[BBC News] MHK buoyed by election interest

[Newsbot]

The number of candidates standing in the Ramsey local election is good for democracy, an MHK says.

 

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/7326265.stm

[Skeddan]

Ramsey MHK Allan Bell said it proved that democracy was alive and well in the Isle of Man

Bell's criterion for proof of a healthy democracy is a novel one. There's a lot more that is needed to 'prove that democracy is alive and well'. IoM didn't fare very well on the Economist Intelligence Unit democracy index, coming out as a flawed democracy. That is more persuasive and accepted way of assessing the health of a democracy that 'Bell's measure'.

 

It's a worry if senior politicians measure democracy by such standards and think this is good enough.

[Lost Login]

There might be election interest in Ramsey but generally it is not the case across the Island. I think of 30 wards there are only elections in 9 with 16 uncontested and 5 with insufficient candidates to meet the number of seats avaialble!

 

I would have thought that the number standing would have been up this year if only because the Liberal Vannin Party as a political party would have a) been wanting to put a marker down at these elections and b) try and obtain a decent representation to give them some influence and power locally but they seem to only have eleven candidates in total per their web site.

[Alias]

Bell's criterion for proof of a healthy democracy is a novel one. There's a lot more that is needed to 'prove that democracy is alive and well'. IoM didn't fare very well on the Economist Intelligence Unit democracy index, coming out as a flawed democracy. That is more persuasive and accepted way of assessing the health of a democracy that 'Bell's measure'.

Just to clarify the island wasn't covered Skeddan just 'appropriated' a score from his own interpretations of the metrics (not commenting on how democratic the reality is, you were just a bit misleading).

[Skeddan]

Bell's criterion for proof of a healthy democracy is a novel one. There's a lot more that is needed to 'prove that democracy is alive and well'. IoM didn't fare very well on the Economist Intelligence Unit democracy index, coming out as a flawed democracy. That is more persuasive and accepted way of assessing the health of a democracy that 'Bell's measure'.

Just to clarify the island wasn't covered Skeddan just 'appropriated' a score from his own interpretations of the metrics (not commenting on how democratic the reality is, you were just a bit misleading).

Yes Alias - it was misleading the way I put it. The method of assessment used in the indexing is preferable to 'Bell's measure' - which is what I was taking issue with - i.e. claiming this proved democracy is alive and healthy in IoM.

 

While not officially scored in the survey, I don't recall anyone's interpretation came out other than a flawed democracy - and that seems to be pretty sound given a realistic appraisal using this scoring system. However that IS debatable, and that assessment is not an independent objective analysis, lacks expertise in using this instrument and that score was NOT part of the survey. It was sloppy the way I put it, sorry - didn't mean to be misleading on this. Thanks for pointing that out.