Theodolite

Any programme on Summerland is better than no programme at all. The perspective of Ruth McQuillan was new. Perhaps we should do what the Isle of Man seems to be good at and say, blame her for being there, or just say tough luck get on with your life. The broadcast made the Manx Radio news and is on BBC Listen Again here.

Didn't Alan Pickard marry one of his pupils too? Wally retired from actual teaching a year or two before he retired, some classes were just left to teach themselves.

Isle of Man Courts Website Wendy Baines' appeal fails. The most significant words in the judgment to my mind are: (my italics) and I wonder how many times in the future the Isle of Man Courts will be presented with this judgment as a significant precedent

CoMin plus their merry band of ar$elickers in the rest of Tynwald.

David Cannan does not appear...? To my mind, he is the most experienced, intelligent and capable out of the lot of them. Edited to add: It is Graham Cregeen, not Greegan. To be honest though, I don't think it particularly matters.

Well said.

The Attorney general has spoken. I wonder does he mean it or is this so that he can retire on the moral high ground? extracted from the Isle of Man Examiner front page report: I hope he means it although from my angle it's a bit late in the day for him to be making such comments about the reputation of the Manx Legal Profession and such matters. Anyway, I hope his successor takes the same attitude.

I agree. It would be farcical to have spent multi-millions on a prison just to have a few inmates. At a time when the Isle of Man was awash with cash due to overpaid VAT, the arguments were made for a super dooper top-notch prison (in much the same way we have an exceedingly expensive New Hospital, New Power Station, New 'All-Island' Sewage System, New leisure Centre and New Incinerator. Other stuff too). Put quite simply, all those well-paid prison workers salaries and pension and the huge capital outlay have to be justified. .....lock 'em up.

Plus he's done the book. It's a whoppa and the best thing ever for placing the computer monitor on to raise it a couple of inches.

You bastard...

You couldn't resist it though. Ian.

Fair point.

Don't expect the judgment to necessarily reflect what happened in court (which might be fair enough because some will say that a judge will inevitably need to condense proceedings into what he/she believes is relevant to a written judgment). but especially don't expect the online judgment to reflect the judgment handed down by the judge... This is, remember, the Isle of Man. The courts and the employees are cosily situated within the highly lucrative web of the Isle of Man Legal Industry.

Quite ironic as he was the sacrificial lamb when the SIB went tits up, Mr Moroney being (I think) younger than Ms Holt at the time He took much of the flack whilst his two co-nominee directors got away relatively unscathed, one of them having a stroke, or as many put it "a stroke of luck" When the Savings and Investment Bank collapsed, Mark Moroney was in his mid-thirties but would have been in his 40s when the case eventually came to trial. His experience and knowledge from the SIB would have no doubt stood him in good stead for all those people wanting to invest money and stuff like that on the Isle of Man. Maybe that is why Bainesy used Moroneys? After reading out the verdict, Acting Deemster David Turner said to Holt: "It is a very sad day for you but it is a long life. You might think everything is in ruins but it isn't." Source It is a pity that Mark (now retired) couldn't have done more for the staff of his firm but I would say that Ms Holt may have an excellent future in front of her. After his not dissimilar experiences it certainly did Mr Moroney no harm.

Yep, that is what I mean. Our local clowns have been taking the p*55 for far too long. When it comes to advocates doing just about what they please, they've been letting the 'tail wag the dog' for far, far too long. *phrase courtesy of Deemster Kerruish RIP

Maybe Mark Moroney surely got out while the going was good! He's certainly had the freedom to 'Freedom to Flourish' since being a defendant in the Savings and Investment Bank trial all those years ago.

She's just a sacrificial lamb. I've come across plenty of senior (and very senior) Isle of Man lawyers who have done just as worse. Such as with-holding evidence, non-disclosure, lying or 'fibbing' in court, advocates mis-leading the court, deemsters mis-leading the court. (Hmmm, that last one looks a bit severe, I think I'd better make sure I can back it up if I'm going to leave it in....) They just didn't get caught or their 'peccadillos' were just accepted as the norm. It will be nice to see a few more off-Island judges brought in. Our system of justice and those that make their shameful excesses from it, need one hell of a good shake up. Top to bottom.

PMSL!

The one I keep coming across these days from advocates is 'proportionality'. It is about as nebulus a word as you will get but sounds good and the judges love it for getting the big boys off the hook.

It's probably been posted here before,but that reminds me of a serious analysis of the Celtic Tiger

'We will beat Mezeron', says Quayle Here's a report from Manx Radio link However, I recommend listening to Roger Watterson's excellent interview with Mr Quayle on the Manx Radio Opinion Programme yesterday There's a nice pocket history of the Isle of Man Steam Packet at the start of the programme. Roger Watterson knows his subject here and I thought he stepped up a gear or two in his interview style for this one. Well worth listening to if anyone is at all interested.

One day I found myself in circumstances where I was forced to listen for about half an hour to a senior judge on the Isle of Man bragging about his work to a person he had just met. I was particularly amazed to hear him tell his 'conversational' captee "the isle of Man is that small we know who is guilty before a case comes to trial". And you wonder why I'm occasionally so cynical...

Fair point if that is the case. What about the public. Every Court I have ever attended elsewhere has the lists displayed (we must all have seen the lists outside the Old Bailey on TV for example). In some respects the Isle of Man still likes to go for the kangaroo end of court dealings. In my honest opinion.

When you say "open sitting" you mean Isle of Man "Open Sitting". Everywhere else in the decent western world has publicly available Court Lists. On the Isle of Man, even if you are on the list, unless you are an Advocate, obtaining a list is like extracting teeth. If anyone thinks I am suggesting that the Isle of Man Courts do not like to have the public attend, then yes, that is exactly what I am suggesting.

Nice post cheeky boy. Hmmm, The Admirals Rest Hotel. Sorry to go a little further off topic, but that was another example of a wgrandiose waste of money scheme in the 1980s. The taxpayer didn't lose out though, well not directly anyway. Money was lavished on the place by Gil Hunter and his buddies from the Savings and Investment Bank (SIB). Unfortunately it was not their money to spend, it was the unwitting depositors. I think the freehold owners of the Hotel were eventually left with that particular golden elephant. Anyway, back on topic......all those Power Stations. Can someone write a song about the Isle of Man which includes the line "If you want a Power Station we've got one to spare".