Douglas Sh@hole!

[Derek Flint]

It’s a mess for sure. But the crux of this is a lack of perspective, too many fiefdoms and too many who approach life with a self centered edict. 

I love the place and miss it every day, but I’ve long been able to see that it’s living above it’s means. If it just made its way as an isolated community of 80’000 folk, accepted that it needs its near neighbour for a lot of stuff like health and cut its cloth accordingly then it would be better for it. There needs to be an understanding that there is no cavalry coming over the hill this time - the finance sector was in many ways the undoing of Mann, as the wealth it provided gave an unrealistic and unsustainable financial outlook. As that wanes, there is nothing at all that will fill the void to the extent that would be needed. 

Building a safe, low carbon, simply administered jurisdiction can be the only goal now unless some unexpected rabbit can be pulled from the hat.

[TheTeapot]

A 3 pronged combination of evil destroyed central Douglas. Douglas2000, Project Centurion and Dandara worked together to do it.

[The Voice of Reason]

11 hours ago, Barlow said:

 

My point was that people walking past a pub might want to nip in for a drink but the public face of any pub these days is a gaggle of smokers at the door.

For a non-smoker - or indeed a smoker - the gaggle is not generally a pleasant welcoming party. A sort of substitute bouncer/door man.

 

I really don’t understand why you feel intimidated. It is always my experience that the gaggle will politely move out of the way, like the parting of the Red Sea, to allow easy access to the pub inside.

[Mysteron]

10 hours ago, Utah 01 said:

Returning to the original topic re how tatty things are looking - it's not only Douglas.

I was at the airport for the first time in nearly 2 years.  Aside from the fact the entire building needs a fresh coat of 'whitewash' or whatever colour it is supposed to be, I drove up past the factory towards Ballasalla - weeds were in full bloom in the pavement and both sides of the carriageway.

For anyone arriving by air, and hopefully numbers will be increasing (and dramatically so when the parish council sees sense and trashes the ridiculous travel bureaucracy) first impressions count and the impression that stretch of road portrays is a poorly maintained infrastructure  = impoverished local authority.  That's just what we need to encourage prospective investors and businesses to locate here - not!

I drove along some of that stretch of road last night during darkness.  When my headlights picked out the pavement weeds I slowed down, as initially I thought it was a small animal - as they were about the size of a sitting hare or cat.    

So maybe the government and local authorities are actually onto something......naturally occurring speed restricters. 

The other side of that coin though is we then become blasé to their presence, until the occasion they turn out not to be a weed.   

[finlo]

1 hour ago, The Voice of Reason said:

I really don’t understand why you feel intimidated. It is always my experience that the gaggle will politely move out of the way, like the parting of the Red Sea, to allow easy access to the pub inside.

They glare at you with disdain for having the temerity to cut through their smog filled presence more like!

 

ETA why do they need to clog up the doorways anyway?

Edited September 11, 2021 by finlo

[The Voice of Reason]

14 minutes ago, finlo said:

They glare at you with disdain for having the temerity to cut through their smog filled presence more like!

 

ETA why do they need to clog up the doorways anyway?

Usually for shelter I guess.

I have never once been glared at. There’s usually some sort of mumbled apology (“sorry mate”) as you pass through, as is the British way.

[finlo]

3 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Usually for shelter I guess.

I have never once been glared at. There’s usually some sort of mumbled apology (“sorry mate”) as you pass through, as is the British way.

The mumbling you hear is tutting and sighing at being inconvenienced.

[Barlow]

Some Douglas. Pubs.

Take a walking tour: Sam Webbs, Quids Inn, O'Donnells,Jaks, 1886.

Outside, there will be nicotine drug addicts doing their thang. You will hear swear words as they conversate with their smoking pals as if they were still at the bar, you will be glared/looked at but mainly as a handy refocus from the smokers hazey 1000 yard stare, you will hear the smokers hacking laugh which is actually not a response to their very own inane comments but actually a convenient mechanism to cover the clearing of phlegm without actually coughing although actually coughing can be used occasionally (but that is to admit they have a phlegm filled esophagus.

 

 

 

[Barlow]

So aye, lets get away from the smokers for a second.

Those same pubs (except Quids Inn) will during the weekend evening have outside the added attraction of the goon... the bouncer... the door man... the security. Call them what you will, but in just being there they are the greatest deterrent to the decent person from  pubs. A self fulfilling prophecy of trouble.

[Derek Flint]

1 hour ago, TheTeapot said:

A 3 pronged combination of evil destroyed central Douglas. Douglas2000, Project Centurion and Dandara worked together to do it.

Centurion. Now there’s a blast from the past! 

The concept was right enough. A night out in Douglas in 1999 was akin to the Wild West. Having come from policing Blackpool there was too many similarities. 

My own view is the nonsense around NYE 1999 holed going out below the waterline. There was a marked change from that point on and the decline has been in play ever since. 

[finlo]

1 minute ago, Derek Flint said:

Centurion. Now there’s a blast from the past! 

The concept was right enough. A night out in Douglas in 1999 was akin to the Wild West. Having come from policing Blackpool there was too many similarities. 

My own view is the nonsense around NYE 1999 holed going out below the waterline. There was a marked change from that point on and the decline has been in play ever since. 

+1 greed killed going out stone dead in one foul swoop!

[Derek Flint]

2 minutes ago, finlo said:

+1 greed killed going out stone dead in one foul swoop!

They were paying bobbies 75 quid an hour FFS! How the hell that ever got sanctioned is a mystery to this day. 

[finlo]

4 minutes ago, Derek Flint said:

They were paying bobbies 75 quid an hour FFS! How the hell that ever got sanctioned is a mystery to this day. 

Maybe they thought they could save the world as it was supposed to stop spinning at 12 on the dot y2k and all that!

[Max Power]

4 hours ago, 2112 said:

We have investors. Lots of foreign investors buying up new build houses, which will be then rented out, via our wonderful estate agents. 

I know of several 'investors' who own quite a few houses and apartments here, they sit empty and unoccupied, awaiting the next price surge. 

[Boris Johnson]

12 minutes ago, Max Power said:

I know of several 'investors' who own quite a few houses and apartments here, they sit empty and unoccupied, awaiting the next price surge. 

There is a block of expensive flats in Ramsey, beside the new hotel, that have sat empty since they were built  -5 to 6 years ago?

They may have been sold technically as a tax dodge but that does not bring in local spending in the shops etc, they are empty since built. I go to Mooragh Park  and have took an interest.

I have a feeling, although I cant back it up with evidence, that lots of new houses are sold here are only to create a postal address for money laundering/ tax avoidance. 

The island really is the ass end of the world in things like this, "Don't ask questions and you will be told no lies"

Edited September 11, 2021 by Boris Johnson