‘Everything Comes To Those Who Wait’
I read with interest an item on the Isle of Man Ship Registry Site that a new seafarers ‘welfare app’ has gone live which should enable over 10,000 crewmen on Manx flagged vessels to access information, get advice and communicate concerns;
‘Everything comes to those who wait’ I mused!
It was over two decades ago that the then DTI Minister David North MHK invited me to attend a conference with ‘the great and good’ of the Manx shipping fraternity which was held at the Palace Hotel. David was always a genial individual and in those days Manx Ministers were less remote than they are these days and more disposed towards the Trade Unions than under Howards current regime. A guest speaker David informed me was Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry the Director of Labour Standards at the ILO (International Labour Organisation) – a lady I found to be extremely personable and who I spent an enjoyable day with after the conference . The TGWU (of which I was RIO) together with NUMAST and NUS were members of the ITF so I thought ‘I may as well attend’.