Freya Q Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 If AB becomes CM, will the Royal Anthem become more significant? Thanks for your valuable contribution. Obviously a relic from, thankfully, a bygone era on this Island. OK I give up! What does it mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manxman8180 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 The poster was making a crass, homophobic attempt at humour. Shame really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbon selector Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 It will be a disgrace if the new Chief Minister picks one of the parasitic Legislative Council to be a Minister. Acting individually, we have seen some disgraceful decisions made by these people, who of course are answerable to no one. No one. And with a dire shortage of suitable candidates for the Legislative Council, emphasised by the often long drawn out and farcical process of electing them, the new Chief Minister wants to consider abolishing that whole damn anachronism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt W E Johns Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Life is too short to build something nobody wants Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manxie44 Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Has any effort been made by the newly elected MHKs to 'take soundings' about who their constituents think should be CM and what the key issues are in that decision? I haven't heard anything. The role of CM is very important and the Manx political system would be much stronger and democratic if there is some kind of connection between the electorate and the CM.... At the moment all we seem to have is this thread.... The cynic in my head reckons most of the electorate won't see hide nor hair of their MHK for another 4½ years... Hi Stu - Truce. I agree that the people have little or no say in who is CM. It always has been that way, and I seem to remember that the CM and CoMin were introduced into Manx politics without any consultation with the electorate whatsoever, with the purpose of fast tracking Legislation. I will probably be corrected on this, but at least it's not raining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blade Runner Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 I think the private sector should be king and the island would do well to make itself a business friendly development area with relaxed planning for income generating industry and enterprises. Surely there's a considerable difference between being business friendly, and the government being at the beck and call of business interests. Business should of course be cultivated, but the entire purpose of doing so is so that it may be harnessed and to the benefit of the state. Also, not everything which is good for business is good for people. For example: the current set up of the Film Industry: great for the film industry, perhaps less so for the people funding it. Similarly, the runway extention and numerous capital projects both you and I have repeatedly criticised as a monumental waste are wonderful news for the construction industry and dependent businesses, but would you class them as good ideas? 'Business being king' will result in nothing more than short termism which promises cheap (or even free) capital with few strings attached, primarily at the cost of society in terms of both taxes paid and public services compromised in order to fund the whole circus. What of Bell's cherished Tax Cap? Apparently it's good for business, especially if combined with attempts to help those many tycoons rushing to our shores to build their McMansions, but as we've seen the figures simply don't stack up. I'm certainly not arguing against being 'business friendly'. I'm arguing against Bell's vision of what that phrase means, which I strongly believe follows the mode of Brown's government only with even more excess thrown in. Sorry Vinnie I misunderstood you, I see what you mean now but I was not promoting a Business friendly island paid for by us through capital expenditure, no just the government allowing suitable development and reduction of red tape (which is already quite low here) for the private sector to expand unhindered by the likes of objections to new development for the sake of it. I would be in favour of gov money being spent on freight cost subsidy's as that alone may put off many an entrepreneur from investing here. Like I said about the sewage works, AFAIK the gov own the land around that so at no real cost to them they could sell it off for industrial development. Warehouses and even serviced compounds on the island are so expensive now that it is just about impossible to make a business case for buying one and running any kind of firm from it. The Grant system I think needs to be looked at as it seems to be clouded in secrecy and on the face of it not good value for the taxpayers. I would propose that it is taken off direct government control and operated by an outside body staffed by, thats the hard bit! I am unsure who but it needs to be separated from Co-Min/civil servants as are they really qualified to look at a business plan and know whether it is viable, not viable or a scam? At the moment if they were to give out a grant that turned out to be a waste of money and or a scam it would be in their interests to keep it quiet but if an outside body were in control then I think it would be more open and better value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kopek Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Blade Runner, I'm with VinnieK on this, if he is saying that we should not kow tow to any industry whose intention is to maintain their past position regarding tax breaks, capital spending benefits. In my manifesto I said that there should be an immediate investigation of the tax system with regard the cost / benefit of the various taxes including 0/10, the scope of the 10%, tax cap, personal tax rates and the loss of the ARI. I know of only one other candidate who called for similar to this. The problem is, the Treasury can be said to already be under the influence of the various industries who will have been bending their ear for many years. Yet, initially, it is the Treasury that would need to be used for such an investigation! One could doubt their voracity for a true re-evaluation of the position that they have arrived at? In the interests of equinanimity for us, the general populace, it would be necessary that we can trust that such an investigation to look anew at all aspects of our current tax system. For this to be so and for us to be assured that the Treasury are not overly influenced by 'Pressure Groups' representing the various industries, it would be necessary for the Treasury, its officials and Politicians to fully minute official meetings and indeed, to summarise the conversations of casual lunchtime meetings and for these minutes and summaries to be made available for public scrutiny if we are to be assured of 'openess' in their findings. A few MHKs have called for the establishment of a 'Tax Commission', prompted by Mark Sollys support for the work done by past utterences of this body. While the setting up of such a body would take a year or so, its promise of re-investigation of the work of the Treasury would help to keep the Treasury 'Honest' in its initial investigation. I do not doubt the value of 0/10 in its provision of employee spend into the economy and the benefit of that spend but an investigation should be into whether an increase of that zero to +1, +2 or +5% and a widening of the net of the 10%, would counter the alleged loss of employment in these sectors and here, it is useless to simply predict doom and gloom that such increases would bring from interested parties, the investigation would have to be believably independant of such influences so that we can accept that the only solution to our current budget deficit is that we, the General Public, suffer Tax increases and service cuts so that some industries can carry on as before. In short, the investigation of our budget deficit has to be into every, that is EVERY, aspect of our economy, revenue raising and spending cuts that are fair to all Island residents. Pertinent to this are... By accident or design, we have used the overpayment of VAT to subsidise some of the tax breaks given. If that overpayment has ceased, then the tax breaks have to be re-assessed. Some of our local retailers do not pay Manx Corporate Tax, we rely on employee spend to raise revenue, yet in England, their employees spend and these companies pay English corporate Tax and indeed, on their Manx revenue! Would it be expecting too much for these companies to volunteer to pay Manx Tax in our time of need? We have created public employment because we have had the spare cash, rather than the need of these employees. These employees have nethertheless been part of our boom. Any loss of employment in the Public or Private sectors would need to be slow enough to be countered by subsequent 'real' growth in new jobs. In England, voices are being raised against the financial sector, its self rewarding and its reliance on it, yet, in the Isle of Man it remains sacrosanct from critisism. Our 15 to 20 million from the 20 % VAT rate could be soon lost if England decide that consumer spending is more important to avoid a further recession and therefore, further add to our fiscal woes. Population increase, not mentioned by any candidate apart from me?, is a real possibility for revenue raising as job creation allows. While I accept that this may be necessary, I think that most residents, including recent immigrants, would not welcome this. Finally, though Allan Bell has indeed sounded notes of caution through the past 5 or more years, this is surely because he personally knew what was coming and yet, as Treasurer he did nothing to stop the rot. His election as Chief Minister would be a slap in the face for the Manx population, a reward for his dithering and indifference to coming situation that we now find ourselves in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tugger Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 His election as Chief Minister would be a slap in the face for the Manx population, a reward for his dithering and indifference to coming situation that we now find ourselves in. We allowed ourselves to be fooled. They ensured that the real pain didn't bite until after the election Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EORH Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Isle of Man Newspapers is still saying that Bell is the frontrunner,yet their poll reflects what this poll on Manx Forums is saying,IE Bell v Karran,the other bit of somebody else could refer to anybody,it's a clear contest between Bell and Karran. What we should do is ring our MHKs and ask them who they intend to vote for,and if it's against your own views,tell them so,if enough people do this,it might just alert them to what the people really want,not what they want,[a cushy ministers job],because always remember,next time people will do what happened to three ministers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald Trumps Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Should it be Tweedledum or Tweedledee? Listen to Manx Radio now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
censorship Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 I may be wrong, but Bell sounds like he is, at times, running rings around Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
censorship Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 and Peter sounds like he is just saying random words in no particular order Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topaz Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 I may be wrong, but Bell sounds like he is, at times, running rings around Peter Doesn't Bell specialise in running in circles?...not always making any progress though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
censorship Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 is anyone else listening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groudleho Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 is anyone else listening? Yep, enjoying every minute, Karren as usual can't explain himself adequately, Bell is full of shite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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