Will Halsall

9 hours ago, Amadeus said:

It's been good for the island for over twenty years. And which industry is? I'd argue there is more dodginess in finance and banking than there is in gambling.

Has it really been good for the island though? It's certainly increased the population (and boy, a few farmers have benefited from selling land that should never have been sold for residential development to support the rental need of these industries), but perhaps not the reputation? I would argue that there is equal 'dodginess' in Gambling/Finance/Banking, but do three wrongs make a right?

People (usually people who have arrived post 2000) occasionally ask me 'would you prefer the Spuds and Herring days' - they weren't anywhere near as bad as you may think tbh!

I'd argue that the IOM Gov has been dancing with the Devil of immorality for far too long by embracing the gambling sector, and now there is no turning back. There will be a lot of negative equity on this island if ever this unscrupulous industry gets a good offer to relocate to warmer climes, taking their associated hangers on with them.

Many people working within the Gambling sector on good salaries will inevitably defend the indefensible to protect their own life style, but I worry that IOM Gov have unwittingly potentially created a dialectical materialism type of situation that will one day bite this beautiful isle in the arse!

Thank you John and Albert, much appreciated!

Do any of our wonderful members know the origins and history of the name 'Ohio Forest'?

I have been advised that it may have gained its name from Miners who emigrated to Ohio in the 1800's, in a similar way to the Cleveland Medal in the Guild, which was created by Manx people who emigrated to Ohio.

I have researched but am non-the-wiser.

Thanks in advance,

Will

13 hours ago, 0bserver said:

Don't forget Gawnio. He deserves an honourable mention in Bus Vannin shit show.

Indeed, I forgot about his time arson around at BV.

1 hour ago, Declan said:

@GizoIt's not losing anything. It's a public service that comes at a cost.

Aye, between Crookall, Cregeen, Longworth and Black it's been some feckin cost though! 

16 minutes ago, AOR said:

Other scrappies are available, for sure (but I would strongly recommend that people weigh heir scrap first before going, and check prices).

Aye, these wankers diddled me out of £20 - I wouldn't recommend them!

9 hours ago, Bandits said:Honestly can’t believe how this absolute clown manages to get his own way. 

By the old classic: Speak with authority and stupid people (Cregeen, Crookall, Black, CoMin, Procurement Dept., Work Permits, Treasury etc) will believe the yarn you spin!

Unfortunately, he has cost us a feckin fortune and ruined a few (drivers) lives in the process!

He should never have been employed, but he was more savvy than his predecessors - which wasn’t difficult.

3 hours ago, BriT said:

So they can’t even get the basics right

https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/politics/we-got-our-sums-wrong-on-the-living-wage-559179

Now we’ve had to have Loughborough University check our figures and 5 years later they’re wrong. 

Or maybe it’s a ruse to justify their own reliance on low paid workers and Zero hours contracts etc? 🤔

2 minutes ago, Wavey Davey said:

Yes I think you and Will Halsall misinterpreted what I said. They’re all liars but they shouldn’t be. If it was me as Minister they’d only lie to me once. Ministers need to be able to trust the civil servants who provide the. with answers and if they can’t do that then the civil servants shouldn’t have jobs. 

Apologies, I am with you now👍

3 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

330ml cans? 

That’s them!

26 minutes ago, skins said:

Doesn’t mention how many but at least one spotted out there https://www.three.fm/news/isle-of-man-news/manx-bus-spotted-acting-as-tour-vehicle-in-malta/

Thank you, I had know idea. I note that that it is a tourist bus though, and I wonder exactly who is running it?

Arriva finished in 2014/5 from memory (not sure if it was because of their Bendy Bus debacle) and Malta nationalised the network and then chose a subsidiary of ALBA to run everything, and I was under the impression that they modernised the fleet completely. Again, I stand to be corrected but can’t be arsed researching as I am in the garden drinking an Estrella - Shoprite PE were selling 10 for £12.99 yesterday or 20 for £13 - more you drink more you save! 

4 hours ago, Wavey Davey said:

Why should he need query what a very well paid civil servant has told him in writing? 

Why - because there have been too many spurious answers from Bus Vannin that each and every minister seems to have spun to the great house and taxpayers since Brown created DCCL. Dim Tim first spun a yarn in his first appearance as Minister for DCCL, he didn’t learn and spun a yarn again a couple of months ago. Probably realised and hounded Alf for the DfE job as he knew BV were extracting the Michael out of him. Then after a month he resigns - what a prick, and what an absolute joke Longworth, Black, Cregeen et al have created with BV, I have been saying this since the Bendy Buses and Strike episodes many years ago. It’s all been a successful vanity project of Ian’s, helped by the incompetence of the ministers signing his fantasies off. BV is a national embarrassment, and Black and Longworth are laughing all the way to the bank!!

On a separate note, and I stand to be corrected, I don’t think Malta took any of our buses, my understanding was that they wanted to move away from the old privately owned charabancs to a new modernised fleet. There was some amusing Bendy Bus incidents during this transition however.

Cross 4 ways has lights, St Marks from Ballasalla is closed but you won’t know until you are up past Abbotswood by Phildraw Road. A bit of a pain in the arse when I discovered that. Advance notice at Ballasalla stores would have been considerate.

13 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

Removing the CEO isn't what that says exactly though.  "A satisfactory resolution" to such conflicts in the last government meant that the Minister was sacked on at least one occasion (Beecroft) and probably another (Thomas if he was clashing with Greenhow, which he probably was).

But in the case of the DoI, it isn't the (acting) CEO who is the problem, but those underneath who are much more difficult to shift.  And the convention seems to be that politicians have no control over them - indeed should not interact with them in any way.  Hence Ashford refusing to even speak to Ranson.

The Departmental CEO is a relatively new position, they're not really there to manage the Department (which is why there sometimes needs to be 'Operations Managers' and the like) but to manage the Minister.  If the Department is failing so badly that even the politicians notice, the CEO can be sacrificed without actually needing to change things and failure can continue.  You only have to look at all the Departments who lost their CEOs in the last government: DHSC, DEFA, DHA, DED, DESC.  Black only lasted a month afterward the Election.  Only Treasury and Cabinet Office survived the period.  The job in the spending Departments seems to be one for a very well-paid scapegoat.

Perhaps Crookall resigned because he wanted to change things at the Department for Giving Money to Your Mates and was told the civil service didn't want it.

Thank you 👏👏

7 hours ago, Stu Peters said:

but still think it's unreasonable to expect a minister to double or triple check everything his CEO tells him as a fact, especially knowing the minister will be answering a parliamentary question. Imagine you were CEO and your minister was checking up on you with other more junior staff? It would be untenable, and surely there must be a chain of command. Like I said, if he was told lies (or even 'selective' information) there needs to be a proper remedy for that, but I worry that you're blaming the wrong person here.

Morning Stu,

Indeed I agree, if the CS have lied or been selective in the information requested then there absolutely should be a remedy, but this has been going on probably since 979, and over a millennium later there still isn't a remedy for these failures!

I am not (and I suspect this applies to most posters on MF) suggesting that every Tynwald question should be checked and double checked, but with specific reference to Bus Vannin which has an unacceptable history of misinformation, the answers from Longworth et al should be treated with a degree of caution. Even more so as this was Tim Crookall's second spell overseeing BV!

Crookall has nearly 20yrs experience as an elected member for Peel. Importantly, he specifically requested the ministerial post of DoI, and stated in his manifesto that that department needed a shake-up, indicating that the public were being misinformed. You can't possibly deny that he should have taken these obvious lies at face value before presenting them to Tynwald and the public, and he should have clarified the facts first? It was so obvious to everyone that the answer was total horseshit, it makes a complete mockery of our whole political process - as an elected member you should be embarrassed about the perception this gives the public!

To reiterate, in his manifesto he stated that the DoI needed shaking up, he then requested to be minister of the DoI, then he ignores everything he said about the department 10 months ago (when seeking election), and let's Longworth tickle his tummy while feeding him with  'duff gen'!

To make things even more ridiculous, he then asks to run the DfE and resigns within 2 months - the guy is a fuckin disgrace!!!!! 

33 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

I'm sure he did know - I've pointed out on here how he's used the "I am told" formula a lot in the past.  In those circumstances all you can do under the current system is ask again and clarify that what they are providing is what was wanted and if it is true.  But if they lie to you twice there's not much a Minister can do.  They can't check everything and the civil service could just give them the wrong data anyway.

The important thing is what happens to the civil servants who do misinform the politicians and the public.  And the answer seems to be they get away with it.

Roger, am I mistaken here - I was always under the impression that the Department Minister was able to (maybe through CoMin) have his CE removed if he had lost confidence in him/her?

ETA: https://www.gov.im/media/1359547/the-government-code-february-2017.pdf

6 minutes ago, WTF said:

there may be an opening at bus vannin for you.

Over Longworth's dead body!

28 minutes ago, Stu Peters said:

With an anonymous forum I have no idea what level of managerial expertise you have, but if, in my new role at IOMP, someone complains their post hasn't been delivered, I'll ask the CEO to investigate and report. I won't break the chain and go behind their back for second and third opinions. If it later transpired I'd been fed duff info I'd deal with that. I wonder if that's what happened in BV?

I am not anonymous on this forum Stu, and I post under my own name. I can confirm that in the Passenger Transport sector I have significantly more managerial experience than both you and Tim Crookall added together - I owned a company that specialised in several areas of the Passenger Transport industry from 1991 - 2015, with a client list including MerseyTravel/Rail, GMPTE/TFGM, Metro Link, Northern Rail, Network Rail, Virgin Rail, Bucks, Links, York, Cheshire etc. etc. 

Your analogy (telling Simon Kneen that Mrs Quilliam didn't get a post card from her daughter in Benidorm) is akin to climate change denial. Cregeen misled HoK and Crookall has misled us all too with that statement, he really should have double checked because he is paid handsomely to furnish Tynwald and the public with honest answers - ffs, there is plenty of history of ministers falling on their swords due to 'duff gen'! Just because you like the fact that he is a 'no bullshit type of guy', it doesn't make him a suitable minister, and again this has been proven by his actions.

Congratulations are in the post for your new role btw, if you don't receive them, tell Simon CEO!!!

3 hours ago, asitis said:

I normally agree with you Will, however in this respect Dandara bought that site to build apartments, they had no intention of building within the planning permissions which existed . There may well have been nimbyisms and obstacles placed in their way, but the bottom line is, none of that could have happened if the consents which were already in place were adhered to. Profit is the driver here, maybe for all parties but the public suffer an eyesore because of it. The government have no desire to upset Dandara and make them do something it's pathetic !

Likewise, I normally agree with you too, but I don't share your stance on this one, though I respectfully understand your reasoning. There is so much to this story, particularly the 'split purchase' of the hotel and the Links (including roads and lodge); my understanding is that the owners of the Links were miffed that they missed out on the hotel too as it happens, hence the attempted tinkering of the Area Plan and subsequent court case that was granted in favour of Heritage/Dandara/FIDL. If you read into all of the planning applications over the past 5 years around the Derbyhaven area, along with who objects to what and the vanity projects such as illuminated geese etc. I think it gives a good insight into some people treating the area as their own personal fiefdom;  the constant objections to the hotel development are more to do with this attitude than the betterment of the area.

7 hours ago, Stu Peters said:

I'm sure he answered the question in good faith and based on the 'facts' provided to him by Bus Vannin. Not his fault if he was given duff gen.

I am sure he didn't, and if he did he was at best extremely naive! For goodness sake, there has been plenty of 'duff gen' from that department, so he should have checked and double checked!

On 7/21/2022 at 7:07 PM, asitis said:

Dandara are toxic for the island. You only have to look at their behaviour towards Fort Island Hotel where they are creating an eyesore and hazard simply because at the moment they can't get their own way !

The tail is wagging the dog !

asitis, I do think that is the one good thing that Dandara/FIDL are not at fault for, their behaviour has actually been exemplary, it's the behaviour of the Golf Links owners and the DHRC that has let the area down. 

Here is another example of the Golf Links owners bad behaviour: https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/reinstate-right-of-way-family-told-554411

On 7/20/2022 at 8:42 PM, Mr Helmut Fromage said:

Quiet possibly the most racist and utterly disgusting post I’ve see on here  absolutely wow - take a look in the mirror if you like what you see turn away take a minute and look again- the person staring back is still a narrow minded bigoted racist CUNT

 

@daisyI must be a narrow minded racist cxxd too then 🤔 

18 minutes ago, Josem said:

I don't support the Government's sneaky plan to massively increase the population, but saying that we don't have space for homes is false. I don't know if you've ever been to the Isle of Man, but FYI we have a huge amount of undeveloped space: Figures from the NFU and the biosphere reveal that around 88% of the island is managed as various forms of undeveloped green land (including farms, forestry, etc).

Separately, around 4% of the land of the Isle of Man is dedicated to housing. Saying we have few areas left to build homes is just not true. It is true, however, to say that our community currently puts higher priority on space for homes for cows than homes for humans.

 

Born in Phurt le Moirrey 1964 Michael!

That 88% NEEDS retaining as undeveloped green land!

Knock Rushen, Ballakilley, Ballawhattleworth are all blots on the landscape, Dandara's Kirk Michael debacle will need some coastal erosion defences in a few years too. I am very aware of the regional area plans, but as a passionate Manxman I do not under any circumstances want this island to be over developed, particularly at the pace it has been, and importantly not simply to suit speculators!

Just now, Roxanne said:

This is why I support him. He would not stand alongside a strategy that he believes would be to the detriment of his constituents. He does have integrity and despite his humble beginnings has worked his ass off for the Island in every government post he’s been a part of. He’s straight and he’s honest and he’s hardworking. There’s no ego with him, it’s all about doing the best for his constituents and the island. So yes @AOR, I’m a fan  

I respectfully disagree with you Roxy x

7 hours ago, Stu Peters said:

I think many are missing what I consider the most important part of Tim's statement: ''Sadly however I have reached the conclusion that I cannot continue to play an effective part in this Council of Ministers team.'

I've got to know Tim a little over the last 10 months and think he's a straightforward, no BS kinda bloke with integrity. Naturally you may disagree.

Stu,

Is it because in TC's mind the shit will literally be hitting the fan by the next election:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/further-16-5-million-approved-for-sewage-works-in-peel-and-garff/

He may well be a straightforward, no BS bloke but I seriously question his integrity, and I have done so since his spell in the DCCL - he authorised the Cabbage and continued to defend the indefensible actions of Black and Longworth.

He was hugely unpopular with the Gobbags and knew he wasn't going to be elected in the previous campaign, so he became an MLC (chosen ahead of the esteemed Mr Moyle ffs), then at the next election when even a Dogfish (see what I did there) would have beaten Boot and the other fella, he gave this illusion that he would rise like a phoenix from the ashes, threatening to take the bull by the horns and completely shake up the DOI. However, at the first opportunity he grabs Alf and asks for the DfE job, somehow, Alf in his infinite wisdom thought that Crookall would make a good DfE Minister and Thomas a good DOI Minister - one can only assume that Alf was pre-occupied 😉 and inadvertently got their jobs mixed up.