parchedpeas

The lazy well-off Manx will just sit back and pay it. The camel's back broke a long time ago, and the people who will be hit by this won't mobilise because they're too busy working their arses off to pay for it.

Someone has to organise the unemployed. And they have to be insured. And what would generally happen is that they would replace a large number of workers who are currently doing similar jobs for the minimum wage. Plus you've got the other problem: what do you do if they refuse / don't turn up? Cut their benefit, you will answer. But what then. What happens when they are starving and homeless because you've stopped bunging them their weekly dole? Poor health, crime and vagrancy. And these things cost money. So you save some money in the short term, and have to spend it further down the line. I'm not against the idea that everyone should do something to help but when you have removed most of the jobs that unskilled, untalented workers used to do and replaced them with middle-management jobs, because they are more lucrative then the price you have to pay for that is subsidising a section of society that don't and never will fit in. £70 a week, or whatever it is, is basically hush money - a fix to keep them out of the way so the rest of the society can get on and 'prosper'. It's sick, when you think about it.

No it's not though. Most of these charges are paid by the householder, not the individual and they are disporportionately punished. Just increase income tax ffs and cut costs elsewhere.

They should erect a huge EXIT sign there so that the people who have just landed in Douglas can get out of it as quickly as possible.

Most of Douglas is a national disgrace. It's a shit tip of a town that needs knocking down and starting again. The only bits that are nice are paid for by the government and, therefore, are unsustainable to maintin in the real world. The landlords and private owners of many of the nicer looking building have been allowed to get away with murder in the name of progress and we have been left with a disgusting town that is a mish-mash of bad Victoriana and shoddy 'contemporary' designs. Summerland with NEVER be redeveloped. The site is a nightmare filled with the stench of death and the stench of seaweed and sewage. It would make a pointless tourist attraction, as we have no tourists, so it is best left as a monument to those who have gone, and as a painful example to those who have spectacularly failed the Isle of Man in general and Douglas specifically over the last 20 years.

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-les/gees/staff/fire-disaster-c1.pdf It's all there for anyone that wants a read.

Because the content is licensed for the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom. Another perk brought to us by independence.

Before I listen, what was so bad about it?

A totally free and transparent market would sort it all out. OR Protect the passenger fares and make the cost of everything else more expensive and reduce the likelihood of the bigger retailers sticking around (they're not here because they are nice, they are here to make money) A mix and match approach doesn't work. So you either shop at Tesco in Douglas or shop at Tesco in Liverpool - but you can't have both.

That'd be the next logical step to be honest. I know Energy is supposed to be easy listening, but they're also there to provide a service and I reckon that you might get a different set of callers as the 'usual suspects' will be listening to Manx Radio. And then the next time the Government funding came around, energy could argue that they're doing their bit for the local community, and take a slice of the pie.