Man Arrested After Weekend Graffiti Outbreak

[Declan]

the different colours are because the dates were put in the night afterwards... well thats the way it was down south, the wall on the castletown football club has been done

 

That's a recipe to get arrested!

[thebees]

Hhahahahah the police are urging the vandals to "Hand themselves in" - why? can't they catch them? looks unlikely.

[bluemonday]

Out of interest, have these 'nationalist' movements considered the ultimate result?

 

Arkwright And The Legion Of Incompetent Smug Self Servers with unlimited power.

 

Bit like a more intellectually challenged version of the Taliban.

[censorship]

Out of interest, have these 'nationalist' movements considered the ultimate result?

 

One of the points they make on the Facebook page is 'what is there to lose from independence'. If we were to declare independence, would we still have British passports and the ability to call on British consular support if we get into trouble overseas?

If not, the Isle of Man would have to consider a diplomatic representation in some countries and, given we haven't got two brass farthings to rub together at the moment, I don't see that happening.

So, looking at ultimate results, who is going to help the idealistic drop-out hippies who have changed their names from Tarquin and Oliver to something that sounds Gaelic so they can bleat on about 'Celtic cultural identity' and the cultural rape of the British Empire, when they have all their stuff nicked while off their tits on gear in Goa?

Personally, I would enjoy hearing the story of one of our gallant campaigners being utterly fucked over on one of their backpacking adventures. I suppose they could phone daddy, who's got a tidy penny packed away thanks to the booming financial services industry in the Isle of Man - or at least used to have until the Island declared independence, lost the political stability tag which has earned it so much global credit and all the big banks and investment houses fucked off to Jersey and Guernsey.

[piebaps]

Out of interest, have these 'nationalist' movements considered the ultimate result?

 

Arkwright And The Legion Of Incompetent Smug Self Servers with unlimited power.

 

Bit like a more intellectually challenged version of the Taliban.

 

Jesus BM, would we have to have our own "armed forces" too. Would we invade the UK if they had weapons of mass taxation? How would Arkwright sex up the dossier (oops., mentioned Arkwright and sex in same sentence. Now feel queasy).

[Freggyragh]

I'm guessing from your post that you haven't done much independent travelling, Censorship. I have, and there is almost nothing an embassy or consulate can do these days that a phone call to a 24 hour government agency couldn't do. Lost your passport? Phone or email, and the new one gets given to DHL. The official document translation, and registary services could also be done by email and post these days. The real work of the UK diplomatic service is to lobby on behalf of big UK business, and support the British Council (which encourages students to study in the UK).

 

The UK has finally realised that there is rarely the need for a physical office these days itself and is planning cutbacks, although it really doesn't have much choice since sterling's 'quantative easing' sent the cost of maintaining foreign embassies through the roof.

 

What mighty presence did you think the British Empire would have in Goa?

 

Well, there's a part-time Indian national, probably a secretary, with an office hours phone line, and a (hopefully up to date) list of English speaking lawyers and doctors. The most she can do is contact your relatives for you. She isn't allowed to give you any legal advice or investigate crimes. In fact, there is nothing that she could do about a stolen backpack, except tell you that you should have insured it and suggest you contact victim support on your return home.

[pongo]

I suppose they could phone daddy, who's got a tidy penny packed away thanks to the booming financial services industry in the Isle of Man - or at least used to have until the Island declared independence, lost the political stability tag which has earned it so much global credit and all the big banks and investment houses fucked off to Jersey and Guernsey.

 

I think that those who promoted and advanced the finance sector here as a business plan (sort of) soaked up (maybe even almost hijacked) much of the nationalism which existed back in the bolshie 60s and 70s.

 

I think that the boom stifled debate about the anomalous constitutional status of the island - perhaps partly because quasi independence was exactly what made the finance sector viable. I think that coalition of ideas (money + the language of nationness) went mainstream sometime in the 1980s.

 

So until recently much of the language of nationness has seemed to mostly be all about wanting to tell the rest of the world why they are all wrong about everything to do with taxes, finance etc. So the IOM has turned into a place which often seems to most to be financially belligerent. Freedom to flourish - but run like the soviets.

 

Which has got us to here. I can see why people thought that the finance sector would be a good idea but I believe it was dangerous to grow the economy to such an extent. The island replaced dependence on tourism with dependence on something else which is almost certainly unsustainable long term. It might have been better to have a smaller but more sustainable economy based on a smaller population and lower expectations.

 

I think that calls for independence here are extremely confused. But no more confused than this state of being neither one thing nor the other: sort of independent but not exactly; sort of under the EU but not enjoying the benefits; smaller than a county but sort of a country. Etc.

[VinnieK]

The island replaced dependence on tourism with dependence on something else which is almost certainly unsustainable long term. It might have been better to have a smaller but more sustainable economy based on a smaller population and lower expectations.

 

I think this is a much under appreciated point. Unfortunately, there's something of a belief in the benefits of 'growth' for the sake of it which verges on the religious, whereby growth achieved by any means, and in particular a rapid increase in population, is viewed as something of a panacea with little thought spent on the details.

 

So far the political and economic philosophy of the Island has been little more sophisticated than "pile 'em high and undercut the neighbours". We can but hope that our current and future difficulties will go some way towards encouraging a more thoughtful, or at least a more sceptical approach in the future.

[theman]

lol give are dependence to russia at a wee price. i bet they would to have some submarine's in are waters.

lol

uk gov would love it

[Albert Tatlock]

The island replaced dependence on tourism with dependence on something else which is almost certainly unsustainable long term. It might have been better to have a smaller but more sustainable economy based on a smaller population and lower expectations.

 

I think this is a much under appreciated point. Unfortunately, there's something of a belief in the benefits of 'growth' for the sake of it which verges on the religious, whereby growth achieved by any means, and in particular a rapid increase in population, is viewed as something of a panacea with little thought spent on the details.

Personally, I think what we should have actually gone for is both, and by that I mean: consistently working toward a diversified economy that countered the unsustainable by constantly replacing it with both new 'unsustainables' and sustainables; but set a goal in mind in terms of a limit on the growth of our population e.g. 80,000 or 100,000 (i.e. made that choice and managed the economy in terms of that figure). Via that approach, and it is still an approach available for consideration despite our current problems, IMO it is perfectly feasible that we could have got out of this 'dependence' as you describe it, simply by managing what we have/have had much better. But things have not been managed properly at all - and this is simply a symptom and problem of poor strategic economic management IMO.

 

Instead what has happened is that the government has generally simply creamed off what it could from mainly one unreliable unsustainable and to a large extent left things at that, only tinkering at diversification in more recent years. On top of that of course, is the very real problem we have now created for ourselves - a very bloated and costly civil service and a government price tag we can not afford. Further compounding this, by maintaining our attention and overreliance on the unsustainable, as a result we have the attention of the outside world which has added many further pressures (OECD/EU/UK), and removed a most important daily reality link with the UK, the RHA. Instead of using money to attract new sustainables and unsustainables and diversify, many many hundreds of £millions have been wasted over the years with very little to actually show for it in reality, with 'our managers' often paying well over the odds for quite basic infrastructure. Look at the current state of Douglas or Ramsey and you will understand that picture but in a moment.

 

True diversification is measured in terms of both: sector contribution to GDP and sector employment levels (not simply % of GDP); and no one sector of business in an economy should ever be allowed to dominate an economy to the extent it becomes close to half of GDP or represent half all employment. We are now suffering from allowing that to happen, as is the UK. The situation has of course been exacerbated with the world credit crunch and the collapse of certain banks e.g. KSF. And, we already had 'globalisation' to 'fight' anyway in terms of some of the other previous sustainables we had here, one example being Strix, which in the late 90s employed around 800 people here. But where are those high value product manufacturers, and those niche engineering businesses (e.g. wind turbines) we could have attracted here already because of the tax incentives and grants, and geographical location we could have offered?

 

Ask yourself: 'who is actually paying the real price and real costs for this on the island?' and you'll find the answer is: 'your average Isle of Man worker'. He is the one without a job if he is part of the 1000 unemployed; he is the one who has just had to pay an additional 1% NI rise to raise £9M for the health budget. And in the meantime, he is expected to simply carry on putting up with the poor management currently in charge still wasting money and whose priorities at the moment seem to revolve about the image of the island, their own careers, and reactionary politics as event after event hits them. Like the 'rabbits in headlights' often quoted on here, most elected MHKs do not understand the finance sector, have little real world experience of business and little idea of what to do now.

 

And when it comes to protecting the Manx people, the current management aren't even politically canny or intelligent enough to realise how the loss of the RHA particularly; and more importantly their refusal to cover it whilst still visibly wasting money on other things; is going to really do many of them in. If there was a referendum tomorrow - asking the question "Bowl and Richmond Hill this year - or equivalent RHA health cover in the UK?" I suspect most of us know what at least 80% of people on this island would vote for.

[bluemonday]

A fine. well thought out post AT

The bottom line being to a large extent, that regardless of external pressures; the biggest single continual problem is the quality of the government.

Any fool can make hay while the sun shines, it's when the ordure approaches the blades that the capabilities of leaders manifest themselves or are shown to be lacking.

Rather like Hitler in the bunker, everyone else gets the blame when the true responsibility is closer.

[Albert Tatlock]

A fine. well thought out post AT

The bottom line being to a large extent, that regardless of external pressures; the biggest single continual problem is the quality of the government.

Tis a song that I have been singing for many a year, unfortunately too often to many a deaf ear...including for at least 4 years regularly on here.

 

However...time for all of us now to put our efforts where our mouths are. We will get past this...but major change is going to be required.

[censorship]

I'm guessing from your post that you haven't done much independent travelling, Censorship. I have, and there is almost nothing an embassy or consulate can do these days that a phone call to a 24 hour government agency couldn't do. Lost your passport? Phone or email, and the new one gets given to DHL. The official document translation, and registary services could also be done by email and post these days. The real work of the UK diplomatic service is to lobby on behalf of big UK business, and support the British Council (which encourages students to study in the UK).

 

The UK has finally realised that there is rarely the need for a physical office these days itself and is planning cutbacks, although it really doesn't have much choice since sterling's 'quantative easing' sent the cost of maintaining foreign embassies through the roof.

 

What mighty presence did you think the British Empire would have in Goa?

 

Well, there's a part-time Indian national, probably a secretary, with an office hours phone line, and a (hopefully up to date) list of English speaking lawyers and doctors. The most she can do is contact your relatives for you. She isn't allowed to give you any legal advice or investigate crimes. In fact, there is nothing that she could do about a stolen backpack, except tell you that you should have insured it and suggest you contact victim support on your return home.

 

Ignoring that the link is to a story about cutting counter terror measures including de-radicalisation programmes (which is ironic given your mindset), what you have explained is that you can get a new passport by calling a 24 government hotline. Presumably this is currently provided by the UK government.

As you are so clearly well informed and well travelled - and your username can be translated as amenable and/or answerable - could you tell me what someone should do when they are arrested for possession of an illegal drug in a foreign country?

[Lost Login]

Personally, I think what we should have actually gone for is both, and by that I mean: consistently working toward a diversified economy that countered the unsustainable by constantly replacing it with both new 'unsustainables' and sustainables; but set a goal in mind in terms of a limit on the growth of our population e.g. 80,000 or 100,000 (i.e. made that choice and managed the economy in terms of that figure). Via that approach, and it is still an approach available for consideration despite our current problems, IMO it is perfectly feasible that we could have got out of this 'dependence' as you describe it, simply by managing what we have/have had much better. But things have not been managed properly at all - and this is simply a symptom and problem of poor strategic economic management IMO.

 

Ever thought of being a politician as I doubt anybody would object to working towards a diversified economy. In fact I would expect that many MHKs wouild have put that in there last manifestos.However what are these diversified business sectors, split between "sustainables" and "unsustainables" and how do you attract them to the IoM and get them to stay here.

 

Basically we have to our advantage a low tax rate to attract people and businesses and not a lot else. We do not have a large work available workforce. We are not a cheap labour market and in general many costs on the IoM are higher than in the UK due to a lack of competition. Transport links and costs are again not a particularly attractive. We may be a decent place to work in terms of commuting and quality of live and cetainly compared to the big cities we are but we are not unique in that in the UK and there are plenty of small towns or more rural areas in the UK which in terms of qulaity of life may be equally attractive.

 

Yes we could have managed what we have better but how you change our economy for the better I really would love to know.

[pongo]

Yes we could have managed what we have better but how you change our economy for the better I really would love to know.

 

If the finance sector had not been built up over the past 30 years then the island would by now IMO have achieved economic equilibrium. That would certainly have been a painful transition. The last 30 years has put off that transition. But from where the island is now the drop is further.

 

I do not believe that the finance sector here is sustainable in the medium to long term because the world is inevitably moving towards common standards in finance and taxation such that no jurisdiction will be able offer any special advantage except perhaps in terms of the cost of transport, labour and property. Further I believe that our own special rules and regulations - and those which are applied to us - make it more expensive to do business here. Especially for small businesses. I believe that this inhibits diversification. I believe that the island's businesses should be more focused on going out into the world and doing business (either physically or virtually) - as opposed to creating it here.

 

We should be part of the EU which is good for business especially in isolated places which ultimately need regional support. That means addressing the anomalous constitutional situation which currently makes us under but not part of the EU. We have all of the responsibilities but none of the benefits.