ballaughbiker

It seems like little has changed since 1956.

True but one or two of our finest may have a different opinion to you as to what constitutes being dodgy. Lets say a young person is driving a fully legal car at the speed limit through the empty roads of Sulby at 2am. Now that's well dodgy isn't it? Well a certain Ramsey PC thought so and detained someone close to me for a considerable time well in excess of that reasonably required for his speculative check of driver and vehicle. Reason for stopping? - driving to slowly which actually was 30 in a 30...... PC C was the gobby one on this occasion to impress two younger coppers with him who were all no doubt bored out of their apparently tiny minds on a quiet night shift. Of course this left the law abiding individual who was definitely harassed with a long lasting unfortunate impression the police. As a result they may not get his full help should they ever need it in the future. You reap what you sow PC C.

Someone just wants a Simpsons game and it's gone straight to boat in the morning stuff in a few posts (I trust in jest....). Brilliant!

It'll all be ok with all that money he's saved on education....was that tax payer's money Eddie?

I wondered who would be the first to ask that MP. My brother in law only has size 7.5 feet and my sister confirms the theory.....

I love conspiracy theories Andy but I doubt that. Whilst knowing nothing about boats, ships (or whatever they're called) using three engines out of four does not necessarily give you a big fuel saving so I'm led to believe.

Well all is forgiven then There are just as many times the reverse happens especially with the 3/4 fast craft.

Just wondered how much freight would have to subsidise pax if they didn't have the two gas guzzling unreliable cats? Its nice to be in the pool in 2.5 hours but its not essential.

Of course he's only doing his job..... and yes, he did fend off Moulton very well. I hardly expected him to say something like "we've tanned the financial ass off joe public of the IOM one way and another and now the chickens have come home to roost!" I don't however appreciate the veiled threats to the IOM public that they are going to possibly loose something or suffer reduced service when they have no input whatsoever into the circumstances that precipitated this crisis. This was much more apparent in the previous Mandate interview than Moulton's. Why do certain posters keep saying 'be careful what you wish for'? I don't think anyone has said they would want the SP to fail if that's what's meant. I feel quite the opposite. I want them to succeed, be successful and make a reasonable profit but without the apparent arrogance and pricing of a monopoly provider. I, and most I suspect, just want a very ordinary no-frills service at a reasonable cost. I wouldn't even mind if the gas guzzling weather dependent fast craft were taken out of service as long we weren't ripped off for an ordinary service. Surely nobody really believes it could be at Brittany ferries prices but c'mon £80 return on the Ben to Heysham for a foot pax arriving there in the dead of night? TF - who has said they are a shipping expert then?

Agreed LL and Frances, I agree with what you say about the staff. I feel very sorry for them if this gets out of hand. That however does not alter the fact that if the CEO comes on the media giving a very polarised and oblique view as some sort of justification for trying to frighten everyone, that he should not then be a target for criticism. Sure kevster, that's obvious but one wonders why people choose to route freight via Brittany rather than all the other x- channel carriers. Reasonable pricing maybe? Let's not start feeling sorry for the SP. Imo they are one of the main causes that the cost of living is so high on the island and that affect everyone but not in an equal way. Just wondered, do you work for them then......?

A good firm that doesn't make you feel like a criminal if you want to take a private van instead of a car. And they let you book vans online without the 20 questions the SP Freight Office ask and no declaration forms with the question "why are you travelling with a commercial vehicle" or the like. I did say direct comparisons to x-channel routes were unfair and was just pointing out what I think is great value to what I thought was poor value as a foot pax on SP. Oh, and just to add a bit of fairness to this argument, it would have been cheaper still (€148 all in) to travel from Cherbourg - Rosslare with Irish Ferries (19 hours!) with a cabin but there's no way of getting from Ireland to IOM. Your fare with Irish seems a lot more than the one I was quoted Sean . However I've just got an ordinary car not a camper. No, he's the one whose job it is to justify this so he's the one to, er, discuss any subsequent points with.

An interesting interview Mark. All sorts of veiled threats lurking in there. Your assertion that it [the crisis]has "not been brought about in any way by the SP" is a bit rich. Who sets the prices then?

Thanks LL I didn't think you were being entirely serious hence the . The tax I'm referring to is the newish APD (introduced at a very low level in the 90s) and changed yet again yesterday by the UK gov. Just looked at a flight to Liverpool in a month's time. Fares are from £0 - £27.99, depending on time of day, plus tax of £23.50 - £29. I don't doubt that some of this 'tax' would have paid for say landing fees in days gone by (a parallel to your harbour fees) but the majority is a tax on flying which the boat traveller does not have to pay. Imo this therefore distorts any comparison in favour of the boat.

Good old days Pongo.... I think. I remember them flying from Lydd to Le Touquet in the early 60s and I believe they flew to the IOM as well. I have a copy of the MCM the year the Norton Commando was launched (1968?) and the editor is pushing his new Commando into one of these on his way to the TT. Sorry I digress, kevster it's from Caen - Pompey

Eh? Many foot pax fares are getting close to airfares and those airfares now have considerable tax content. This might show how expensive the foot pax fares really are. Now if they are only at this price because they are being subsidised by freight, something, somewhere, is very inefficient. I know that our crossing shouldn't really be compared with cross channel stuff as it's not like for like in many ways. However, just for illustrative purposes only, here is a fare I am paying on a crossing tomorrow. The crossing is 7 hours on a ship that makes the Ben look ancient and is for a car + driver. I've got an overnight en-suite cabin to myself and a proper cooked breakfast in the morning. So how much is it? £350? £250? nah..... £137! Compare this to my aforementioned return foot pax fare of £80 on the racket last week both ways on the Ben to that great transport interchange, Heysham. I also have a bit of trouble with the way MW who is ultimately responsible for defence of prices that p*** customers off and when they actually do p*** off, try and preach some sort of moral high ground message to (try to) make us feel guilty. If there was an alternative for us ordinary folk, who might just want to take a car over, it would be laughed out of court!

This is bad news for the island but I'm just surprised it's not happened sooner. Anyone has ever dealt with the freight office will know that they have a definite attitude and a pricing structure that is outrageous where small commercials are concerned (eg Ford transit sized vans). Ask any freight company in the UK about getting a few pallets to the IOM and the reply before they've even looked is "that'll be expensive" and it is. It has to be said if Tesco and Shoprite didn't think they were getting their leg lifted, they wouldn't have jumped ship in the first place. Maybe I shouldn't have moaned about my £80 return foot pax fare last week. It may become the norm.