Talk Talk (Talk Talk)

Older readers may be familiar with the 1982 debut album The Party's Over from British synth-pop band Talk Talk which featured the bands most successful track Talk Talk (Talk Talk) that peaked at no.52 in the UK charts the very same year. Talk Talk are remembered as one of the superior surging, synth-pop bands of the 1980's and Mark Hollis' lyrics in Talk Talk (Talk Talk) project a general vibe of existential wariness, a mistrust of basic language, and ultimately the overpowering sense of being an outsider.

And as we read Daphne Caine's support of the SYSTRA proposals for the Horse Trams (and the steam railways) today on Manx Radio Hollis' rolling and repetitive lyrics quickly swirled in the air:

Anxiety was bringing me down. I'm tired of listening to you talking in rhymes. Twisting 'round to make me think you're straight down the line. All you do to me is talk, talk. Talk talk, talk. All you do to me is talk, talk.

Twisting the narrative indeed folks as let's remember for a second that the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway actually went bust in 1900 as a result of the collapse of Dumbell's Bank - which this year is now some 124 years ago. Once in administration the tramway was ultimately sold by the liquidator to Douglas Corporation in 1902 and its never really produced a freestanding set of accounts in the intervening 100 years before being finally sold to the Department of Infrastructure (DOI) by Douglas Corporation in 2015 - where like Triggers Broom it was then subjected to a multi-million pound lipstick on a pig Ian Longworth makeover which has made it undoubtedly the newest shiniest Victorian world heritage feature to operate anywhere in the developed world.

During this period it should also be noted that the DOI has also completely destroyed any and all of the patina and feel of Douglas' original Victorian promenade as well as completely reconstructing and moving the heritage horse tram lines to make the trams even more like mobile traffic calming than they were originally. If there was ever a prime example that typifies the very worst aspects of the Isle of Man and Manx politics then we suggest its the Douglas horse trams and their 124 year long drunken stumbling from bankruptcy against all odds and common sense to the point that over a Century later Manx politicians are still illogically lobbying to keep something that doesn't even exist anymore - which is an original Victorian tramway laid out between 1876 & 1891 by the Victorian engineers of the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway Company on a picturesque original Victorian promenade - because that's the way some seem to like the Isle of Man which is trapped in a flawed and failed past looking to repeat all our mistakes to create an equally flawed and failed future.

Readers can find more about the history of the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Bay_Horse_Tramway

And if you have the time to read please do ask yourself the question does the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway even exist anymore? In the clear light of day most logical sensible Manx people will surely agree that it doesn't and unfortunately like a lot of Mrs Caine's lobbying its perhaps all just Talk, talk, talk, talk about not very much that will move the Isle of Man forward for the next generation of Manx people. Although maybe we have missed the point and SYSTRA has spotted substantial demand for thousands more people to travel at 2mph from a cheap tarmac and Chinese granite platform just outside the convenient centre of town to a derelict building site in Onchan on an expensive mock reconstruction of an 1891 tramway whilst being beeped at by irate van drivers?

Wind farms next ..

The Party's Over. Talk, Talk.