Blog

Over the past few weeks I have deliberately not mentioned any active cases of Covid-19 on the island because as a society we are meant to be living with the virus, but concerns have been raised after the number of active cases of Covid-19 on the island reached 20 by Thursday evening, and that number increased to 26 by Friday teatime.

Unfortunately, some of those active cases involved teachers and students from local schools, which has put additional strain on our educational system, but more importantly families, especially those being […]

Hard to believe that this administration is almost done, in less than four months the island will have a new House of Keys, a new Chief Minister, new Ministers and no doubt several new House of Keys Members to start their own political journey.

Next month that journey will start again with the election of a new President of Tynwald, which will happen on Tuesday 20th July, At the moment there are just two candidates standing, the current Speaker Juan Watterson and his Rushen colleague Laurence Skelly.

In 2016 twelve fresh […]

Last weekend it was announced that the Chief Minister, Howard Quayle, MHK was one of four island residents to be recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

The Chief Minister is to receive a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for service to the people of the Isle of Man, especially in respect of his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and in respect of Brexit negotiations.

It has been a difficult period for so many people on the island, but it is hard to imagine the continuing […]

The weather on the island over the past week or so has been almost perfect, which is such a shame especially when we should have been enjoying a week of top quality racing at this year’s TT Festival – my money is already on two weeks of solid rain in 2022…!

On a personal level I would have preferred to be greeting his excellency the Lieutenant Governor on the start line, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the racing instead of being sat in the office for most of the […]

Later on this month the Treasury Minister, Alf Cannan, MHK will be asking Tynwald to approve £400 million of borrowing, which he described as laying a solid foundation for the next Isle of Man Government.

If approved, around £178 million of those funds will be used to refinance the internal debts associated with Manx Utilities. Unfortunately that will not signify lower bills in the very near future; this is just purely a refinancing arrangement.

Further funds (£160 million) will be used to refinance the internal debts of the Isle of Man […]

This week Stephen Hind, Director of the Audit Advisory within the Manx Government structure published his final and independent report in respect of the events surrounding February 2021 and the Covid-19 Outbreak and its Relation to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, which resulted in the Isle of Man entering into a third national lockdown early in March this year.

The investigation focused on the Isle of Man Government advice to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Statutory Processes, Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Risk Governance and […]