NEWS FROM THE MANNIN BRANCH CELTIC LEAGUE
Now let’s just get a few things clear! If you follow the news of late this is the spin the government put on things.
Having your ‘fitness to work’ assessed is good for you and apparently it’s even ‘just what the doctor ordered’. If the outfit doing the assessments finds you fit for work (you can appeal) and you will go on JSA. Anyway politicians and doctors, who know about these things, get paid ‘lots and lots’ to know about these things. So stop worrying your head about it!
Having your JSA cut is good for you – there are still a dearth of jobs around despite the slight fall in unemployment in February but nonetheless you have to get on with it or have your family (if you have one) bail you out.
Pensions, I don’t mean occupational ones but the State Pension has got to be reformed (that means cut). Eddie Teare has asked everyone (well a handful of people in a few halls around the Island on a winter night) and the overwhelming majority say they support his move (maybe those doctors should check that medication they are giving out)!
You are getting a good deal on Gas. That’s the deal where the MUA buy it cheap sell it to Manx Gas at a profit and then Manx Gas sell it on to you at a profit. Then they both put their prices up but it’s not Alf Cannan’s fault because nothing is ever Alf Cannans fault and he wants to be Chief Minister.
MHK/MLCs can’t afford to pay a commercial price for their parking spaces but government are currently trying to drive small business that let property from them around the Island to the wall by charging ‘commercial rents’. It doesn’t matter that this may force the businesses to cut jobs and there’s no contradiction as long as the politicians keep their parking perks!
Laurence Skelly believes in work permits so he’s dismantling the work permit legislation – not much more you can say about that.
Laurence Skelly (and his COMIN) chums want to give £50 million away. Not to you in fact they are taking it from you. It’ going to do all kinds of great things for the Manx economy…oh and pigs are going to fly!
If you need public sector elderly accommodation from April you are going to be mean tested. That is ‘fair’ say the government even though they are not ‘means testing’ anything else and they certainly did not apply means testing to their parking priorities – see above!
The minimum wage has gone up that’s a good thing because the politicians on over £50,000 a year say so. It’s still not a living wage but don’t bother your head about that because that’s why we have really really well paid people to work these things out for us! Bill Henderson couldn’t live on the minimum wage but then Bill couldn’t live on less than £50K so there you go!
There is no crisis at the Hospital and people should stop starting Facebook pages saying there are problems. It was perfectly reasonable to close a ward even if it means people have to wait in A & E occasionally for a bed. If there was a crisis the GPs would speak out anyway because they speak out on everything now including the need for people that they’ve assessed as unfit for work to have fitness for work tests (I know even I can’t fathom that one!).
We are so broke that even George Osborne can give better tax allowances to the low paid (and George is not exactly known as ‘Mr Generosity’ in the UK). However we can spend money paving empty towns, planning interminable rebuilds of the promenade, maintaining our railway station, planning to concrete over Douglas Head for a new radio station and giving out overseas aid, the latter because people in the third world are worse of than us.
We are comparatively well of, the government says, although one in ten households experience fuel poverty and the queue for food parcels gets longer each year but the we’re told its worse elsewhere!
We have freedom of the press on the Island and that Paul Moulton is making ‘a mountain out of a mole hill’ over being asked what he was doing behaving like a reporter at the sea terminal. Anyway at last weeks briefing with the Chief Minister he shouldn’t have asked Allan if he was a dictator. So let that be a warning!
Local authorities are going to get loads of new powers so we need to vote for them at the spring election. They won’t get loads of money to exercise the new powers so then they’ll have to put the rates up so we can all kick off about them instead of Allan and COMIN and MHKs and their £50,000 a year that they can only just struggle by on.
The BAD news is the Lt Governor is heading for the boat with his ‘prezzy’ and his bulging bank account (5 X half a million – nice one!). The GOOD news is don’t despair there’s another one coming to rip us off!
Finally, Tony is not going to resign – period!
BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Mannin Branch Celtic League
18/03/16
THE CELTIC LEAGUE
The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries including our own Mannin branch. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues
The link for the main web pages is below:
