Law and professional services group Cains are celebrating the announcement of their law librarian, Kristie Jelfs, joining the website committee of the leading UK and Irish body of legal information professionals.

It is the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians, known as BIALL for short.

Kristie was approached by the chairman of the association’s web committee, Maria Robertson, at the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians conference.

She was delighted when Kristie showed an interest in this. Maria said: ‘On behalf of the website committee I can safely say we are all pleased to have Kristie on board’.

Kristie was delighted to accept the important position.

‘I am excited to have this opportunity to play an active part within a BIALL committee.’ said Kristie.

‘At the recent BIALL annual conference in Brighton, I was able to network with legal information professionals from law firms and universities in Britain, Ireland and further afield and I had many interesting discussions with members who knew little of Isle of Man law.

‘I look forward to making a positive contribution to the committee and to working with other committee and council members.’

Andrew Corlett, Cains managing director, said: ‘This is a great opportunity for Kristie and we are very proud that her efforts have been recognised by the leading professional body in our industry.’

An air accident investigation has been launched after a helicopter owned by a Manx-based company crashed into a canal-side pub in Ireland.

The Westland Gazelle crashed into the back of the Rustic Inn in Abbeyshrule, Co Longford last Wednesday night.

Two men on board the Gazelle were lucky to walk away from the wreckage with only minor injuries. No one in the pub was badly hurt.

The pilot was detained on suspicion of endangerment but later released without charge.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority records the helicopter’s registered owner as Mannifest Live Ltd, based at Hills Meadow, Douglas. Its permit to fly expires on August 4.

Dramatic video footage filmed captured the helicopter hovering a few feet above the Royal Canal before part of its propeller clipped the pub.

Teddy and Betty McGoey, owners of the Rustic Inn, had gone into a back function room to investigate after hearing the helicopter hovering low overhead - and were standing on the dancefloor when the crash occurred, blasting a 10-foot wide hole in the wall and shattering a window.

Mr McGoey was reportedly hit below the eye by glass.

Gardaí said the arrested man, aged in his early 60s and from the UK, was detained at Dublin Airport on Thursday afternoon as the Isle of Man-bound flight he was on was taxiing for take-off.

He was later released without charge. A file is now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The second man on board was David Bruton, an award-winning aerobatic pilot and owner of Midland Aviation which is based at Abbeyshrule Aerodrome, about one mile from where the crash happened.

Wreckage has now been removed from the canal towpath by the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit.

The AAIU said its investigation is on-going and a preliminary report will be issued in due course.

Separate investigations are being carried out by the Garda and the Irish Aviation Authority.

Just under £130,000 was raised for Rebecca House, the children’s hospice, at a garden party.

The event was the idea of the chairman of SMP Partners, Steve McGowan.

Steve wanted to raise funds for the hospice as it marks 10 years on the island of specialist paediatric care for children facing a life-limiting or life-threatening illness.

The event was sponsored by Microgaming and included entertainment from opera singer Alfie Boe.

Five hundred guests enjoyed a evening in the grounds at Billown Mansion, Malew, courtesy of John Whittaker, the multi-millionaire behind Peel Holdings.

The chairman of Hospice Isle of Man, Sir Miles Walker, said: ‘This event will live on for a long time in the memory of everyone who was there on such a special occasion.

‘Most importantly the difference this amount of money will make to our patients is phenomenal.

‘Hospice and Rebecca House looks after patients and their families from the first point of diagnosis onwards.

‘The team are with them every step of way providing a wide range of essential healthcare and support for them and their families – this amount will help all the 33 families that currently require the type of specialist care that Rebecca House provides - this amount is truly staggering.’

Hospice Isle of Man says that 85p from every pound is spent directly on patient care.

Alfie Boe, who visited Hospice and Rebecca House during his time on the island, has volunteered to be patron/ambassador for the charity.

Hospice and Rebecca House thanked Microgaming and John Whittaker and Adam Cooke from Billown Mansion.

It also thanked James Gale and his team from Switched On, Creechurch Capital, Barclays Bank, Mary and Jerry Linehan, Sarah Linehan (Port St Mary Sports Therapy Clinic), Rachel Grace and Gemma Wild of Genesis Gallery, Bob Bennett, Bernard Gallacher, Newfield, Sleepwell Hotels, Douglas Rugby Club, William Hill, Dave Armstrong and Truman Falls, The Sefton Group, Heath Craig and colleagues from Salt Bar and Kitchen, Ron Berry from 3FM, Roger Dean, Triskelion Polo Club, Elle Boutique, Sure, Saba Glen Yurts, Douglas Council’s parks and gardens staff, Anne Duggan and Claire Quayle, Stephen Dedman and the Regency Hotel, Pandora, Marco Leonetti, Utopia, Thomas Cook, Claremont Hotel, RBSI, Cubbon and Bregazzi, Elaine’s Florist, Samphire, Grenaby Estates, Ramsey Crookall, Bill Dale, Vincent Campbell, Equiom, Appleby, Shoprite, Intersport, Charles Alexander, J.D. Faulkner, Katie Gilman, Annette Murtagh, Sarah Radcliffe, Geoff Corkish MLC and Nigel from Star Services.

Terri Cook, corporate event coordinator, added: ‘The night was epic – it will live in our memories forever.’

Steve McGowan said: ‘I am proud of this event, raising this kind of funds for a very worthy cause that touches so many lives on the island has been hard work but enjoyable.

‘It was a great team effort – I would like to thank everyone that supported me in bringing this epic event to fruition. Listening to Alfie sing Run by Snow Patrol was spine-chilling. A terrific evening hopefully enjoyed by all.’

He may be virtually half the man he used to be, but Colby resident Mark Terris is about to take on his first Ironman challenge to raise money for diabetes sufferers.

Mark, who is 26, has lost a third of his body weight since 2011 when he weighed in at around 20 stones.

He set himself the challenge of completing an Ironman event and since then he’s taken matters in hand, slimmed down to a svelt 13 stone and so far completed three marathons, in Edinburgh, Manchester and the Isle of Man.

The death of his grandmother, Sigrid Guthrie, aged 88, in January this year provided an extra spur for his Ironman challenge which will see him cycle 112 miles, swim 2.4 miles then run a full marathon.

‘For at least 30 years of her life she suffered from diabetes and she didn’t let it get her down. She was a tremendous woman who had lots of interesting stories to tell (sometimes repeatedly) and so I want to do this in her memory - hopefully raising significant money to help fight diabetes,’ he said.

With the event now looming on Sunday, he’s winding down his training to conserve energy but up to last week he was rising at 5.30am and spending up to 20 hours a week swimming, cycling or running.

‘I tried to focus on the bike because it’s six or seven hours in the saddle so I often cycle the Parish Walk course which is good because there are lots of hills, as well as doing laps of the TT course: it’s quite hard to get a run of 100 miles in the Isle of Man,’ he said.

‘I’ve also been combining activities so I did a 100-mile bike ride followed by a 10-mile run.’

The event itself takes place around Bolton with contestants starting off at 6am, aiming to finish in under 17 hours, before 11pm.

‘My aim is to do it in under 12 hours. My mate, and training partner, Elliott Moore did it in 11 hours 57 minutes so I have to beat him now,’ he said.

He thanked Matt Tyrer of Inferno Fitness for his support, his employer Friends Provident and also his girlfriend Alice who ran the Edinburgh marathon too and has been inspired to take up triathlons.

Any money can be pledged through Mark’s Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/Mark-Terris1/

An update to Noble’s Hospital’s main IT system was completed at the weekend, with the project delivered on time and under budget.

Tynwald had agreed to spend £3.2m on it but the cost was less, although finance chiefs are still working out exactly how much was spent.

The Minister for Health and Social Care, Howard Quayle MHK, said: ‘The upgrade provides a wide range of enhancements, but importantly provides a solid foundation for future updates to our systems to make care safer for patients and its delivery more efficient.”

‘This upgrade has been a major undertaking with thousands of hours of work by staff within the department and the Cabinet Office as well as the supplier System C.

‘Over 1,200 staff have been to training sessions to support the transition.

‘The migration from the old system to new went well, all while services continued to be delivered to patients. We are only a couple of days into the new system and there is a huge amount of change for staff directly involved to absorb and it will take some time before everyone is fully familiar with the new system.

‘To successfully achieve the migration however is a significant achievement and I would like to extend my thanks and congratulations to all involved in this project and importantly all of our front line and administration staff who are impacted by this change and are working through the new system.’

The software represents the first major upgrade to the island’s patient administration system, called Medway, since it launched in 2008. The upgrade not only makes significant strides in modernising the software’s functionality for staff, but also provides opportunities for further digital services to be launched, such as electronically tracking a patient’s condition, digitally managing clinical risks, electronic prescriptions and a new electronic document management system - all of which form part of government’s new “digital strategy”.

Mr Quayle added: ‘It’s taken 12 months of hard work, but we now have a springboard for the future. The Medway upgrade represents not the end but the beginning of a journey to ensure that we can maximise technology with the clear goal of improving care for patients and freeing up our front line staff to devote their time on front line activities.’

A plan by Port St Mary Commissioners to build a residential development between Cronk Road and Bay View Road has provoked objections from a raft of residents.

The plan (15/00552/A) is for approval in principle for the development – shown as either a terrace of four houses or six flats – with associated car parking.

Several residents wrote to planners – one letter had 19 signatures - and said at present up to 28 cars can park on the land and this will be reduced to 17 in an area where lack of parking spaces is already an issue. They also asked if there is a need to provide more accommodation ‘in an area which already has new builds lying empty’. It would lead to more congestion and more traffic and concerns over pedestrian safety, particularly children.

Others said visibility is poor at the entrance to the road leading to the site.

Objectors include Rushen Parochial Church Council, worried about the impact of the loss of parking on those attending services and events at St Mary’s church and church hall.

Some also raised concerns about how the application had been advertised. A notice was only posted in Bay View Road, even though it also affects Cronk Road. One objector was told by the commissioners’ office this was ‘an innocent oversight’.

Notices in both roads had been issued to advertise a previous plan (13/00611/A) for approval in principle to build two town houses on the site, this application was subsequently withdrawn.

Manx tourism could benefit from a boost paid for by the European Union.

An EU Creative Europe Culture grant of €1.96m (£1.38m) has been paid to the Shetland Amenity Trust for its ‘Follow the Vikings’ project.

Shetland Amenity Trust is the lead partner in this project, which has 14 full partners and 11 associate partners, including Manx National Heritage, with a geographical spread over 13 countries.

The four-year project, which started on July 1 and will carry on till June 30 2019, will celebrate Viking heritage throughout Europe and will have a particular emphasis on creativity and culture, including the creation of a website and an international touring event.

There will also be an emphasis on training volunteers.

All this will raise the visibility of the Council of Europe’s Viking Cultural Route, which includes the Isle of Man.

The Council of Europe’s Viking Cultural Route is managed by the Destination Viking Association, of which Manx National Heritage is a founder member.

The project will seek to develop audiences through a variety of new technologies, build business models through sharing best practice and will strengthen the international network of professionals and institutions working in the field of Viking heritage. This will include demonstrations of Viking crafts and arts, Viking games, and shows combining drama, poetry, stories, music, dance and re-enactment and will involve local participation and youth engagement.

Jimmy Moncrieff, general manager of Shetland Amenity Trust, said: ‘I am absolutely delighted that the trust has been successful in securing this funding on behalf of our Viking colleagues.

‘We and our partners including Manx National Heritage have been working towards this for a number of years to make transnational Viking heritage more accessible and understandable to a worldwide audience.

‘This is our fourth attempt to secure EU culture funding support and this shows that a good project plus tenacity can ultimately succeed.

‘The award is all the more gratifying as competition for funding was extremely intense with only 16 applications being approved from the 127 considered.’

Edmund Southworth, director of Manx National Heritage, said: ‘This project represents a major boost to the Isle of Man’s profile worldwide and will give us a significant platform to promote the Isle of Man as a tourism destination within the Viking Cultural Route.

economy

‘Working with other destinations and partner organisations is a vital part of the work that Manx National Heritage does in contributing to the visitor economy and our role within the project team will ensure that the Isle of Man is properly and appropriately represented within the project and the high profile content that is created.’

The Isle of Man is outside the EU so wouldn’t normally be expected to benefit from grants.

The civil service union Prospect says it will not be ‘pushed or rushed’ into negotiation over public sector pension reforms.

And it has accused the government of adopting ‘panic’ tactics.

A joint statement was issued last month by the employer and staff side representatives of the Public Sector Pensions Authority’s pensions committee announcing that the deadline for agreement on reforms had been pushed back until the end of the year.

And two proposals have been removed altogether, with the approval of Council of Ministers – raising the normal minimum retirement age from 55 to 58 and taxing lump sums above £200,000.

Now it has emerged that Prospect did not support that joint statement - and says it will not negotiate until government can justify the need for change.

In a statement to members the union says: ‘The bottom line is we negotiated the current deal and if the government can evidence the need for change we would seek to negotiate – but not until then.

‘We are not going to be pushed or rushed into a negotiation – simply because the government has adopted panic tactics.’

Angela Moffatt, negotiations officer for Prospect, which includes many non-civil servants among its membership, said: ‘We’re not refusing to negotiate – but we want explanations and understanding before we wade into a situation which replicates previous errors. Who would negotiate without that?’

Our sister newspaper the Examiner reported this week that £10.5m had been paid out in lump sums to government or ex-government employees who had taken early retirement in the last 12 months alone. The single biggest pay-out was for £420,375 together with an annual pension of £49,044.

Ms Moffatt pointed out that most members of the unified pension scheme are not civil servants and the majority would not be getting large pensions or lump sums.

She said: ‘To assert only civil servants are on high annual salaries and therefore the only people getting ‘big’ lump sums in a public sector pension scheme is not correct.

‘Most unified scheme members, ie most civil servants, as well as manual, health and other workers have not caused the problems – but they are getting the blame. That is really unfair – the average GUS scheme member is not going to retire with that kind of sum, or anything approaching it.’

In its statement to members, Prospect pointed out that the government working group’s report on reforming public sector pensions had only been noted, not accepted, by Tynwald.

It says removal of proposals to change the minimum retirement age and tax lump sums above £200,000 were ‘easy’ compromises for the government to make and would have made little difference to tackling the shortfall.

‘The bottom line is that an agreement was made with you three years ago,’ it adds.

‘We clearly raised these issues repeatedly at the time. So either the government knew they were making a deal they didn’t intend to honour, or they are wholly incompetent. How can you trust in three years’ time, they won’t repeat the errors and expect you to pick up the tab?’

Ms Moffatt told the Manx Independent that unions had told government three years ago the public sector was shrinking, the age profile was weighted towards those approaching retirement, that pay rises were not matching inflation, and that the solution proposed was not going to add up.

‘All ignored,’ she said. ‘We are definitely for working up a solution. We did try to avoid this scenario and where did it get us? Back to square one.’

Firefighters tackled a cooker blaze last night.

It happened in Hillside Avenue, Douglas, just after 9pm.

The occupant of the property was alerted by a smoke detector.

The cooker’s grill had caught fire after being left on. The fire was quickly extinguished and then the property was cleared of smoke using a fan.

A pot of white paint that fell from a car damaged several cars.

Police this morning appealed for information regarding the incident, which occurred on Queen’s Drive West, Ramsey, at 12.30pm on Wednesday.

The vehicle is described as a maroon or dark Ford Focus with two ‘Monster Energy’ stickers on the rear.

Ramsey police are investigating.

About 30 years ago the Isle of Man Government rolled out its ‘master plan’ for the future. We were told by Miles Walker MHK (then Chief Minister) that the island was to become a ‘Prosperous and Caring Society’.

The memorable strategy said: ‘To raise the living standards of the few and ignore the needs of the many would be unjust and divisive.

‘Everyone must share in the benefits of progress…Growing prosperity must be shared, good services must be provided and the elements which go to make up the quality of life must be protected.’

Part of the cornerstone of this plan (which also coincidentally included a strategy to neutralise the trade union movement that had been increasingly vocal and active in the preceding years) was to attract ‘well-heeled’ individuals to the island who would invest in the community.

The argument was that this would lead to growth and, while some might do disproportionately better than others, it would all even itself out via ‘trickle-down’ economics.

Well the theory was sound in principle and there’s little doubt that disposable income was on the rise in the following few years but an unforeseen consequence was one of the sharpest population rises in recent years.

From 1986 to 1991 the population grew by more than 5,000, although how many of these were high flyers ‘trickling-down’ their wealth to the existing less ‘well-heeled’ among the population has never been established.

What undeniably did happen was that house prices shot up from and average of £35,000 to £82,000 in a few years.

Evictions and homelessness became a big news story and of course militant nationalism in the shape of FSFO materialised briefly.

The government did eventually get its act into gear – more social housing and first time buyer units were introduced and assistance with mortgages (to first time buyers) provided.

However given the huge increase in the price of property you could say that effectively a generation was saddled with excessive housing debt repayment commitments as a consequence of a policy ostensibly introduced to make them better off.

Later, Manx governments clung to this notion that what are now called ‘high net worth individuals’ (HNWI) will somehow improve the lot of us all just by being here and getting a free ride on tax while the rest of us now even have to cough up to go to the toilet.

I have no doubt at all that the Walker strategy was well-intentioned but as an economic master plan, given where we find ourselves today, it was a complete disaster.

Most damagingly ‘the political old order’, which includes our current Chief Minister, cling to that philosophy which set us off on the road to ruin all those years ago.

They are not challenged in this because, like him or loathe him, Allan Bell and some of the old guard face no real challenge in what must politically be the most lightweight Tynwald for decades.

Despite what’s written about him by some of the ‘internet pond life’, Bell is ‘the only show in town, boys’ but unfortunately Eddie Teare is no David Cannan (Miles Walker’s first Treasury Minister)!

Anyway, there was one outspoken critic at the time and that was a certain full-time union official called ‘Moffatt’. Only a year after the plan was unveiled I criticised it, and where it would lead us, forcefully, in the Manx Independent newspaper.

Well nobody was listening to the TGWU then and they certainly don’t listen to its successor union now.

The first ‘Prosperous and Caring’ generation are today probably just about on top of the mortgage debt mountain that was created for them but what of the ‘high-net worth’ generation of today.

Well one factor that did ameliorate the impact of the higher living costs in the 1990s was that the unions ramped up their act and won substantial increases in pay across the board. This went some way to enabling working people to cope with the ‘New Jerusalem’ that Miles and Co had created for us.

I see little scope for that today and I do not think that Bell’s HNWI individual strategy has any more traction than Walker’s ‘Prosperous and Caring’ ideology.

One of today’s major events has been cancelled.

The organisers of the Viking Longboat Races due to take place today in Peel bay made the announcement this morning.

Planned road closures will no longer take place.

The event will now take place on a date to be confirmed in August.

Other events due to take place today include Douglas Carnival and Ramsey RNLI Day.

Concerns about proposed new charges to be introduced at the Meat Plant were raised at a Tynwald scrutiny committee.

Environment, Food and Agriculture Minister Richard Ronan will ask Tynwald next week to approve new meat hygiene, inspection and grading fees.

Following the ‘user pays’ principle, Mr Ronan’s department is planning to move away from the current system of charging at the abattoir based on throughput.

Instead, it will recover costs according to the time spent on site by the official vet and meat inspector team.

It says the charges, to be phased in over three years, will incentive Isle of Man Meats to make more efficient use of the meat inspection service and bring in more efficient operating methods.

The rate charged for a meat hygiene inspector will rise from £9.35 an hour from August to £28.05 in 2017 while that for a government vet will increase from £11.95 an hour to £35.85 an hour in 2017.

But at a hearing of the environment and infrastructure policy review committee, chairman Graham Cregeen MHK asked Mr Ronan and his chief executive Richard Lole who the charges were most likely to be passed onto by the Meat Plant.

Mr Lole replied this would be a decision for Isle of Man Meats but that presumably a fee would be introduced to the farming community. ‘I would not expect that charge to be higher than elsewhere. I would expect it to be a fair charge,’ he added.

But Mr Cregeen said the Manx NFU had not been consulted about the fees. ‘The first they knew about it was when they saw the Tynwald order paper,’ he said. Mr Lole replied: ‘I personally apologise to the Manx NFU. I had in writing they supported the position. With hindsight we have should have talked to more stakeholders.’

Mr Lole said DEFA was committed to reviewing the fees at the end of the second year. ‘If we were to see evidence of an increase in live exports we would be concerned,’ he told the committee.

Ballakermeen High School in Douglas now has a classroom with a Chinese theme.

It’s called the ‘Independent Confucius Classroom’.

But it won’t just be available to pupils at the school. It will offer the island’s community the opportunity to study the language and culture of China.

The status of Independent Confucius Classroom has been awarded to Ballakermeen by Hanban, the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, which is the headquarters of the Confucius Institute.

Confucius Classrooms are usually linked to Confucius Institutes, based in large educational establishments such as universities.

The Ballakermeen classroom will be equipped with Chinese teaching materials and will have teachers from China – and deliver sessions to primary and other secondary schools and business people and the community as well as kids in that school.

It is being paid for by Hanban.

Only rarely, when there are strong links with a Chinese school, is an independent Classroom established. Ballakermeen’s long-standing relationship with the Number 1 School, Liuyang, Hunan Province, developed since 2006, has led to it being named the first Independent Confucius Classroom in the Crown Dependencies.

The classroom will be used for exam courses to secondary students, cultural awareness programmes to primary pupils, cultural and language sessions to the business sector and community classes in Mandarin.

The resource was formally opened this week by Mr Shen Yang, Minister Counsellor for Education at the Chinese Embassy in London.

Mr Shen was welcomed to Ballakermeen by Adrienne Burnett, headteacher, and Keith James, deputy headteacher, who has been instrumental in gaining Confucius classroom status for the school.

The government says the island is developing a strong relationship with China, now the world’s second largest economy. In April Chief Minister Allan Bell MHK led the latest delegation of private sector representatives to China to promote the island as an international business centre and generate business opportunities.

Mr Bell welcomed guests to the ceremony, saying: ‘Strengthening our relationship with China is an important part of our strategy to drive forward our economy and the opening of a Confucius Classroom in the Isle of Man is a welcome further link between our two countries.

‘The establishment of a Confucius Classroom is a great testimony to the strength of Ballakermeen’s links with its partner school in China and represents a remarkable achievement for the island.

‘We are indebted to Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Mr Liu Xiaoming, for the role his embassy in London played in securing a Confucius Classroom for Ballakermeen and to Mr Shen Yang for formally opening the Classroom today.’

Mr Shen said: ‘As the Chinese economy has grown, so has demand to learn about our language and culture. Confucius Classrooms are a platform for cultural exchanges and a bridge for building friendship and cooperation between China and the world.

‘It is a symbol of the relationship between the Isle of Man and China that the island is to have its own Independent Confucius Classroom.

‘It is a special pleasure that students and teachers from Number 1 School, who are making their annual exchange visit to Ballakermeen, are present at today’s opening.’

A new scarecrow competition with a nautical theme – with prizes of £50 and £25 for the first and second best – is being held in Port St Mary as part of the port’s lifeboat day celebrations on Sunday, August 2.

Chairman of the lifeboat committee Graham Shaw said: ‘The idea is for people to make them and leave them out to help publicise the event.’
On lifeboat day, entries will be held aloft in a procession – led by Ellan Vannin Pipe band - from Mount Tabor church to the outer harbour, the venue for the event, where they will be judged and the prizes (sponsored by Tower Insurance) will be given out.

The gates to the event open at 12.30pm; the compere is former Manx Radio presenter Alan Jackson.

There are many attractions including the selection of the lifeboat princess, stalls, four lifeboats, a lifeboat and coasguard demonstration, Discover Diving, a treasure trail, Sou’western Sax Trio and Dolittles

A couple from the south of the island have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.

Alan and Annie Isobel Brawn, nee Brew, marked the occasion with a family party at Abbotswood Nursing Home in Ballasalla.

They have three sons, Michael, Stuart and Christopher, nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Alan, born in Wellingborough, Northants, is 95, and Annie, born in Ramsey, was 90 on July 3.

They lived in Port Erin, before moving to Port St Mary and have lived at Abbotswood since 2011.

They met during the war when Annie was a search light operator and Alan was an RAF wireless operator and married at Ballaugh Church on July 6, 1945.

Asked what the secret of their happy marriage is, the couple said: ‘Three kisses at bedtime.’

Princess Anne is to visit the Isle of Man on Tuesday.

While in the island the Princess Royal will tour the Onchan plant of precision aerospace engineers Triumph Actuation Systems, and, as patron of the Cathedral Development Appeal, will attend a service of thanksgiving at Cathedral Isle of Man in Peel.

Preparations are underway with Cathedral staff and volunteers working around the clock, to ensure that the venue and gardens are looking their best.

The Cathedral Choir and Choristers are busy rehearsing for the visit.

Invitations have been sent, the seating plan worked out and seat tickets allocated to invited guests who will join together in celebration of all the things that have been achieved since the campaign began.

Cathedral Isle of Man is the brand name for a £10m development campaign, the aim of which is to develop the site into a new national cultural venue.

Princess Anne’s previous visit to the Isle of Man was in January last year.

Have you ever stood behind someone in a queue and they just can’t make their mind up?

It could be in the chippy: ‘Do you want your mushy peas on top of the chips, or do you want them separate?’ or ‘Do you want salt and vinegar?’

Now I admit that for some folk these might be important decisions to make. You could have been drooling over the idea of a fish supper all day, and you want to get it right, but it can’t be classed as a life- changing situation.

Which shirt shall I wear, the white one or the blue one? I can’t decide whether to have cornflakes or porridge for breakfast.

When you think about it, we probably have to make dozens of decisions every day. In fact, the process is so automatic, that we don’t even know that we are doing it.

A few months ago, four members of the Legislative Council came to the end of their five-year stint.

As is the current rule, an election is held to fill the vacancies.

You have to listen carefully to the next bit, I don’t think that it is particularly complicated, but the Hon Members seem to be somewhat confused with the process so it could be that we are missing some detail or other.

As it stands the members of the Council are elected by the members of the Keys.

To be elected, each candidate must receive at least 13 votes.

The Hon Members vote for each candidate in turn.

From memory, there were five candidates for four seats on the Council.

The process started in February and finished just before June did.

They just could not make their minds up. My only hope is that I never get behind them in the queue at Port Jack Chippy.

When you think about it, it’s only us humans that have the responsibility of making our minds up. If you’re a dog, or a great white shark, you have to survive on instinct.

The only choice you have to face during the average day is whether to fight or run away.

And the lower down the natural scale that you go, the more relaxed your life is. I bet the stress level of an earth worm is on the lower end of zero.

I was in the greenhouse the other day having a tinker with my state-of-the-art watering system when I must have accidentally upset the resident family of ants.

Those boys don’t need to worry about decision making. They just go for it.

Before you can say ouch, they are all over you. Their reaction to any threat is automatic and instant.

Ants live in communes. They have teams of scouts to go out and find food, teams of labourers to transport the goods to the stores department, where the food is processed and put in the cupboards, and so on. And as far as my knowledge of ants goes, I think that they have a fairly active breeding team, who probably think that they have the best job in the colony.

But the point is, they all work for the good of the community, and not for what they themselves can get out of it.

I suppose that they are what would be called communists. They are all equal. Not like our lot. Human communists are all equal, but as they say, some are more equal than others.

That is why we are far superior to all the other living creatures that share the Earth.

We have the ability to study the facts, as we see them, consider the options, and act on the decision that we arrive at.

Which for most of the time means choosing what would be best for us or our family.

It could be I am being a bit cruel towards my fellow superior beings. But society these days just seems to be becoming more and more fragmented.

Maybe I’m wrong and just becoming an old grump, but think about it, and make your own minds up.

Oh! I nearly forgot. There’s an election next year. I don’t think that I’ll have any problem in making my mind up.

What about you?

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A decade years ago Pullyman – aka Michael Cowin – was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, a condition that affects people in different ways. Michael discovered writing and Island Life is featuring some of his musings. Sometimes topical, sometimes nostalgic, read about life as seen through the eyes of Pullyman

A motorist who crashed into another car and then drove off is being hunted by police.

Police are appealing for witnesses after a red Vauxhall Astra estate was damaged by another vehicle while it was parked on the car park of the Co-op in Christian Road, Ramsey.

Officers say the damage was substantial and the driver of the other vehicle would have known that a collision had occurred.

The offending vehicle was possibly white and the incident occurred between 11.25am and 12.25pm on Saturday.

The Green Column recently called out the ‘low impact’ approach to life. It was suggested that simply ‘trying to do minimal harm’ to the environment sets a low bar for living and that it’s much more life-affirming to aim for as high, and as positive, an impact as possible on the people and places you’re involved with. This week, Cat Turner meets a team doing exactly that.

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Readers of this column know how much we ‘greenies’ like re-use and recycling.

It’s almost as good as finding ways to not consume stuff in the first place!

So when, last week, I walked past the open door of an unassuming little workshop in a Douglas side street and saw what was clearly a herd of recently re-fettled bicycles, my whiskers twitched immediately.

I poked my head round the door for a nosey. An amiable chap called John told me that I’d found the workshop for the Community Impact Team, and that, yes, they took lame bikes and nursed them back to full health, repainted and cleaned them, and donated them to good causes.

I made an appointment to come back and learn more.

So it was that the following day, I turned up there with a) my daughters’ Catherine and Lizzie’s outgrown trikes, and b) my EcoVannin notepad.

I thought I’d found a good recycling/re-use story – but it turned out to be so much more.

Andy Simpson, the friendly and approachable leader of the Community Impact Team, explained that the initiative’s run under the auspices of The Children’s Centre.

He told me that it aims to (and does) achieve a number of things:

l as I’d thought, it provides a way for tired but still useful items like bicycles to be refurbished, and live to ride another day. Re-cycling? Check. Reducing resource depletion by the need to buy new bikes? Check.

l it enables these bikes to be donated to families in need, or charities and other organisations that can rent them for use by staff. They can even be lent to visiting groups (such as Scout groups, who might struggle to fund bringing their own over on the boat). Spreading the benefits to needy folks in the community? Check.

l it provides resources in the form of willing and able bodies for all sorts of useful projects. These range from the aforementioned bike refurbs, to footpath clearing, maintenance in glens and parks – the sort of stuff that keeps our lovely island in the sort of good shape that everyone can enjoy and be proud of. Direct environmental action? Check.

But the thing that had initially escaped me, that I didn’t have on my EcoVannin checklist, is perhaps the most valuable aspect of all: the human one.

The CIT helps unemployed people get involved with, and pull off, some really useful projects – the types of things that are appreciated right there in the community and businesses around them.

It means that people who aren’t yet back in paid employment can build and maintain skills, show what they’re capable of, and demonstrate really solid experience on their CVs.

They might also be able to gain trade-based qualifications, such as NVQs, depending on what projects are happening at the time.

I can’t overstate the importance of this. I’ve had first-hand experience of what felt like (though probably wasn’t) a pretty long period of unemployment, during which I struggled to find work and feed myself and my children.

It was depressing, and in my darkest hours it made me feel useless, hopeless and diminished. That’s just my own story, of course. It’s different for everyone, but I’ve met enough other people who’ve had a similar experience for me to realise those feelings are pretty commonplace.

So what an amazing opportunity for people to be able to learn, gain work experience and, not least, build their own self-esteem and often make new friends, at the same time as boosting their prospects of finding paid work.

The CIT, I learned, was set up for a limited period, funded by DED and supported by The Childrens’ Centre team.

The hope is that more long-term funding will be made available.

But with my EcoVannin hat on, I’m keeping everything crossed that it continues.

After all, it’s doing great things for EcoVannin’s three main targets: the environment (reuse, and maintenance of various areas), the economy (getting people back into work) and the community (the obvious benefits for the people involved).

If that’s not the very definition of a ‘positive impact’, I don’t know what is!

If you’d like to find out more about the CIT or how your organisation can take advantage of the bike scheme you can do so by contacting The Childrens’ Centre on 676076, or by emailing Andy on andrewsimpson@thechildrenscentre.com

EcoVannin is a collaboration between organisations, individuals and government. which aims to secure a flourishing, vibrant and sound future for our environment, community and economy. Find out more at ecovannin.im/