The recent Manx budget was not the polished affair of yesteryear when luminaries such as David Cannan and Donald Gelling gave polished performances, unlike the stuttering shambolic delivery of Eddie Teare.
It was as if Eddie was simply reading a bad script his heart was not in. I turned off before the aimless banter I knew would follow.
It was inevitably approved, indeed they finished early, no one’s heart seemed in it, least of all Eddie’s.
Throughout budget day and for sometime after Manx Radio tried ‘breathing life into the corpse’ but they were never going to be too analytic as they are part of the budget now what with the new broadcasting palace planned for Douglas Head.
Manx budget analysis continued later in the week and Paul Moulton was interviewing ‘a suit’ for MTTV who appeared to be from the Planet Zog.
He was very wise and said the budget was good for business and he liked the Economic Development Fund – everyone in the business world likes that. The EDF was approved before the budget which goes to prove how irrelevant budgets have become.
The EDF is Christmas come early for the business community!
Paul Moulton in a light-touch manner teases info out of his interviewees with inquisitorial infectiousness but suddenly I was stunned as Paul said that ‘overall everybody seemed pretty content’ and I realised he was actually conducting the interview on Planet Zog because he could not surely be talking about here!
In the same week Manx economic life featured on BBC Radio’s ‘You and Yours’, there was an interview with the OFT who said letting Manx Gas change its pricing and earn a profit of just under 10 per cent was a very good idea! The programme then produced an expert who said gas was twice the price in the Isle of Man as where he lived, saying it was the cost of getting it here.
Some expert. He seemed unaware there was a huge pipe between Scotland and Ireland right on our doorstep and if anyone should have cheap gas it should be us.
At this point I wished I was with Paul and his friend on Planet Zog.
Manx Radio eventually stopped pretending that it was analysing the budget and moved on later in the week to the disability assessment issue and the impact on one family. They had a clip of Kate Beecroft who clearly was having difficulty containing her emotion as she read the account.
She clearly has more humanity than some of the others in Tynwald who are allowing this travesty to continue.
I suddenly wished I could send Bill Henderson and Eddie Teare to Planet Zog where they might bump in to Paul Moulton and his friend.
Isle of Man Newspapers was persevering with the budget as the Indy hit the street.
The headline, ‘Sun’-like, shrieked ‘ISLE OF MAN’S BUDGET NIGHTMARE’. Obviously Richard Butt hadn’t gone to Planet Zog with Paul Moulton and his mate where ‘everybody seemed pretty content’.
Later on in budget week, Thursday, the police road traffic unit provided a surreal interlude (they didn’t seem to realise there had been a budget).
In recent weeks they had been talking up an ‘offensive’ against errant motorists with broken rear parking lights but in a volte-face they now wanted ‘your ideas on Facebook’ – this must be the ‘hearts and minds’ stage of the offensive. Even the police on Planet Zog are nice!
To conclude budget week, I read that Manx Radio might run a feature on their new broadcasting palace ‘if there was enough interest’.
Of course people are interested!
We are paying for this at a time when we can’t afford the gas bill or the fare to Planet Zog where Paul and his mate live with all those people who ‘are pretty content’.
Beam me up, Scotty!