NEWS FROM THE MANNIN BRANCH CELTIC LEAGUESorry I?m a bit late on this item of news but I?m sorry I can?t whip myself into lather over where the Steam Packets increasingly erratic services are likely to dock on the River Mersey.Of course ?Travel Watch? is animated about it – cue loads of aimless interviews on Manx Radio.Perhaps I?m unkind to Travel Watch but it seems to have as its objective the maintenance of good links to England for folk who have moved over here which makes you wonder why they came in the first place. I mean you never hear them saying ?oh we miss the Ardrossan boat? or ?that air link to Belfast International Airport was a god send?. It always seems to be the NW of England.The ?landing stage? story is interesting however for a number of reasons.First (did I get this wrong) the story seems to have broken in the Liverpool Echo before anyone here woke up to it. This is a novel new way of managing our future announcements about ?major strategic infrastructure routes? let the Echo break it!Then there?s Minister Phil Gawne saying it?s actually going to be a good thing that the ferry docks half a mile down the river at a Dock where there isn?t a road yet. You have to hand it to Phil he can always be counted on to be up beat in a crisis I suppose it comes of putting up with five years of the CM?s moods and tantrums.Then there are the architects of our good fortune Peel Holdings there actually a local firm headed up by one of those HIGH NET WORTH INDIVIDUALS so that seems to be working well for the Island.There?s Peel Holdings in the middle of a multi-billion pound investment and what?s the first thing they think? ?Never mind the Cruise liners where are we going to put the boat from the Isle of Man we must ensure it has a good home we don?t want to upset the boss?.You know having belatedly weighing it all up that Ardrossan route is starting to look attractive again or Llandudno have they still got a pier!Photo: ?Those were the days?!BERNARD MOFFATTIssued by: The Mannin Branch Celtic League19/03/16THE CELTIC LEAGUEThe Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries including our own Mannin branch. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issuesThe link for the main web pages is below: (voir le site) this!