DBC Megathread

[Omobono]

1 minute ago, Bandits said:

This is what annoys a good chunk of Douglas ratepayers. He is clearly only in that role to create a platform for himself to stand as an MHK. He has no interest in the people of Douglas outside of using them as a platform to get attention as a politician. He creates a load of issues that exist only in his head in order to distract from the fact that he is a completely ineffectual Councillor who spends all his time raging on Twitter about various Woke issues rather than doing anything for the people of Douglas who he is paid to represent. 

Everyone in Douglas has received their Rates demand this week , went into town hall  today  and you can only pay the bill between 11am  and 2-30pm  except Friday when they close earlier  , what sort of service is this ,   and what are the staff doing when there not at the counters in the payment area , 

its a disgrace and time some of the councillors realised  they were there to provide a service for the ratepayers , 

[The Bastard]

Carnival - I think it rightly died a death back in the day when it was little more than a dreary succession of majorettes, but looking outside the IOM, Carnival-type events do contribute quite a lot to local economies.

They're not world-shaking cutting-edge entertainment but done properly can be a good source of tourist revenue and funds, to encourage community projects, and for something to bring diverse groups together over the winter - building floats and sound systems, sewing (furry ?) costumes, learning group dances, to spin flags and that sort of thing.

Done right, where there's a relatively unique selling point to the carnival that can't be easily replicated elsewhere, they can be a big draw for tourists. Building that USP doesn't happen overnight - it takes time to get the right teams of people and skills set up. 

Competition is key in the best events - neighbourhoods, social groups, ethnic communities compete against each other for a prize, sometimes a pretty trivial one, but just for the fun of it.

No doubt there are major hurdles to get the theming right and to start up self-sufficient groups to compete with each other, but the lesson from successful events elsewhere is that people are looking for the opportunity to participate, not just in the local community, but further afield. 

 

[jackwhite]

1 hour ago, Bandits said:

This is what annoys a good chunk of Douglas ratepayers. He is clearly only in that role to create a platform for himself to stand as an MHK. He has no interest in the people of Douglas outside of using them as a platform to get attention as a politician. He creates a load of issues that exist only in his head in order to distract from the fact that he is a completely ineffectual Councillor who spends all his time raging on Twitter about various Woke issues rather than doing anything for the people of Douglas who he is paid to represent. 

We've found Stu's other login.

How dare people care about important facts and issues in modern society. We should flog him at 5 in Ridgeway St the scoundrel.

[jackwhite]

2 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

Carnival - I think it rightly died a death back in the day when it was little more than a dreary succession of majorettes, but looking outside the IOM, Carnival-type events do contribute quite a lot to local economies.

They're not world-shaking cutting-edge entertainment but done properly can be a good source of tourist revenue and funds, to encourage community projects, and for something to bring diverse groups together over the winter - building floats and sound systems, sewing (furry ?) costumes, learning group dances, to spin flags and that sort of thing.

Done right, where there's a relatively unique selling point to the carnival that can't be easily replicated elsewhere, they can be a big draw for tourists. Building that USP doesn't happen overnight - it takes time to get the right teams of people and skills set up. 

Competition is key in the best events - neighbourhoods, social groups, ethnic communities compete against each other for a prize, sometimes a pretty trivial one, but just for the fun of it.

No doubt there are major hurdles to get the theming right and to start up self-sufficient groups to compete with each other, but the lesson from successful events elsewhere is that people are looking for the opportunity to participate, not just in the local community, but further afield. 

 

Unless they're Syrian (or possibly have a different skin colour to Manx people) apparently.

[cissolt]

31 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

Carnival - I think it rightly died a death back in the day when it was little more than a dreary succession of majorettes, but looking outside the IOM, Carnival-type events do contribute quite a lot to local economies.

They're not world-shaking cutting-edge entertainment but done properly can be a good source of tourist revenue and funds, to encourage community projects, and for something to bring diverse groups together over the winter - building floats and sound systems, sewing (furry ?) costumes, learning group dances, to spin flags and that sort of thing.

Done right, where there's a relatively unique selling point to the carnival that can't be easily replicated elsewhere, they can be a big draw for tourists. Building that USP doesn't happen overnight - it takes time to get the right teams of people and skills set up. 

Competition is key in the best events - neighbourhoods, social groups, ethnic communities compete against each other for a prize, sometimes a pretty trivial one, but just for the fun of it.

No doubt there are major hurdles to get the theming right and to start up self-sufficient groups to compete with each other, but the lesson from successful events elsewhere is that people are looking for the opportunity to participate, not just in the local community, but further afield. 

 

Whilst there are famous carnivals, only the clowns in DFE would pitch a Douglas carnival as a tourist pull. Unless we start including people who attend local events as tourists to meet our 500k target.

 

[The Bastard]

3 minutes ago, cissolt said:

Whilst there are famous carnivals, only the clowns in DFE would pitch a Douglas carnival as a tourist pull. Unless we start including people who attend local events as tourists to meet our 500k target.

 

They all started somewhere, and as mentioned, it takes time to build momentum and a unique selling point.

In Japan, there's an annual samba festival in the Tokyo district of Asakusa. Of course Samba isn't native to Japan and it all started from a parade in the 80s featuring the winners of the Rio Carnival. Now it attracts 500,000 people just for that one event - not just passive local watchers, but groups of people from all over Japan who want to put together costumes, learn dances and have a good time. They get a fun weekend, the local area gets an economic boost from a massive influx of people. 

Like anything, it started small but built up a USP - Samba's not a part of Japanese culture, so you don't find a Samba festival in every town, and no doubt it took time before it gained critical mass.  

[Bandits]

2 hours ago, jackwhite said:

How dare people care about important facts and issues in modern society. We should flog him at 5 in Ridgeway St the scoundrel.

My point is it’s irrelevant. Perhaps he should Tweet about what he does at Douglas Corporation more? Although even when he does that it seems to be things he has completely made up like accusing the DOI over the solar panel debacle and then attempting an embarrassing climb down. We’ve seen these sort of noisy types in local councils before. The empty vessels who make the most noise to detract from their complete inability to function as effective commissioners or councillors which is basically what the public misguidedly appointed them as. 

[Lrk]

The decision to switch to fortnightly collections is an undemocratic cluster-fuck in waiting.

Like most working class people, I rank refuse collection as pretty much the council's prime directive, with street lighting a distant second.

I should of course have a reasonable expectation that someone in DBC has done the sums and knows that the 600,000 refuse collections and 100,000 recycling collections each year can be rebalanced into 300,000 refuse collections and presumably (400,000) recycling collections per year. But more likely, like most ideological bollocks, it hasn't been thought through and those ratepayers with families will have to haul their own surplus trash to the amenity centre like an army of gig-economy bin men.

That the exercise is being justified on cost grounds and yet has been followed by a succession of revelations (and ill-judged defensiveness) that betray a contempt for the public's concern that money should be spent wisely means that there will be a rate-payer backlash at the next elections.

There will be a record turn-out to vote for anybody standing on the restore-weekly-collections ticket and we'll get every opportunistic, power-seeking also-ran from the national elections swept into power. The only upside is that Claire and her fellow clowns will be out of power for a while.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Lrk

[Bandits]

Don’t forget we will also now possibly be funding the dog poo A-Team to monitor the pavements of Douglas in high resolution. What a way to get value for the ratepayers who will shortly be seeing their bin collections reduced so that they can pretend to save a measly £25K. 

https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/cctv-to-try-to-stop-owners-leaving-dog-dirt-543825

Edited April 13, 2022 by Bandits
Punctuation

[jackwhite]

4 hours ago, Bandits said:

My point is it’s irrelevant. Perhaps he should Tweet about what he does at Douglas Corporation more? Although even when he does that it seems to be things he has completely made up like accusing the DOI over the solar panel debacle and then attempting an embarrassing climb down. We’ve seen these sort of noisy types in local councils before. The empty vessels who make the most noise to detract from their complete inability to function as effective commissioners or councillors which is basically what the public misguidedly appointed them as. 

.....and my point is you're saying he's making this up when, in reality, you haven't a clue. Complete guesswork.

Speaks more about you that you're making these wild accusations than him to be frank.

[Bandits]

10 hours ago, jackwhite said:

Speaks more about you that you're making these wild accusations than him to be frank.

He will produce no evidence and he will not go to the police guaranteed. As he’s a silly political confidence trickster who Douglas ratepayers are getting sick and tired of. 

[jackwhite]

1 hour ago, Bandits said:

He will produce no evidence and he will not go to the police guaranteed. As he’s a silly political confidence trickster who Douglas ratepayers are getting sick and tired of. 

Again this is based on nothing but your assumption. Pointless even having the conversation with you (and this is where it will stop due to that).

[Bandits]

2 hours ago, jackwhite said:

Pointless even having the conversation with you (and this is where it will stop due to that).

A tactic worthy of the great Mr Watson himself! 

[2112]

On 4/13/2022 at 10:32 AM, Amadeus said:

If with “found out” you mean receiving death threats then you’re right. 

I’m sure IOM Police will put out an appeal next month alerting the public, and asking for publics assistance. 

[Kopek]

Next month??? Give them a break, perhaps August, September?