Manx Taxpayer's Alliance

[pongo]

On 4/19/2021 at 5:14 PM, 2112 said:

Some MHKs who are intending to stand as MHKs will never have earned so much as £65000 pa before in their lives. Some may stand as they are public spirited and want to do their civic duty. 

It doesn't demand a full time wage. We know that from Pooter's diary.

You don't pay someone a full time professional wage for documenting their biscuit breaks or knocking off every day at 5pm.

The ideal candidates will already be earning a good professional salary or running a successful business and can afford to put some time aside for putting something back.

[pongo]

If they quit at retirement age then it means that they just saw it as a job of work.

[Fluffy123]

On 4/19/2021 at 2:46 PM, Fluffy123 said:

This assumes MHKs volunteer for departments for the money. I don’t think they do. There’s easier ways to earn money tha the shite they get in departments. 
 

anyone becoming an MHK for the money is a fool. 

I had a thought. Many MHKs are on multiple departments - but you don’t get more pay for more than one - so doesn’t that prove my point that they don’t join departments for the money - otherwise they would just have 1? 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Sheldon said:

Judging by the length of the above piece about fourteen parking spaces it seems like Josem has far too much time on his hands. Long may that continue.

My favourite part is where "local resident, Charles, highlighted that with a combination of an aging Manx population, our sometimes inclement marine environment, and the hilly topography of Douglas, car parking is important to allow people from across the island to access Douglas."

Now of course I'm not saying that Charles and his flowery quote don't actually exist; but I do sort of hope not.

Well I suppose there are some people who live in that part of Douglas, though mainly in not very salubrious rented accommodation.  Not really the target demographic for contract parking though.  And surely these infirm out-of-towners would prefer parking that didn't require a steep climb to get back to?

[Max Power]

On 4/23/2021 at 8:45 PM, pongo said:

It doesn't demand a full time wage. We know that from Pooter's diary.

You don't pay someone a full time professional wage for documenting their biscuit breaks or knocking off every day at 5pm.

The ideal candidates will already be earning a good professional salary or running a successful business and can afford to put some time aside for putting something back.

I'm not so sure Pongo. I know an MHK quite well. Apart from the normal duties, constituency issues, committees, attending Keys and Tynwald, reading papers, etc, there are other demands such as attending functions, being asked onto charity committees, being asked to support all sorts of causes in one way or another. I know that he doesn't have very much spare time for anything. I guess it depends who you are, some probably glide through, raising the odd objection to progress, whilst others take it seriously, whilst people never hear of what they actually achieve.     

[Apple]

@Max - Agreed. I think some MHK's do work hard and long at their Departmental roles / for constituents etc , but as said, there are some who probably struggle with the amount of time and effort is expected. 

For example - last Tynwald sitting or most to the day on those benches can't be fun, especially when pure political electioneering is being played out. And I think we also now have our own version of filibustering, especially coming up to lunch time.  

My impression though of last Tynwald is that some Ministers / MHK's are raising their voices on some issues that should / could have been dealt with say two or three years ago, but it seems like they have saved some issues till now to possible make a better public impact and get wider public "appreciation" just before the elections.

[Ham_N_Eggs]

4 minutes ago, Apple said:

@Max - Agreed. I think some MHK's do work hard and long at their Departmental roles / for constituents etc , but as said, there are some who probably struggle with the amount of time and effort is expected. 

For example - last Tynwald sitting or most to the day on those benches can't be fun, especially when pure political electioneering is being played out. And I think we also now have our own version of filibustering, especially coming up to lunch time.  

My impression though of last Tynwald is that some Ministers / MHK's are raising their voices on some issues that should / could have been dealt with say two or three years ago, but it seems like they have saved some issues till now to possible make a better public impact and get wider public "appreciation" just before the elections.

The issue with this current cohort of MHK's is that they were lured into a "Team Tynwald" approach for the first two / three years. It was only recently that the backbenchers realised they'd been conned and virtually nothing they want to achieve will happen. In the next few weeks when asked why they haven't achieved anything in their manifesto expect them to say "brexit" or "covid" is responsible. 

One backbench MHK that appeared on track to achieve their aims was Allinson but then he got lured into the cabinet office and subsequently offered the position of minister of education. Although, I suppose, by simply not being Cregeen he was an automatic success as a Minister.

[code99]

3 hours ago, Ham_N_Eggs said:

One backbench MHK that appeared on track to achieve their aims was Allinson but then he got lured into the cabinet office and subsequently offered the position of minister of education. Although, I suppose, by simply not being Cregeen he was an automatic success as a Minister.

I was pleased when Dr Allinson became an MHK. I thought of him as a genuinely caring, intelligent, and capable person who could make a positive contribution to a Manx government. His efforts to push through the long overdue abortion reforms were commendable. I was hoping that he would be appointed as the Health Minister. Now my opinion of him is less favourable. I think he has become one of the ‘yes men’ in his current role as the Education Minister. Here are my reasons why:

• The pay dispute with teachers dragged on for far too long;
• Remote education has been challenging. Last year this was understandable, but this year the process should have been smoother - i.e., lessons learnt and all that sort of thing. Throughout the lockdowns there have been sightings of schoolteachers walking the dogs, kayaking, etc. during what were supposedly working hours, whilst parents were struggling to juggle their own work commitments and looking after the kids under difficult circumstances. There have also been complaints that homework was not issued consistently or on a regular basis. A lot, of course, depends on the leadership in individual schools, but the some of the buck must stop with the Minister;
• He allowed schools to open when Tynwald held a remote session just 24 hours before the last lockdown;
• He announced that the hub for the kids of essential workers would not be operational during the last lockdown, only to admit a few weeks later that the said hub was set up at NSC. It seems that the IOMG decided to keep this as a ‘secret’ from public because they were afraid that other parents would want similar facilities.

We will find out in September what his constituents think of his achievements, but my feeling is that he will probably be re-elected in the absence of any clearly better candidates.

[Fluffy123]

13 hours ago, code99 said:

I was pleased when Dr Allinson became an MHK. I thought of him as a genuinely caring, intelligent, and capable person who could make a positive contribution to a Manx government. His efforts to push through the long overdue abortion reforms were commendable. I was hoping that he would be appointed as the Health Minister. Now my opinion of him is less favourable. I think he has become one of the ‘yes men’ in his current role as the Education Minister. Here are my reasons why:

• The pay dispute with teachers dragged on for far too long;
• Remote education has been challenging. Last year this was understandable, but this year the process should have been smoother - i.e., lessons learnt and all that sort of thing. Throughout the lockdowns there have been sightings of schoolteachers walking the dogs, kayaking, etc. during what were supposedly working hours, whilst parents were struggling to juggle their own work commitments and looking after the kids under difficult circumstances. There have also been complaints that homework was not issued consistently or on a regular basis. A lot, of course, depends on the leadership in individual schools, but the some of the buck must stop with the Minister;
• He allowed schools to open when Tynwald held a remote session just 24 hours before the last lockdown;
• He announced that the hub for the kids of essential workers would not be operational during the last lockdown, only to admit a few weeks later that the said hub was set up at NSC. It seems that the IOMG decided to keep this as a ‘secret’ from public because they were afraid that other parents would want similar facilities.

We will find out in September what his constituents think of his achievements, but my feeling is that he will probably be re-elected in the absence of any clearly better candidates.

I think it’s a no-win situation. You want to be in COMiN to influence them but can’t challenge publically as you get kicked out as per Chris Thomas and collective responsibility. Get rid of that and I think you’d see ministers true colours. 

[code99]

21 minutes ago, Fluffy123 said:

I think it’s a no-win situation. You want to be in COMiN to influence them but can’t challenge publically as you get kicked out as per Chris Thomas and collective responsibility. Get rid of that and I think you’d see ministers true colours. 

Totally agree. Collective responsibility gives the government stability, BUT it also makes it inflexible and unaccountable. I have been saying for ages that, for the good of the Island, collective responsibility has to be substantially modified. There must be circumstances where Ministers can speak their minds without being sacked.  

[Wake Up Call]

£65k isn't a huge salary and combined with the hassle from 1000's of political experts out there, you have to wonder why any sane person would bother?

[Rhumsaa]

On 4/26/2021 at 9:37 AM, code99 said:

Totally agree. Collective responsibility gives the government stability, BUT it also makes it inflexible and unaccountable. I have been saying for ages that, for the good of the Island, collective responsibility has to be substantially modified. There must be circumstances where Ministers can speak their minds without being sacked.  

it's a road to hell paved with good intentions

[Andy Onchan]

On 4/26/2021 at 9:53 AM, Wake Up Call said:

£65k isn't a huge salary and combined with the hassle from 1000's of political experts out there, you have to wonder why any sane person would bother?

Away with yer!

£65K for what? For spending other people's money?

You don't have to be qualified in anything, the executive are the supposed experts. You don't even have to agree to be a political member of any department. You only have to hang around for a short while to pick up a sooper dooper pension and even get 6 months if you don't get back in next time around.

All you need is to buy a few folk a drink and promise them the earth and be a nice guy for the duration.

[Chef Raekwon]

Following on from this and also from seeing Josem pop up on my Twitter quite frequently, I am genuinely astounded by his antics.  The Manx flag, the need to involve himself in everything and to try to speak on behalf of Manx people, the hare-brained views and so on.  I struggle to understand the mindset of someone being like that at home, much less somewhere they've emigrated to.

This has been triggered by something I've just seen on Twitter now where he's wittering on about protecting "these Isles" from France and Germany which struck me as being particularly cringey.

[Sheldon]

2 hours ago, Chef Raekwon said:

seeing Josem pop up on my Twitter quite frequently...

The one (and perhaps only) thing I'd say in Josem's favour is that at least he's less ubiquitous and slightly less irksome than "Bonzo Slater".