Douglas Sh@hole!

[2112]

2 hours ago, NoTail said:

I wonder how much paint you can buy for £2m?

That’s depends if you are good at procurement, good at negotiating price, amount for the price, special deals etc. I doubt the Civil Service bods could do this. I wouldn’t let them loose in B&Q.

[Passing Time]

3 hours ago, 0bserver said:

Are you suggesting everyone sniffs paint?

Looking at some of your postings, you obviously do...

[Passing Time]

You could turn this into a mini series. A short video on pubs and how not to run them could focus on how H&B forgot they were there to brew beer and let good pubs go to wrack and ruin

[RoundTheCourse]

10 hours ago, alpha-acid said:

Polishing shoes, how many people wear shoes that need to be polished are you living in the 1940's

People who are prepared to spend money on their appearance will polish and clean their footwear. These are people we need to attract as visitors.

[0bserver]

1 hour ago, Passing Time said:

Looking at some of your postings, you obviously do...

[RoundTheCourse]

15 hours ago, Numbnuts said:

This +1 .. I can never understand how they walk and drive the same roads as us low life public do but clearly they can drive with their eyes closed . Tbh I've said it before but surely the role of CM is someone to keep a eye on his departments and kick ass and make adjustments so we all get an acceptable service from those same Depts . Quayle was usless and looks like Cannan is no better. Or, is it just a case that they are all up the creek without a paddle without CS baby sitting our elected and they back off accordingly . Lets face it most haven't a clue about the areas they are minister's in. Most of the issues shown up in CG's video , which was excellent by the way , are just general house keeping types of problems but then you see the total failure of dealing with those issues while at the same time new projects popping up seemingly daily. All very sad !!.  

PS is it any surprise that all the MHK's are missing in action and lying low .  

We've just had an election and a chance to change things but nobody actually cared enough to put themselves forward. They've just carried on moaning and posting on social media.

[cissolt]

9 hours ago, Stu Peters said:

TBH I hadn't considered the part of Marine Drive featured as part of my constituency - although probably the Port Soderick end is.

I thought the short by Charles Guard was excellent and I questioned the DfE Minister about it today. The fact I fix broken reading glasses and watchstraps with superglue is testament to my 'make do and mend' mentality, no doubt borne of growing up in the late 1950's when parents had just been through rationing. And I'm cheap.

Part of the problem is that we've all become so used to the disaster of Douglas Prom that we've taken it for granted the place looks shabby. But the CG video pointed out the apathy (or lack of funding?) amongst those you would think should be doing regular maintenance. I think this idea that everything has a 'life' and should periodically be replaced, rather than repaired and maintained, is rife. I'd happily see a couple of million taken out of the climate change budget and spent on paint, which would transform Douglas.

Do you know how much money is ear marked for active travel and the railway line work?  I see there is a planning order and Baker mentioned having to purchase land for works to restore the line to Ramsey.  

Raising Daphne's climate pot, is a good idea but DOI already have huge sums of money tied up in harebrained vanity schemes from previous mhks.  Probably worth looking at that pot first

[2112]

12 minutes ago, cissolt said:

Do you know how much money is ear marked for active travel and the railway line work?  I see there is a planning order and Baker mentioned having to purchase land for works to restore the line to Ramsey.  

Raising Daphne's climate pot, is a good idea but DOI already have huge sums of money tied up in harebrained vanity schemes from previous mhks.  Probably worth looking at that pot first

By the time the consultants and everyone else has had their fill, there will be nothing left in the pot. Do we really need to restore an old railway line? It’s a nice to have, not an essential or must have. 

[The Bastard]

6 minutes ago, 2112 said:

By the time the consultants and everyone else has had their fill, there will be nothing left in the pot. Do we really need to restore an old railway line? It’s a nice to have, not an essential or must have. 

How far do you go with that ? Do you really need electricity, you've got candles and a jumper ? Do you need piped water when there is rain ?

Government is not about forcing everyone into an ascetic life, although the bare essentials are the focus, quality-of-life is important too.

[AOR]

10 hours ago, hampsterkahn said:

I don’t  think all that is ill can be laid at the door of those who,  as you say are not “from here”.

Whilst there have been some depressing appointees   from “ across” in some Departments, we have also come up with a few genuine, home grown nightmares of our own. 

I didn't mean to be offensive.

But how can someone who has never known the joy of a Sunday school picnic at such as Silverdale have the same feelings towards the place as someone straight off the boat and into Tynwald in their 40s?

[WTF]

6 hours ago, NoTail said:

I wonder how much paint you can buy for £2m?

they spend double that on whitewash every year.

[Max Power]

5 hours ago, TheTeapot said:

It's all down to the constant need to find 'savings' that always end up with the lowest paid people laid off, the simple tasks left undone, contracts handed out to favoured contractors and the high rollers getting promoted.

"We saved £20000 by laying off 3 experienced manual workers and giving a limited contract to a local P&D firm who have no connection to the council and won it through an entirely open and honest tender process'.

Well done.

Just having a team who are responsible for the appearance of the place, with an effective foreman, would pay dividends. 

Then you could get rid of multiple layers of expensive management, saving much more than £20,000 for certain! 

[Non-Believer]

19 minutes ago, Max Power said:

Just having a team who are responsible for the appearance of the place, with an effective foreman

This is a big part of it - leadership, and from well above foreman level too. It's not just about hiding in your office, collecting your salary. You need to be seen out and about and instilling some motivation and interest in your workforce and seeing for yourself what needs to be done.

I heard an interesting comparison a couple of days ago in Ramsey, re. the new Town Clerk in respect of just the above.

[Passing Time]

49 minutes ago, Youaintseenme said:

I am the former. My wife is the latter apart from the Tynwald bit

I would leave tomorrow as I hate the place and they way it is run and am bored to death.  She still loves it.  I am hoping she sees sense after a couple more summers so we can spread our wings a bit no work isn’t such a big deal for us.

The island is smaller, and badly run, with nothing to offer that can’t be found better elsewhere.

 

The grass isn't always greener on the other side...

[Roger Mexico]

12 hours ago, hampsterkahn said:

[...]  It is about something fundamental -essentially  an  attitude of mind.

The “broken window theory “  is real.If standards of general maintenance in a community  decline, the mores of a society slide, people lose respect for where they live and  then for each other; aspirations fail.The place becomes an increasingly unattractive place to live and frequent (and we at the very least need people to visit )In a predictable  sequence,  crime rises.

Thinking about it, while I think such attitudes are useful, I'm not sure their lack is at the root of the problem.  And we have to be careful not to  'blame the public' for things that in the end they are not responsible for - "It's all society's fault" is always an easy cop-out for those in charge.

The real problem here is a structural one.  For decades squeezing revenue budgets has been seen as virtuous and portrayed as 'saving money' while big spending on capital projects was encouraged as being 'good for the economy'.  This is economic nonsense itself of course as revenue spending is nearly always more beneficial to the local economy.  But we have a generation of civil servants and so on that believe it and who benefit greatly from such beliefs.  So changing things will be difficult as they lack both the skills and motivation to actually run things.