Budget today

[Non-Believer]

To be fair, you couldn't have legislated for something like this, it was always going to take a while to get a response established and rolled out. It's not something that would be on the Island's "stocks", nobody has had to deal with anything like this before.

The massive trump card in our politicians' hands of course is the closable wet bit border. If they hadn't had that option the picture could be very different now and it's not an advantage we want to squander now.

Whether there is or will be a Recovery Plan that will even be viable remains to be seen. Doubtless a lot of people who were doing very nicely previously (the usual suspects?) will be pressing to go back to exactly how it was. How much influence they exert will be a major factor.

[joebean]

The pandemic has changed a lot. The old obsession with coming together to sit in large offices, spending time and energy traveling is inefficient and rather pointless. Technology has made this so for a while but it took a virus to make it more obvious.  Unfortunately, there will be a few roles and salaries that will have been exposed in the same way. These learning points will be absorbed more readily in the private sector than by Governments but it will eventually filter through. It has, potentially a huge impact on London and the way it does business and how it is populated. There are parallels here. The reason for being here is the tax advantage that residency gives - something that has been eroded over recent years as the costs of living here rise and the tax take across the whole spectrum of Government charges has increased. Derek is right. There must be a fundamental review of where the Isle of Man sits, politically and commercially. It won’t wait. Whatever opportunities lie out there for small jurisdictions, they are being eagerly sought by many others. We can’t wait for a year to allow the current incumbents to defend their positions, before seizing any advantage. 

[gettafa]

2 hours ago, Derek Flint said:

It was actually several weeks before they got into their stride. Although the only major glitch was waiting too long to close the borders, let’s not forget there were others along the way -

It took a while for sure. There were loud shouts for the borders to be closed long before the Government did so.

The Government were lackadaisical and tokenistic in their approach to social distancing, as seen in Tynwald before such as Zoom was discovered. The press conferences had the same approach. Such as sitting close to each other, almost holding hands, and passing bits of paper.

The world has gone face mask crazy now but many were using masks from the start (despite the derision of the virus experts throughout the community who had watched TV/done some Facebook/read the Sun or similar to know all about Covid-19). Dr Death Allinson traipsed around Shoprite sceptical, where a checkout girl wearing a mask and feeling a bit self-conscious asked him if she was doing the right thing. 'If it makes you feel better, then wear it' said the maskless and I imagine from his telling of the story, somewhat smug doctor. The maxim of the day being 'my mask protects you, your mask protects me'. Which says it all about the episode.

And bear in mind, with the Chief Minister going down with Covid-19 the whole council of ministers would have been highlighted on the contact tracing list, but the Isle of Man was 'light years' behind when it came to contact tracing. It should have been leading the way for the world to see. 

It's been a tough time for everyone and yes, our government have done ok but please keep the plaudits in perspective. 

 

 

 

 

[woolley]

Even if we led the way nobody would notice. We're that kind of place. 

[the stinking enigma]

The only reason they were saying masks were no use yet now they are is that there are enough masks to go round now

[woolley]

Yep. No point in creating panic over something you can't have. 

[TheTeapot]

This might be the greatest tweet of all time

 

[Donald Trumps]

It certainly wasn't the greatest question - China doesn't see us as an enemy 

[Non-Believer]

I think they fear our seagull squadrons.

[Donald Trumps]

They'd probably eat them

[Donald Trumps]

After they'd been cooked by their 5G signals!

[woolley]

That tweet makes it sound like he needed to be excused.

[TheTeapot]

7 minutes ago, woolley said:

That tweet makes it sound like he needed to be excused.

Its fantastic. It could mean absolutely anything. I'd love to be in charge of that twitter feed, although I'd get sacked pretty quick.

[joebean]

Like a lot of twitter tweets, it has less value than those from the trees. 

[doc.fixit]

4 hours ago, joebean said:

The pandemic has changed a lot. The old obsession with coming together to sit in large offices, spending time and energy traveling is inefficient and rather pointless. Technology has made this so for a while but it took a virus to make it more obvious.  Unfortunately, there will be a few roles and salaries that will have been exposed in the same way. These learning points will be absorbed more readily in the private sector than by Governments but it will eventually filter through. It has, potentially a huge impact on London and the way it does business and how it is populated. There are parallels here. The reason for being here is the tax advantage that residency gives - something that has been eroded over recent years as the costs of living here rise and the tax take across the whole spectrum of Government charges has increased. Derek is right. There must be a fundamental review of where the Isle of Man sits, politically and commercially. It won’t wait. Whatever opportunities lie out there for small jurisdictions, they are being eagerly sought by many others. We can’t wait for a year to allow the current incumbents to defend their positions, before seizing any advantage. 

I am worried about the government and media's apparent presumption that the majority of folk work in offices.

What is being done to help the large amount of folk who don't work in offices, they seem to be being left to their own devices even though without them we would be in big  trouble.

The UK media seem even worse in this respect than our own.