joebean Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=40060&headline=Govt 'dragging its feet' over population policy§ionIs=NEWS&searchyear=2018 Am I the only one who is sick to death of Chris Thomas and his monotonous rosy garden bullshit? Just about every time a question is raised, up he pops with another sickly spewing of words that add up to precisely nothing. I look forward to the day when he says something succinct and substantive, but I don't expect to be hearing it anytime soon from our Minister of Piffle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uhtred Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 No, you are not alone. I take a certain amount of (admittedly dark) satisfaction that right from the outset of Thomas’s political career (and at that time he had a number of supporters on these pages) I identified and criticised his vacuous, dissembling, lack of substance. My observations have been fully borne out. The man is no more than a bag of wind and that’s not going to change. The question is, how long will it take for the voters of Douglas Central to identify for themselves what is now blindingly obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Onchan Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 I must confess I had to run his last interview on MR about the visitor data 4 times to get the gist of what he was trying to say. He's a pseudo-technocrat, of sorts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkle Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 he's a fucking tosspot of the first order who "tries" to bamboozle the electorate with a load of inane frivolous mindless shite, they "the electorate" then pay to TRY to re-educate this fucking idiot. ONLY IN THE ISLE-OF-MAN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Non-Believer Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Easy meat, it would appear, for his Department senior CS who doubtless have him safely attired in collar and lead by now, yapping to order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald Trumps Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 It's all utterly ludicrous this population thing Government are plugging the idea 'cause the online gambling people are complaining they can't get the right employees The reason they can't get the right employees is 'cause government pays it's GTS workers far too much A Minister was heard to state this on Manx Radio not long ago. Not sure he realised the microphone was on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Chris has become the very archytypal government shill he once despised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolley Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 If he thinks the population is growing he's out of his mind. Maybe he means "growing old". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald Trumps Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 17 minutes ago, woolley said: If he thinks the population is growing he's out of his mind. Maybe he means "growing old". 'Growing old' is exactly what he means (I think) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BallaDoc Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Everyone is tiptoeing around the obvious question "what should be the ideal population of the IOM?" for fear of offending one faction or another by giving the wrong answer. So here's my answer: approximately 20,000. I arrived at this figure by estimating what population the island could support if it had to rely on food produced here to feed the population which lives here. Just before the Industrial Revolution the population of the island was 27,000, which is the 1792 figure from this table: http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/history/pop.htm As transport of people and goods in those days was more difficult and expensive than today, it's a fair bet that those 27,000 were fed mostly by the farmers and fishermen of the island, although of course there would also have been some imported and exported produce. If the island had to support itself from its own resources today, it probably couldn't support that number, because the herring fishery, which was an important source of food in those days, has collapsed due to over-fishing. So I think 20,000 would be a reasonable ballpark figure. Today's population of 84,000 is environmentally unsustainable, based as it is on a lot of people working in financial services, tourism and online gaming, producing non edible and what you might call rather ephemeral products. These provide the revenue to enable a large amount of food to be imported, to sustain a population which under normal circumstances couldn't feed itself - a bit like the inflated populations of oil-rich Middle East countries which are going to deflate rather quickly when the oil goes away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 3 hours ago, BallaDoc said: Everyone is tiptoeing around the obvious question "what should be the ideal population of the IOM?" for fear of offending one faction or another by giving the wrong answer. So here's my answer: approximately 20,000. I arrived at this figure by estimating what population the island could support if it had to rely on food produced here to feed the population which lives here. Just before the Industrial Revolution the population of the island was 27,000, which is the 1792 figure from this table: http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/history/pop.htm As transport of people and goods in those days was more difficult and expensive than today, it's a fair bet that those 27,000 were fed mostly by the farmers and fishermen of the island, although of course there would also have been some imported and exported produce. If the island had to support itself from its own resources today, it probably couldn't support that number, because the herring fishery, which was an important source of food in those days, has collapsed due to over-fishing. So I think 20,000 would be a reasonable ballpark figure. Today's population of 84,000 is environmentally unsustainable, based as it is on a lot of people working in financial services, tourism and online gaming, producing non edible and what you might call rather ephemeral products. These provide the revenue to enable a large amount of food to be imported, to sustain a population which under normal circumstances couldn't feed itself - a bit like the inflated populations of oil-rich Middle East countries which are going to deflate rather quickly when the oil goes away. Thankfully we don't live in the fookin stone age, where your idea firmly belongs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joebean Posted April 25, 2018 Author Share Posted April 25, 2018 Surely, the objective has to be not to increase population numbers per se but the proportion of the population that are economically active? But don't worry, Chris Thomas and the Cabinet Office have a policy that will sort all this out. They just have to write it, apparently. If he came up with sort of stuff anywhere else but the Isle of Man, he would be a media laughing stock. Just another product of a political system designed to produce mediocrity. The evidence is everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolley Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 5 hours ago, BallaDoc said: Everyone is tiptoeing around the obvious question "what should be the ideal population of the IOM?" for fear of offending one faction or another by giving the wrong answer. So here's my answer: approximately 20,000. Interesting stuff, particularly if extrapolated to the whole planet.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody2 Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 population isn't a problem, food and energy is. 98% of energy is imported that's going to hurt in the long term, build a hydro system and large glass houses now...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BallaDoc Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 1 hour ago, woody2 said: population isn't a problem, food and energy is. 98% of energy is imported that's going to hurt in the long term, build a hydro system and large glass houses now...... It's all relative isn't it - you need to have the right amount of food and energy for the population which you have, otherwise it's out of balance. I am uncomfortable with the fact that we import the vast majority of our food and energy, which puts us at the mercy of whoever controls the on/off switch. You can't always assume that person will be benign. We should be building more windmills on and around the island to generate more of our own electricity. I know people don't like them because they spoil the view, but if it was a choice between windmills or no energy, I'd choose the windmills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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