Non-Believer

Paging @Banker and a set of net curtains...

Regardless of context, I don't feel that she should be making that sort of retort. Particularly when it's towards a businessperson whose BUSINESS RATES are contributing towards the Town Hall empire that she and her colleagues appear to be unable to monitor, let alone control.

Village halls got bigger to match egos and ambitions.

It could be worse - they could be like certain Ramsey Commissioners, publicly telling local businesspeople that they don't think that they should be in business. Following on, of course, from previously describing ratepayers as "c*nts".

I thought all women were skint. Or maybe it's just the ones I meet.

Oooh look. More debt for Braddan ratepayers..

Which is why I stated accountants in general. So who do you think has worked out the figures for Dim Tim to spiel, himself? Somebody has finally figured that spare SP capacity could be more profitable for everybody. But that out of the-box-for-normal thinking will not have been born of SP accountants or any other. Somebody else born with more common sense has had a light switch moment.

And we know what that means. Any advice must be compliant with the visions and wishes of the civil service. No advice, no matter how sound and well-founded will be entertained if it is likely to impact adversely upon the above three. Beyond that, the world is your oyster, tell 'em anything you want.

Or he's trawling for sympathy...

This will be the ongoing process announced 2.5 years ago when we were told that it was intended to take on a tranche of Govt advisers to deal with Ministers directly as CS couldn't be relied upon to be "truthful or accurate" with their information. It might therefore beg the question, "Why are the ones thus concerned still in employment?"

Yes, Prospect and Unite mainly. And an unhealthy dollop of self-interest.

I just thought that it gave a bit of an insight as to what's actually under the render and years of whitewash/white paint. Get it dropped.

Government accountants don't see things like that though, in fact accountants in general don't...

Natural economic forces which will surely apply themselves later if we don't start to do something about it sooner. The danger being that if we don't, the whole public economy is going to feel even more pain than could be necessary. We have posters advocating the economics of the survival of the fittest in hospitality. Let the unwanted and unnecessary fall by the wayside. Why shouldn't we apply the same right across the board to include the public sector? Why should these people be excluded and insulated from economic right-sizing?

'Twas ever thus though and it's part of the reason that the "poor get poorer" to quote the adage. Look at the amount of time it takes to complete deliberations, consultations and implementation of anything to do with the minimum wage, it's going to be July of this year before those latest "interim recommendations" are even brought before Tynwald. Minimum Wage recipients have had to make do and get by "for years" in the current inflationary situation which has been with us since Ukraine 2022.

Along with the cheap bit from circa 2002 when they started converting appliances on the Island...

You've omitted farming again. Govt has kept construction busy on the grounds of employment both in the industry and the supply chain (those unemployment figures can be so embarrassing otherwise). Even if it's embarrassingly slapdash repairs on potholes it's politically useful to support it, everybody knows that. But if you're going to do that for some industries it's pure ammunition for the unsupported.

So if we hold the debate for a moment and take a step back; @Anthony Ingham believes that hospitality should not be given any assistance and should rely on survival of the fittest. On the grounds that no other local industry, with the possible admission of farming, receives any direct or indirect Govt support. Ok.

Neither are some of their contractors.

It was Peel. The knife still had butter on it.

I already mentioned manufacturing. Strix, for instance, were on 50% grant for capital spends and equipment on the grounds of creating local employment. They said thank you very much and moved to China shortly afterwards. We built a new £4M Vehicle Testing Station to accommodate Swagelok's threat to pull out of the Island if they didn't get the site of the old one for expansion. A new Testing Station that's got little or no more capacity than the old one if you talk to the guys in there (I do). So there's £4M in support for manufacturing straight away.

Not just in the West. They are paid large sums of money now not only to make some areas look "pretty" but also to leave other areas entirely in the name of "re-wilding". There are a myriad of other grants that they can apply for and receive too, fencing, bat boxes, tree-planting as well as the per "head of any animals kept" payments. Very little actually food-production related. It runs to @ £8M pa from the taxpayer and maybe more.

Plus Baker, £35k+ for a bowling alley, Skelly, God knows how much for his trinkets and tat business and plenty of others, it was FOI'd and published on here a few months back to howls of disgust. @Anthony Ingham seems to be particularly anxious that hospitality (in particular) should not receive any support in these straitened times but he/she's neglecting the fact that certain Govt favourite areas can, do and probably always will receive all sorts of largesse and not just when times are hard. So you can see where hospitality are coming from. Have a look at some of the vehicles on display during the next tractor run, for instance and ask why farms don't have to be survival of the fittest 😉