This is probably the shortest write-up we’ll do to compensate for some of the recent longer content we’ve published as there’s not much more that can be said over and above the general sense of public outrage that eighty percent of Manx taxpayers seem to have felt this week at the news concerning the Tynwald vote to approve a further £33 million for the Prince's Half-Tide Dock project in Liverpool - despite the fact that the project is already tens of millions over its original budget.
Before we start though we're going to add a quick note that readers may not be aware of as we track the history of the Prince's Half-Tide Dock (the site Manx taxpayers are now “investing” close to £100 million into). A small amount of research will lead any interested party to discover that the Princes Half-Tide Dock, which originally opened in 1810, was extended and completely rebuilt by George Fosbery Lyster in 1868. By way of background Irishborn Lyster was actually educated in the Isle of Man at King Williams College (1835-1838), and was responsible for the project of extending most of the Liverpool and Birkenhead Dock estate between 1861 and 1897. As part of this he was directly linked to the Victorian upgrade at Prince's Half-Tide Dock. So we note that it is a shame that such a proud Manx association with this particular site seems to have ended with such a bitter taste in the mouth for the Manx taxpayer.
Unlike many of the current “experts” at the IOM Department of Infrastructure who are now so ludicrously over budget on such a relatively small civil engineering project that its a national embarrassment - after leaving King Williams College in 1838 Lyster had an extensive and distinguished career in civil engineering. Amongst many other engineering projects he assisted in the 1842 project to widen the River Shannon, worked as Assistant Engineer on the construction of Holyhead Harbour (the main UK terminal the Dublin ferries then disembarked at), and was also the resident Engineer-In-Chief for the Port of Guernsey, before moving to the Mersey Docks and Harbours Board in 1861 - where his association with the Princes Half-tide Dock redevelopment shortly commenced. So we’ll leave you to contemplate whether a skilled and diligent lifelong professional engineer like Lyster is the sort of person who could have possibly saddled the Manx taxpayer with similar colossal and unplanned outcomes were he alive today? We’d suggest maybe not as history records that he was a highly respected engineer who died a very wealthy man after a lifelong commitment to large scale port engineering. Ironically Lyster also publicly opposed the UK Parliament when it sought powers to originally develop the Manchester Ship Canal - the real estate which today provides much of the wealth now backing Liverpool Port developer Peel Holdings.
It is further recorded that Lyster oversaw the entire Liverpool Port development personally without the aid of contractors - and those were back in the days of inkwells, manual ledgers and heavy manual and horse drawn labour.
Anyway we digress ..
The above is the abridged history of the Prince's Half-Tide Dock and the Manx link to the position it is in today and so fast forward 150 years later and enter stage right the squeaky voiced yokel Phil Gawne, the perma-tanned but useless Ray Harmer, the north’s angry God-botherer in Chief Tim Baker - and now the DOI’s current Turd Polisher Pursuivant in the shape of Peels own Tim Crookall. One wonders how a respected engineer such as Lyster would have dealt with such quality political leadership had he been around today? Which might be unfair on Tim Crookall who has only been in position for three months so far and who inherited a [third-hand at least now] poisoned chalice from the three previous Aunt Sallies who were appointed purely for the peasants to throw sticks at while the real villains worked behind the scenes literally miscalculating and destroying almost everything they touched. And that’s it in a nutshell really - as taxpayers we’ve been legged-over and lied to at almost every turn and even Tim’s best tin of the DOI issued Turd Polish won’t be able to buff this one out. So we suggest that as a bare minimum this is one maritime facility where Tim (and Alf) need to start throwing a few men overboard without lifebelts in very short order in order to save their own reputation. This is a fresh Tynwald that should be progressive and forward thinking not mired in having to continue the lies and mistakes that civil servants have made under previous governments.
DOI Turd Polish: The polish which never goes off and which comes in unlimited supply.
