Non-Believer Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 10 minutes ago, Augustus said: Over ten years. Bonkers for that kind of position. Hmmmm. 10 x £150,000-odd = ? Then let's ask ourselves "where we are" for that sort of money? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Halsall Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 21 hours ago, Happier diner said: Yes i agree. There is a culture of fear and negativity which isn't helped by a lack of engineering and project management ability. Black is not an uncapable guy and to be fair to him he has to play the hand he has been dealt, but is this to much for someone who never had a track record when appointed. Therefore it needs a shake up because their performance has been unacceptable poor and unfortunately someone has to be made accountable for that Nick Black running DOI is akin to Henri Paul being in charge of our road safety unit! I would be interested to know just how many staff members have left the DOI directly because of him, starting with PA’s and then spreading the net wider. He is as much use as bollocks on the pope! 2 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Power Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 2 hours ago, Will Halsall said: Nick Black running DOI is akin to Henri Paul being in charge of our road safety unit! I would be interested to know just how many staff members have left the DOI directly because of him, starting with PA’s and then spreading the net wider. He is as much use as bollocks on the pope! That's a blasphemous analogy, Henri Paul was a patsy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Halsall Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 13 minutes ago, Max Power said: That's a blasphemous analogy, Henri Paul was a patsy. Fair comment, I stand corrected 🤭 I wonder how many “patsy’s” have fallen victim to Black and left his department over the past few years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hissingsid Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 Saying the D.O.I. is not fit for purpose is a start, doing something about it would be really commendable. Split it up and sort it out, not easy but has to be done. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happier diner Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 4 hours ago, Will Halsall said: Nick Black running DOI is akin to Henri Paul being in charge of our road safety unit! I would be interested to know just how many staff members have left the DOI directly because of him, starting with PA’s and then spreading the net wider. He is as much use as bollocks on the pope! That ticked me. If you read my words though I am not defending him merely pointing out that he couldn't have been promoted to that position if he was totally hopeless. Could he? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
code99 Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 I agree with most if not all comments on this thread. IMHO, the root cause behind some individual government departments being not fit for purpose is that our entire political system is not fit for the 21C either. In a small place like the Isle of Man, political transparency is one of the most important keys to having properly functioning democracy. Over the years a trust in institutions has been eroded as the public often perceives that it is the various vested interest groups which are in charge, not the Government itself. E.g., Manx Gas has the Island in its clutches, but I doubt that anyone in the IOMG really understands whether this opaque private company is indeed ‘fleecing’ the residents or not... (before the latest price hike Manx Gas had a mark-up of 400% on the wholesale price of the gas they bought from MUA. Surely this is the main reason the IOM has excessively high retail gas tariffs, despite the so-called ‘investigation’ ?) Other countries also engage in post-election ‘horse trading’, but at least there the parties involved know precisely what is it they are trading/compromising. On the Island, a month on from the election day nobody knows whether our Programme for Government will remotely reflect anything close to what many of our elected MHKs had pledged in their individual election campaign manifestos. And, whatever the new Programme for Government will contain, who will monitor progress and who will be held accountable if not much materialises? Or, will they eventually ‘bin it’, saying that unpredictable and unprecedented “events” have taken over, thus rendering the Programme obsolete, which is pretty much what happened last time. Every 5 years the Island holds the general election, but so too does Iran, Turkey, Russia, etc. To be a modern western democracy it requires much more than a bunch of amateurs being appointed (with alacrity) to positions of politcal power and authority. Our political system is still based on the ancient principles of a “Viking chiefdom” where the elected clan chiefs (MHKs) elect one of their own to be the ‘foremost’ chief - the Chief Minister. This whole ethos is predicated by the belief that benevolent decisions will be taken ‘inside the tent (another Viking reference) for the good of the Island’. The problem is that once elected, the chiefs (MHKs) can get away with paying only lip service to their ‘promises’ and also avoid any real scrutiny and accountability. To counter this ‘institutionalised ineffectiveness’ we need what every other democracy has - a formal political opposition, not just a couple of mavericks who hope to make a difference and/or mean well. Significant improvements in CS/PS will not be achieved until our political system is reformed (so that it is suitable for the 21C), IMHO. 3 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finlo Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 Just now, Happier diner said: That ticked me. If you read my words though I am not defending him merely pointing out that he couldn't have been promoted to that position if he was totally hopeless. Could he? How do you think all the other wasters made it to the top! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Mexico Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 35 minutes ago, Happier diner said: That ticked me. If you read my words though I am not defending him merely pointing out that he couldn't have been promoted to that position if he was totally hopeless. Could he? On the contrary. Some of us pointed out when Black was appointed to DoI, to general astonishment after he had been so ineffectual (and obviously ineffectual) at his previous Department, that the reason he was there was because he was totally hopeless. This meant that the various parts of the DoI could continue along in their spendthrift and incompetent ways without any fear of a more competent higher manager trying to impose some sort of control. His only real purpose is to stop the Minister intervening and accidentally improving something. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Halsall Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 1 hour ago, Happier diner said: That ticked me. If you read my words though I am not defending him merely pointing out that he couldn't have been promoted to that position if he was totally hopeless. Could he? HD, I know you weren’t defending him, I was just being a twat. However, we can’t escape the fact that after Nick Black left the ineffective Office of Fair Trading, he became CE of the DCCL, and along with Cregeen and Longworth he completely fucked this department up. We had strikes, no buses over TT, sackings and reinstatement’s after HR involvement, loads of bullying allegations, an unnecessary train station at Castletown, H&S breaches, £400k of diesel cabbage/train failure. Bendy Bus lies and spin, that could have resulted in a serious accident if 150 school children had been used as pawns to suit the 3 not so wise men’s rhetoric, kids being over charged for after school activities travel, and lonely pensioners being stopped from having 6th formers from school visiting them because Black wanted to charge the kids for travel. Feck knows how much was ultimately spent on Ticketer and who benefitted? Then this dipstick is promoted to CE of DOI. Cregeen eventually ends up as Minister for Education, and Longworth slithers like a snake into various roles frittering away whatever cash he can get his hands on; he will be rivalling Branson and Bezos for commercial space travel soon with Bus Vannin down the side of a Mercedes rocket! Bell and Quayle are equally responsible for allowing Black and co to fuck so much up, and it’s excellent to see Alf being vocal about the obvious issues. That said, Alf didn’t do anything in the last government to address this department, or the prom balls up. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kopek Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 Is the phrase, '' Not Fit For Purpose'', not fit for purpose anymore due to overuse? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happier diner Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 1 hour ago, Will Halsall said: HD, I know you weren’t defending him, I was just being a twat. However, we can’t escape the fact that after Nick Black left the ineffective Office of Fair Trading, he became CE of the DCCL, and along with Cregeen and Longworth he completely fucked this department up. We had strikes, no buses over TT, sackings and reinstatement’s after HR involvement, loads of bullying allegations, an unnecessary train station at Castletown, H&S breaches, £400k of diesel cabbage/train failure. Bendy Bus lies and spin, that could have resulted in a serious accident if 150 school children had been used as pawns to suit the 3 not so wise men’s rhetoric, kids being over charged for after school activities travel, and lonely pensioners being stopped from having 6th formers from school visiting them because Black wanted to charge the kids for travel. Feck knows how much was ultimately spent on Ticketer and who benefitted? Then this dipstick is promoted to CE of DOI. Cregeen eventually ends up as Minister for Education, and Longworth slithers like a snake into various roles frittering away whatever cash he can get his hands on; he will be rivalling Branson and Bezos for commercial space travel soon with Bus Vannin down the side of a Mercedes rocket! Bell and Quayle are equally responsible for allowing Black and co to fuck so much up, and it’s excellent to see Alf being vocal about the obvious issues. That said, Alf didn’t do anything in the last government to address this department, or the prom balls up. Yeah. But apart from those things he seems to do ok😅 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Halsall Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Roxanne said: You’re have just confirmed just about everything that I thought I was making up in my head. Bloody hell. Sorry Rox, you weren’t making it up and I feel there is even more hidden under his shagpile, if you get my drift 🤔 Edited October 31, 2021 by Will Halsall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Banker Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Will Halsall said: Edited October 31, 2021 by Banker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptarmigan Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 Hate to kick a man when he’s down but CEO of DOI was on £130k or thereabouts in 2017. Nick was entirely unsuited and unqualified for the job apart from the fact he’s proved remarkably long lived in it. https://www.gov.im/media/1359883/chief-executive-salary.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.