Manx Independent Carriers success at Awards for Excellence
22nd November, 2013
Manx Independent Carriers achieved success in the Isle of Man Newspapers annual Awards for Excellence last night (Thursday21st November) at the Villa Marina with a win in the TEAMWORK category.
The event, sponsored by Royal Bank of Scotland International, saw a lot of cheers, many laughs and quite a few tears during an emotional evening.
The event was hosted by comedian Hugh Dennis, famous from Mock the Week, Outnumbered and The Now Show.
He won over the audience quickly by recounting his bogus Wikipedia entry, which says he has two adopted children. He doesn't.
And he liked the idea that our capital had a Christian name, although he thought it odd that Onchan was named after a brand of yoghurt.
He gave enthusiastic praise to the winners and his interest in them and the sponsors, was obvious, although he peppered his comments with many tongue-in-cheek asides. The awards ceremony recognises achievement in the private and public sector and charities.
Independent judges decide who should win in 16 categories and the winners are announced by the award category sponsors.
The Chief Minister roused the audience with a speech that touched on good and bad news from the island.
While he acknowledged the recent bad news from Flybe, the Mount Murray and yesterday's news that 20 more people were to lose their jobs at Six Kingdoms in Douglas, he pointed out that Isle of Man's economic growth, its relatively low unemployment figures and the fact that the Manx economy was now bigger than Jersey's and Guernsey's.
There had been 1,200 new jobs created in the last year, he said. There had never been more people employed in the island.
