Perspective - Manx Radio

It’s November Tynwald next week and probably the most important item is what changes are need to ensure the National Insurance Fund - and the pensions it helps to pay - remain sustainable in the future. Treasury Minister Alex Allinson MHK explains the changes he’s considering which includes replacing the triple lock promise for future pension increases, and increasing the options for use of the NI...

The Assisted Dying Bill 2023 is being progressed now through the Legislative Council and at the Principles Stage of the Bill there was a successful call for further evidence to be taken. The vote in LegCo was seven in favour of the Bill with just one against. We’ve heard a lot over the past year or so about the case in favour and against the principle of introducing legislation to allow people to...

Why do we have a Chief Minister? Is it to provide leadership to the government or political direction perhaps? Is the role all about consensus building in Tynwald? Perhaps it’s all of these things and more? Certainly the debate which preceded the Keys “no confidence vote” this week covered all of these possibilities and more. There was some quite profound discussion and erudite thinking in the Hou...

So much to talk about on Perspective this week. Some Tynwald leftovers - whistle blowing and a Manx framework for awarding degrees, the fallout from Lawrie Hooper’s resignation, a new chief minister candidate explains why he’s putting his name forward, energy policy, Crogga and a suggested half billion raid on our NI fund. Julie Edge and Chris Thomas give their views on all of the above and ask th...

October Tynwald proved to be a much more lively affair that we had expected. As he resigned his Health Minister role, Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper accused the Chief Minister of undermining Manx Care and wishing to privatise health services, and repeated his assertion that Health is underfunded not over budget. The Chief Minister responded by robustly denying that he or CoMin plan to privatise health a...

Tynwald returns from its summer recess next week so what does the Order Paper tell us about what the Government has been up to since July? You might expect members to be keen to debate the Manx Care overspend but there are just a few questions and one motion on health and perhaps surprisingly no statement from the Health Minister. Maybe the Chief Minister will reveal more in his autumn statement?...

We’ve heard a lot from Ministers over the past few weeks about their plans and progress in getting to grips with the big issues facing the Isle of Man, so on Perspective this week we invite three private sector leaders to mark government’s card. Economist John Webster, Farmers Union official Sarah Comish and Carl Joughin from the licenced victuallers association consider what we’ve learned fr...

The third Isle of Man Government Conference took place last week and while the event was light on big announcements it was certainly informative to those who attended. Perspective this week talks to some of the speakers from the second day of the conference. Want to know more about the man tasked with delivering over 10 million pounds of savings? Wondering why the treasury Minister was relati...

The third Isle of Man Government Conference took place earlier this week and it gave us all the opportunity to question Ministers, senior civil servants and businesses leaders. The Conference focussed on the economy and there were some very informative sessions but the political background to these discussions was the sharp rebuke issued to Manx Care by the Chief Minister for unacceptable health o...

Education, Health and Housing will not be on the agenda at this week’s Government Conference. The Chief Minister tells Perspective why not as well as explaining why people should attend the Conference. Chris Thomas ponders the value of three years worth of government strategies and policies and offers some suggestions to deliver success. Isle of Man Government is facing some serious financial...

The Liberal Vannin party held it’s AGM a few weeks ago and agreed that Government should be more transparent on procurement. They also asked for the proposed new government levy to be progressive and include a tax on capital or wealth. Meanwhile Liberal Vannin founder and long standing former Onchan MHK Peter Karran has renewed his call for new measures to alleviate the housing crisis. Some politi...

Fear of mass immigration has fuelled unrest and political change across Europe and the solution usually offered is bigger walls or stronger borders. Less attention seems to be paid to what is driving this mass migration and what might encourage migrants to stay in their home countries. Former Chief Constable, Gary Roberts, has taken up a new role as Executive Director of the Small Countries Financ...

Three years ago Keys candidates were expressing concern and committing to resolving what was popularly believed to be a housing crisis. Government’s flagship solution to the lack of funds to deliver high quality comprehensive public services is to grow the economically active part of the population so generating more tax income. To do that we need more houses for this wave of new residents to live...

Former Douglas East MHK Chris Robertshaw has been called a lot of things over his time in business and politics but ’shrinking violet’ was never one of them. Chris has lots to say about the current state of Manx politics and the biggest challenge is how we’ll fit it all in on this week’s Perspective. How many of Chris’s catch phrases will we get? I expect “Smaller smarter government”, “single lega...

Ørsted want to build a 1.4 gigawatt wind farm six nautical miles off the north east coast of the Isle of Man. Up to 100 turbines are proposed and these could be as high as 389 metres above low tides. So what’s in it for us? Sea bed rental income, tax on the energy production, a community fund and potentially cheaper electricity are all mentioned but will all this be delivered? And what about the e...

July Tynwald saw several debates about housing and development with reassurances given about “lots of work going on behind the scenes”. An entertaining exchange saw the Housing Minister attempting to woo Jason Moorhouse but he was playing hard to get. We also hear from the Home Affairs Minister about the cost of the new sexual assault referral centre and emergency planning. Can our elected members...

Despite food prices having been higher in recent years Manx agriculture continues to face significant challenges. Closures of Ramsey Bakery and Shoprite have impacted on Manx food sales in the Isle of Man, the meat plant continues to face significant problems and recently the Department of Infrastructure has imposed huge increases in charges to remove fallen stock from Manx farms. On Perspective w...

Perspective 21.7.24 - we’re three years in to the Cannan administration but has much changed? The Chief Minister is very upbeat about the progress his government is making. We’re pretty much three years in to the Cannan administration but has much changed. There certainly seem to be a few glimmers of progress but is the change that was promised being felt yet by the people? The Chief Minister is v...

Controversial climate scientist Paul Burgess has made several claims based on his interpretation of climate science which conflict significantly from the general consensus reached by climate scientists who say we need to act swiftly if we are to avoid our climate becoming so extreme that we will be unable to live in it. Mr Burgess refutes this consensus but on Perspective this week Adrian Cowin an...

While a significant majority of climate scientists are increasingly alarmed by the rapid pace of climate change, a growing proportion of voters across Europe are voting to stop climate action. That pleases Perspective's guest this week, Paul Burgess, who describes himself as a climate scientist and friend of four times gaoled, far right politician Tommy Robinson. You may be vehemently opposed to w...

They say a week is a long time in politics but I hope not too long as this week’s Perspective looks at some of the June Tynwald highlights. The Chief Minister explains why belts need tightening even further if health funding is to continue to grow, Tim Glover is concerned about DoI anouncing big increases in costs for farmers - so is the Agriculture Minister. The Infrastructure Minister’s bud...

Garff MHK Daphne Caine has certainly not been short of challenges since she took up the reins at the Department of Education. Do you save £7m a year by closing primary schools and other ‘efficiencies’ or acknowledge that the backlash from those affected will be to big a political price to pay for a government which struggles to find popularity? As ever in politics there’s always much more to these...

You could be forgiven for thinking that the House of Keys is about to make an historic decision to introduce assisted dying, but is that really the case? Also as we approach the end of the third year of the current House of Keys, June Tynwald will be asked to consider three motions on housing but will any of these make any meaningful impact on the housing crisis that the Keys members were elected...

The Manx Labour Party held it’s AGM a few weeks ago so a good excuse to find out what it’s all about. Do we still need a Labour movement in the Isle of Man or has it’s time past? The Labour Party was formed in 1918 to fight against the social injustice of the time and over the century that followed it achieved much of it’s initial objectives, so what’s left to fight for? Does party politics work i...

May Tynwald was a relatively brief an uncontroversial affair but even with a light Order Paper there were still a few items of interest. Some members expressing righteous indignation over Tynwald’s unwillingness to suspend its standing orders while others dismissing this as a storm in a tea cup. And what’s really happening in Peel with apparent contradictions between submissions to the North West...