Quote: He said promoting the Island as the road racing capital of the world was 'detrimental' because it put off certain groups of visitors, such as the elderly and families with young children, from coming.[/quote

Erm, families with young children don't want to come here, they want to go abroad to the sun.
As for the elderly, I live here and I haven't got anything against the elderly but we've got plenty of elderly peoples homes and I don't see any of them whinging.

[quote] They won't want to drive on the roads — they want to be able to drive around the Island and see places.'

Erm, again there is another 48 weeks of the year they can drive around all they want to then.

Quote: He said he would like to see the TT halted over time and thought that the majority of people in the Island agreed with him, saying there was a sense of relief among everyone he spoke to when the races were cancelled in 2001 because of foot-and-mouth disease.

Really, everyone I spoke to was totally cheesed off about it.

Quote: The vast majority of people I spoke to said it was nice to have a quiet fortnight.'

Again there are another 48 weeks in the year that should be quiet enough for them, if it's not they should think about moving somewhere like, umm, I can't think of anywhere quieter than here.

Quote: Instead, he thinks the Island should reinvent itself, focusing on sports such as angling and cycling.

I see, so they are into angling and cycling. The angling, ok yeah, I can live with that but thousands of people won't come to an angling competition. There is already an angling week in he North of the Island and that's lucky to attract 50 people from across the water.
Anyway then we'll have the anti fishing brigade again saying "ban angling as it's cruel to the fish". This has already happened years ago.

Quote: Ingrid said she was afraid to go out on the roads during the TT because of a small number of inconsiderate motorists.

Fine, stay in then.


'

Quote: They come at you from all directions. There are some who come over purely to race around the TT course.
There is no way I'd go over the mountain.'

Lots of people don't use the mountain road in TT, their's nothing unusual in that. In my opinion I'd ban all traffic apart from motorcycles from using the mountain.

Quote: She said she would like the see the TT 'reduced considerably' so there would be fewer road closures and accidents.

The one way system on the Mountain has already reduced accidents considerably.

Quote: It would be better, if they want to continue, to have a short circuit and just use the mountain course for one or two prestigious races.'

HaHa good one, who'd pay to come over here to race a short circuit? yep no one, they can do that anywhere. The mountain circuit is a unique road race, that's why riders want to ride it.

Quote: Ingrid said she would be sad to see the TT stopped because she was born in the Island and grew up with the races.
But she said that the atmosphere had changed and was concerned that the Island has outgrown it.

Yes I agree it has changed, for the better. You rarely see anyone riding in jeans and leather jacket nowadays, most people wear proper protection. Oh, and their are no Black angels or Hells Angels coming anymore, most of the people are normal respectable people with normal jobs who save hard, (nothing against Hells or Black Angels by the way) lets face it the tourists have to save hard because of the prices that they're charged for burgers and the like. The atmosphere in my opinion is nothing like you'd find anywhere else in the world that's why they keep coming back.

Quote: Like Jerry, she would like to see the government put more focus on other aspects of the Island, and thinks there is a market for package walking holidays.

There are plenty of walking and running events for people on the Island open to anyone from anywhere in the world, I'm sure they'd all be very welcome, But none of them will bring the amount of tourism that the TT does. Infact I doubt those events would bring more people to the Island than the Manx Grand Prix and that is starting to really take off with more and more people coming every year.
If people don't like the motorsport events on the Island there is that old saying of "There's a Boat in the morning".
Have a nice Trip.