Theskeat Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Come in Mr Downie, your time is up... He does look a bit of a chump. Barely an hour after he's on the midday news decrying scurrilous rumours on teh interweb it's announced that said "rumour" is true. Mr Downie as the DTI Minister and Mr Shimmin were warned by the local construction industry that if THIER departments allowed any further Government capital projects to go to off island companies, local firms would lose out. Its come true again with the new Prison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tugger Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 I have it on reasonably good authority that the DTI were TOLD that BA was going to strip the Heathrow slots out before they gave their consent to the acquisition of Manx Airlines. They could have tried (perhaps they did) to include some option to re-acquire those if BA pulled out - they would at least have kept a stick to beat BA with. They KNEW, but they did NOTHING Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Remember this: CLICKY: Airport Crisis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesultanofsheight Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 What terrible news if true; best wishes to all those affected and I hope that they will be offered all the support and help they need to get alternative employment. Its probably a naive statement to make but a well intentioned one nonetheless. You have to look on the bright side. Its a great shame, but the global airline industry is shakey and BA have had their fair share of bad luck and poor results so I suppose its not a massive surprise that something like this could happen. Accusations of lack of government support are one thing but realistically we can't "keep" businesses here. Sure the DTI could throw money in subsidies etc but this is done enough already across the traditional industries, and it won't stop them closing either your just stalling the inevitable when you start paying businesses just to be here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newsnight Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 "Good point. Its going to have a major impact on unemployment levels here for a while. Airline maintenance workers and the support workers are unlikely to have any experience in the available jobs over here. ps. what do the manx secret police look like? Im a bit worried I will be quietly "removed" for making a Government minister look like a plank." What you can expect is Minister Downie up on his hooves in the next Tynwald telling all and sundry how you single handed caused a major loss of confidence which resulted in the tragic loss of so many jobs, and the Isle of Man Government was powerless in the face of your determined subversive de-stabilising agenda. PLANK! this Minister is an entire rain forest! Don't forget Span you are not a number you are a man..cue the Prisoner theme tune, fetch Rover fetch best stay off Douglas beach for the forseeable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mission Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Oh, Hi Vader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 what was said in the news? can i sue him for calling me scurrillous? It would appear that now you probably could. What's very worrying is that Mr Downie did not know this was going to happen. It is not hard to imagine this happening on a larger scale in other areas. I think people in government need to take a long hard look at this. 350 people is a great deal of people, many of whom are specialists and will be forced to seek such work in the UK, having spent many years building a life (and often families) on the island. For 350 people read closer to a 1000 affected when you take into account partners and children. I do hope the many businesses on the island open their doors to as many of the staff as possible, many of whom have extremely transferrable skills e.g. excellent administrators given the stringent requirement for detail in this field, and of course a wide variety of engineering skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Old Git Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 They seem to be saying that no decision has been made yet http://www.manxradio.com/readItem.aspx?ID=...mp;cate=General Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanna Posted November 17, 2006 Author Share Posted November 17, 2006 its getting more interesting by the second. the staff have been told the base will be shut by june. the government are saying this is false. and flybe are saying they havent made a decision wtf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not the Comfy Chair Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 flybe are saying they havent made a decision So who? said what? to staff that has changed the message that Flybe gave last week? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanna Posted November 17, 2006 Author Share Posted November 17, 2006 http://www.manxradio.com/uploaded/audio/ba...ember173948.wma listen to that employee being interviewed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 its getting more interesting by the second. the staff have been told the base will be shut by june. the government are saying this is false. and flybe are saying they havent made a decision wtf A coup for public relations! Hopefully it is not too late to salvage something from all of this. IMHO, it will be hard for the Manx people to accept such a closure, and hard for the Manx people to forgive the IOM govt for not knowing about it and for not being stronger in negotiations (including offering further incentives etc.). These are peoples livlihoods they are messing about with, as well as the possibility of forcing many of these specialists and their families off island. It's not as though they can just drive the 70 miles to Manchester etc. is it? This also affects strategically important links for the islands economy. Hopefully, heads will be banged together on Monday. There are numerous business advantages for maintaining such a facility on the island, and probably numerous ways of keeping it active e.g. providing an outsourcing facility for others. Now is the time for some joined up thinking like never before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not the Comfy Chair Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 http://www.manxradio.com/uploaded/audio/ba...ember173948.wma listen to that employee being interviewed. I have! He seems to have grasped a possible/probable outcome of last week's announcement that was evident to most, last week. But I don't see what has changed, this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanna Posted November 17, 2006 Author Share Posted November 17, 2006 He says they had a meeting this morning. where they were told about the meeting between the union and flybe the day before. last week we knew flybe were taking them over. today we know that they have been told the base will be shut by june that wasnt known till today. and still isnt known according to the gov. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladys Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Bernie Moffatt seemed unnecessarily outspoken on MR today. Questioning Flybe's ability to run an airline, that talking to them was like putting your hand in a bowl of tripe etc. etc. The fact is, according to the Flybe Chief Exec, they haven't bought BA Connect yet, so what can they say? They can't start any kind of consultation yet, and BA Connect can't say anything that would prejudice Flybe's position if and when they finally take the operation over. What they have said is that they already have an engineering facility, but he did say they would be looking at other opportunities for the IOM base; what more can be said at this stage? I do have a great deal of sympathy for the employees, but this really is a situation where it is better to wait until the employees actually have their ongoing employer to negotiate with. In the meantime, of course, there has to be discussions and persuasion of Flybe, but this public demonisation of Flybe BEFORE they have bought the operation can only be counterproductive. Where does the engineering facility sit in terms of the overall BA Connect/Flybe package? Is it material to Flybe in the acquisition? Hopefully, it will not be seen as a thorn in the side in the acquisition, only to be plucked out at the earliest opportunity as not worth the bother in management time and resources. Or even worse, excluded from the sale by Flybe to be left for certain closure as the unwanted rump of BA Connect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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