. How much of that £47.5m have we actually made back out of films?

There was an announcement of the sale of a parcel of the studio's land a couple of weeks ago....?

Quaffing champers and oysters at Cannes, I would imagine.....

Steve Christian would also appear to have benefited enormously....

"The Sting" would be more appropriate.....

We're doing quite well so far in that respect then, aren't we..? Didn't we start of with nearly £50m for our "film industry investment"? Not long to go until we've got rid of the lot!! Excellent progress, we should all be proud!!

Two answers to those questions. 1) "Commercially Confidential" and 2) For the sake or your (and everybody else's) blood pressure, "You don't want to know"....

The question could also be, "What damage is currently being done to the economy?" There is only so much that can be raised by the ongoing rafts of increases to taxes and charges before IoM starts to become an unattractive, or indeed, unrealistic proposition for residence. A low tax, high spend Govt with no VAT to now subsidise the low taxes on the wealthy and the great unwashed alike and that has, to date, showed a remarkable reluctance and/or inability to slim itself to suit its new circumstances, is doomed to drag this Island's economy into a rather unpleasant-looking black pit. IoM Government is currently pushing up the cost of living on the rock faster than any other commodity....even some retail prices fall from time to time, due to supply and demand and competition. Even petrol on the IoM. Al and Eddies taxes are predicted to reduce....when? Your Car Road Tax inexorably rises by 10% every year....(and thus that 10% is greater than last year's in £ terms), an "unfair" Sewage Charge, followed by an, apparently equally unfair, Fair Sewage Charge....rises in all other areas of Govt charges...we are being pushed towards a financial abyss by a reluctance, now 8 years old plus, to actually grasp the nettle and do anything meaningful about the cost of Government itself. Hands are tied by the Terms and Conditions granted in times of plenty....Sir Humphries hanging on to their empires....and more than likely, a far-too-late recognition of what is actually happening. I personally wish it could all be over...at least then we could start with something of a clean sheet and know where we stood, rather than being continally fed the, "We're on track" spin interspersed with the occasional, I believe, truth that perhaps things aren't quite so good. And Al wishes to apologise to the Island for the hard times currently upon us. Try doing something meaningful about it then....

I wonder how much "Society" has already spent on this individual, not least of all in terms of the costs of the Justice system trying him for current and past misdemeanours, doubtless vast amounts of Legal Aid, the cost of incarcerating him for his previous offence(s), assessing him for early release, whatever "opportunities" were offered him in respect of rehab whilst "inside"....the list is doubtless considerable in terms of pounds and pence, let alone generosity, that we are obliged to discharge as the civilised society that we try hard to be. "Society", for their justice and generosity were then rewarded by this creature being out for a week, stealing a car and driving it as a TWOC, under the influence(?) and in possession of drugs and then relieving an totally innocent walker of her life on a road that was closed to traffic (being on such is an offence in itself, unless I am much mistaken?). IMHO, "Society" would now be better served by simply nailing this tw@t to a couple of stobs driven into the moorside adjacent to his crime and leaving him to rot for the crows and other wildlife...rather than throwing further good money after bad by starting the process all over again....

I doubt if many, if any would know what a qualitative tendering system is.....they've never had to. Many moons ago I was told that the "tendering" system that existed within DOT/DOI was a sort of "competitive" bidding system for projects and repairs that went on between the management of the various DOT district work gangs...that's how you ended up with a gang from Lezayre travelling south every day to patch potholes in Port St Mary, and vice versa. Presumably the fuel cost and expense of travelling time wasn't part of the equation. Accepting and vetting bids from the Private Sector will be a fairly new experience, I might venture....obviously they're going to have to get to understand quality control and the diligence processes and monitoring that needs to go on and perhaps hasn't been. As to what they're all doing....I would suggest keeping their heads down, taking as much as they can, while they can; and hoping that their job isn't going to be one of the cuts needed to save £5m.....?

Cue yet another claim from the Kerruishes for more taxpayer funded fencing for their fields.....

+1 and the best one yesterday was whilst all that backing up was going on a cop car had to go the otherside of the long concrete Island at Pully Bridge at speed to get out of Douglas to attend an RTA - nearly ploughing into oncoming traffic on the other side of the road. Whichever compete fuckwit designed that whole stretch wants to be hauled from their desk, taken out into the carpark, and pelted with rotten fruit. Complete f**king insanity from a department that really couldn't give a shit about even trying to be competent at doing anything. The whole modus operandi of the DOI seems to be to shut a road for 2 years, open it and then say "There you go, its shit, knock yourself out complaining about it as none of us will get the sack so you're just wasting your breath". This is the same department who blew up in self-righteous indignation when people continued to use the EB Christian stone bridge to access Douglas from Old Castletown road instead of using South Quay and the harbour lift-bridge that they'd assumed everyone would know had been imposed on them....