Roger Watterson RIP

[finlo]

I keep reading that as feces (sp)!

[Uhtred]

21 minutes ago, finlo said:

I keep reading that as feces (sp)!

Well you’re not far off...there’s plenty of shit in most Keys manifestos.

[John Wright]

9 hours ago, Uhtred said:

You’re dead right that the Lough Ned Guy was C B (Brian) Hampton, and yes he certainly was a Keys candidate. I simply can’t recall if it was Roger W or Hampton who went all fasces, but through the murk of memory I recall that the background colour of the manifesto in question was (I think!) a mauve/purple shade.

Yes, I remember the sickly mauve.

[Donald Trumps]

11 hours ago, Uhtred said:

You’re dead right that the Lough Ned Guy was C B (Brian) Hampton, and yes he certainly was a Keys candidate. I simply can’t recall if it was Roger W or Hampton who went all fasces, but through the murk of memory I recall that the background colour of the manifesto in question was (I think!) a mauve/purple shade.

I remember the mauve/purple - but not any fasces

[John Wright]

@Uhtred and @Donald Trumps I remember because I was deputy returning officer. Used to collect the manifestos. 

[Barrie Stevens]

12 hours ago, Uhtred said:

Well you’re not far off...there’s plenty of shit in most Keys manifestos.

My one is in the British Library printed using pigmented ink on cotton paper which should last 200 years or more in a controlled archival environment...

http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=moreTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=BLL01019043747&indx=1&recIds=BLL01019043747&recIdxs=0&elementId=0&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&query=any%2Ccontains%2Cbarrie+stevens&search_scope=LSCOP-ALL&dscnt=0&scp.scps=scope%3A(BLCONTENT)&vl(2084770704UI0)=any&vid=BLVU1&institution=BL&tab=local_tab&vl(freeText0)=barrie stevens&dstmp=1573555949460

[gettafa]

35 minutes ago, John Wright said:

 I was deputy returning officer. Used to collect the manifestos. 

I hope your math has improved since those days

Why the Isle of Man insist on always using advocates as returning offices we will never know.

[Roger Mexico]

28 minutes ago, gettafa said:

Why the Isle of Man insist on always using advocates as returning offices we will never know.

It's historical.  Normally (for example in the UK) elections will be organised by full-time staff of the local authority or authorities that make up the constituency.  But in the Island there are some Parishes that don't have any such staff so the old tradition of lawyers running elections was retained[1].  You also see this in some LA elections for Parishes in the rare cases where there actually a contested election, though most elections for LAs are now run by the staff.

Up to 2016 at least one constituency (Ayre, but maybe Glenfaba as well) was still made up of Parishes without full-time staff, so there was a sort of excuse and it was left in the hands of advocates.  The problem is that their management of them is ... variable, shall we say.  Not helped by the fact that it is not always a profession where competence and self-confidence are positively correlated.  Certainly last time there was one complete disaster (Ayre and Michael), another near miss at best (Garff) and a number of other cases of things not being done well.  Though the refusal of Tynwald to face this reality didn't help.

There's now no reason why the responsibility shouldn't be transferred to the LAs, with central government funding and perhaps some training help from the professional organisation in the UK.  It would mean some continuity (last time half the ROs were new to the job) and there would be an office in each constituency (except Douglas being shared) where people could go for queries and maybe early voting.

 

[1]  Presumably, prior to the 1980s, when advocates were much fewer in number and their pockets less stuffed with finance sector fees, it was also a nice occasional source of income. (I think the current fee is £10,000).  Though nowadays John W reckoned they lose money on it.

[dilligaf]

Yes. RIP Roger Watterson. This is the correct thread isn’t it ?

[Uhtred]

53 minutes ago, dilligaf said:

Yes. RIP Roger Watterson. This is the correct thread isn’t it ?

Like all threads Dilli it's evolved - no disrespect to the late Mr. W is intended by any contributor, I'm sure.

[gettafa]

59 minutes ago, dilligaf said:

Yes. RIP Roger Watterson. This is the correct thread isn’t it ?

It's the correct thread. It's rich coming from yourself sir, who is the very worst for clogging threads with such as irrelevant and irritating spats.

I think Roger would be quite supportive of a thread that conversated and discussed various local issues (especially that of elections), rather than a line of people spouting the now trite and somewhat insincere "RIP sad thoughts at this difficult time blah, blah..."

[dilligaf]

27 minutes ago, gettafa said:

It's the correct thread. It's rich coming from yourself sir, who is the very worst for clogging threads with such as irrelevant and irritating spats.

I think Roger would be quite supportive of a thread that conversated and discussed various local issues (especially that of elections), rather than a line of people spouting the now trite and somewhat insincere "RIP sad thoughts at this difficult time blah, blah..."

It was a tongue in cheek comment, but hey ho.

[John Wright]

54 minutes ago, dilligaf said:

It was a tongue in cheek comment, but hey ho.

Roger would have both appreciated the way the topic diverged AND your tongue in cheek reply.

[Albert Tatlock]

A great man...we won't see an equivalent political broadcaster/journalist on this island for at least many many years IMO. And with Manx Radio's new format, possibly never again.

I was lucky enough to talk with him on a couple of occasions for an hour or more on each occasion.

Roger was not a fan of MF at all...nor most other social media mostly because of its anonymity and associated insults. He'd rather people dropped the anonymity and stood up and put up for debate/election instead.