Rob Callister

[offshoremanxman]

6 minutes ago, Holte End said:

I just can't see it or Rob Callister would have stated all of this in Tynwald, instead of having a hissy fit. 

Rob Callister is simply the boy who has now cried wolf too many times. Every time anything happens to him it’s always someone else’s fault and it always results in some sort of pompous, long winded, half-veiled nonsense being reported in the media about how someone has dared to damage his monumental ego. 

[Steady Eddie]

2 hours ago, Passing Time said:

Thanks for proving my point...

You haven’t proved any point here other than the one JW suggests above about the underlying apparent misogyny associated with much of this. Callister has a track record of being a generally ineffectual politician who runs screaming to the media everytime he is found up for basically not being very competent. I know which way I’d be betting based on his past performance. As the above post says he’s cried Wolf far too many times to be taken seriously over this and it will probably all come out in the wash. I’d really like to see a clearer response from the ladies concerned as I personally find the suggrstion of him being completely useless at the job he was doing realistically plausible. 

[Andy Onchan]

So all that money spent on media training for Rob hasn't really worked, has it?

[Two-lane]

One can form an opinion about someone based on the way they communicate, and the effort they make - text being more indicative than speech. Callister's blog comes to mind.

Before I make a post here, I do re-read the text to try to make it comprehensible - although the effect of a glass of beer does make things go awry.

If I were part of a group sending a letter to the head of a government, I would expect the document to be reviewed, revised, and the meaning of every sentence triple-checked before it was sent.

The letter recently discussed here is ungrammatical, poorly punctuated, poorly laid and is meandering jargon-filled nonsense.

In the context of a letter to the head of a government it is illiterate. I have formed an opinion of the intellectual capabilities of the three people who signed it. (Note that because someone has a reasonable IQ, that does not mean that they have any common sense or can communicate effectively with the common man.)

August-Hanson is a MLC, which means that she reviews legislation. As one of the signers of the letter I doubt her ability to do that job effectively.

 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Andy Onchan said:

So all that money spent on media training for Rob hasn't really worked, has it?

Well he clearly knows where the media are, so he's benefited.

Alf's training however never seemed to have got to the bit where the difference between someone being inside the tent pissing out and the opposite was explained.

[Banker]

2 hours ago, Two-lane said:

August-Hanson is a MLC, which means that she reviews legislation. As one of the signers of the letter I doubt her ability to do that job effectively.

Well she has a lot of legal experience as a Manx radio reporter!!

[Augustus]

8 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

Anyway, as it looks like Moulton may not have captured the debate in all its full technicolour horror, here's the soundfile for Glover's question and the subsequent debate:

https://www.tynwald.org.im/business/listen/AgainFiles/2126-0656a.mp3

And Gef's original coverage of the debate.

Ashford's softball question to the CM arse-cringingly obsequious.

[offshoremanxman]

3 hours ago, Andy Onchan said:

So all that money spent on media training for Rob hasn't really worked, has it?

If he hasn’t worked it out yet the media latches on to egotistical unfiltered people for content. There must be an open door for him @ IOM Newspapers or Manx Radio as it’s a story literally waking in off the street and presenting itself to you when you’re the laziest journalists going. Same as social media outbursts. It’s in the public domain so they will report on it. It’s free content and they haven’t even had to get off their arses to discover it. Then they can try to build a story around the stuff you said. Im sure he thinks he’s playing them when they’re actually playing him and making him look like an arse most of the time. 

[Dirty Buggane]

6 minutes ago, Augustus said:

Ashford's softball question to the CM arse-cringingly obsequious.

Once an ass kissing knob, Always an ass kissing knob. Not withstanding Alfs ability.

[offshoremanxman]

3 minutes ago, Dirty Buggane said:

Once an ass kissing knob, Always an ass kissing knob. Not withstanding Alfs ability.

I saw him shuffle down Athol St at lunchtime. He doesn’t even pretend to be busy with his phone pressed to his ear anymore. He’s a shadow of his former bluster. 

Edited November 16, 2022 by offshoremanxman

[Mr Helmut Fromage]

28 minutes ago, offshoremanxman said:

I saw him shuffle down Athol St at lunchtime. He doesn’t even pretend to be busy with his phone pressed to his ear anymore. He’s a shadow of his former bluster. 

If he was coming out of Pam Pringles Office he’s lost both “Houses” in 2 days 😂😂😂

[Roger Mexico]

18 minutes ago, Augustus said:

Ashford's softball question to the CM arse-cringingly obsequious.

Something that I'm sure none of us expected.  Though I can't help noticing that, even at his most grovelling, he still manages to sound patronising.  It's a rare skill.

But the really interesting thing to notice were the other interventions in support of Cannan.  There weren't any.  After the topic was raised, Hooper said the support of the teams in the two Departments he would be able to run both in the interim.  But there was no support from other CoMin members or anyone else, just embarrassed silence.  

The Hansard is now up as well (check recent Hansard if that link is superseded).  It emphasises just how tin-eared that long statement from Cannan on his administration's 'achievements' was.  Not just because it had nothing to do with the question or because of the way he implied that anyone who questioned the Party line was a traitor who ought to be shot, but simply because it highlighted how little had actually been done except react to crises, not always in the most effective way.

[offshoremanxman]

3 minutes ago, Mr Helmut Fromage said:

If he was coming out of Pam Pringles Office he’s lost both “Houses” in 2 days 😂😂😂

Could have been. 

[WTF]

3 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

 

Alf's training however never seemed to have got to the bit where the difference between someone being inside the tent pissing out and the opposite was explained.

to be fair to alf , no matter where rob is he ends up wetting himself one way or another.

[0bserver]

23 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

 

The Hansard is now up as well (check recent Hansard if that link is superseded).  It emphasises just how tin-eared that long statement from Cannan on his administration's 'achievements' was.  Not just because it had nothing to do with the question or because of the way he implied that anyone who questioned the Party line was a traitor who ought to be shot, but simply because it highlighted how little had actually been done except react to crises, not always in the most effective way.

It's become clear in the last 6 months that Alf Cannan's Comin and wider regime is bankrupt of ideas. 

They have to farm everything out to consultants like KPMG. He can't handle debate, instead he prefers to appear upon high and dictate to others what has been relaid to him by consultants. 

During Covid, Alf Cannan seemed to me to be one of the few Ministers with any sense, that was a mirage. He was just made to look slightly less shit than the rest by the sheer shitness of the Quayle regime. 

I'm no fan of Rob Callister particularly, but Cannan should have got the three departmental members plus Callister into his office and worked it out. Instead he just acted like a Pound Shop/Deals Alan Sugar and fired Callister. That was the easy and politically lazy way out... but that is the way of Alfred Cannan. He's massively out of his depth as Chief Minister, his political career should have plateaued when he reached the dizzying heights of Treasury. 

His reaction to Tim Glover's question(s) again showed that he cannot cope with the thought of other ideas outside of his regime's groupthink. 

Cannan has no ideas and in the next few months I expect we will see him lose the respect and confidence of other Tynwald members outside of the hallowed Comin Cabal. 

For that reason it may be worth Cannan considering his position and doing what's right for the island, resign as Chief Minister and hand over to someone like JPW who may just have the ability to think in more than two dimensional terms.