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Tynwald members get pay rise


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As promised I've also examined the Written Questions asked by Tynwald member in the last parliamentary year.   In this case I based it on all those with a Date Published between 1 October 2022 and 30 September 2023 as recorded on the Tynwald website.  Here's the leader board:

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Now Written Questions tend to have a different purpose from Oral ones.  The latter are often about demands for action (or at least clarification), while WQs are more about eliciting information.  Whether they get it or not is another matter - with no comeback it's easy for the response to ignore or 'misunderstand' what is actually wanted.  It doesn't even require a Minister to play dumb (or just be dumb).  But some questions will require a response so data-heavy or complicated that a WQ is the only possibility.

Interesting the total number weren't that different.  There were 406 OQs and 477 WQs, though there might be a little duplication (eg if an MHK is ill on the day they were going to ask an OQ it might be 'converted' to a WQ).  On the whole the same names dominate both or neither.  Ashford is keen on both; Christian consistent asking the same sort of number; Smith absent from both.  Watterson tops the table with WQs, partly because he can't ask in Keys and sometimes Tynwald if he's deputising.  But also because he's always been keen to get information in writing.  Moorhouse tends to prefer OQs but puts in enough WQs as well.  His constituency colleague Glover is the same if less assiduous.

Wannenburgh in contrast is happier with WQs, enough to come third, and Callister asked a good number in contrast to his duck in OQs.  I'm not sure why - possibly some sort of sulk following his dismissal at the start of the period.  Dismissal certainly didn't stop Ashcroft returning to being quizzical (or indeed Thomas though that is in in the current year of 23-24).  The MLP MHKs make less use of both types than you would expect and Corlett was her usual minimal self. 

Peters like Smith is absent though a few MLCs do appear.  But only August-Hansen asked more than a handful (but you'd hope so from an ex-journalist) and Mercer and Craine, both numerate types, made little use of a function you'd think would be well suited to them.

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8 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

As promised I've also examined the Written Questions asked by Tynwald member in the last parliamentary year.   In this case I based it on all those with a Date Published between 1 October 2022 and 30 September 2023 as recorded on the Tynwald website.  Here's the leader board:

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So basically Juan Watterson is the opposition party to  Cannan's Comin,  So how many of his written questions have then been followed up in the House of keys by other members, This while he presides over The procedure in the House of Keys which is controlled by the Speaker in accordance with Standing Orders, of which his or her interpretation is authoritative. Seem a fair system if your Mr Watterson.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've just corrected my totals for oral questions for 2022-23 as I missed out the figures for the last Tynwald session of the year.  No change required to the commentary, people kept on doing what they did or didn't do for the rest of the year.  It does give me the opportunity to put up a table with the combined figures though:

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Nearly 900 questions (plus Urgent ones), some useful, some less so; some picked up by the media, some ignored; some a source of useful information, some only telling you just how much they wanted to avoid answering.

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1 hour ago, cissolt said:

Thanks Roger, makes interesting reading.  Stu managing to make Corlett look like an over achiever.  His backers must be feeling short changed.

No Julie edge on the list? Even Zac Hall managed to ask 1 question.

Asking loads of pointless questions is basically pointless!

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1 hour ago, cissolt said:

No Julie edge on the list? Even Zac Hall managed to ask 1 question.

By convention Ministers don't ask each others questions, though it occasionally happens.  Edge was actually one of the most persistent questioners when she was a backbencher (as was Hooper).  As I said Watterson can't ask in Keys and sometimes not in Tynwald if he's substitution for Skelly.  Caine tends not to ask in Keys in case she's standing in for Watterson.

Apart from the Ministers, Smith doesn't appear at all and neither do Kelsey, Greenhill, Henderson or Kinnish (or Maska who she replaced in the year).  But the low number from LegCo is generally surprising, especially from Mercer and Craine who you'd think would be keen to get the data out.  It's not just finding out for yourself, questions are about letting others know.

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Asking questions for oral or written answer is intended to elicit information, have that information put into the public domain and potentially embarrass the respondent with supplementaries, and of course prove to your constituents that you’re still alive and working tirelessly on their behalf (!).

Since being elected I’ve asked and answered scores of questions in order to progress or challenge things. I just don’t issue a press release every time, and I think I achieve more as a result.

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1 hour ago, Stu Peters said:

Asking questions for oral or written answer is intended to elicit information, have that information put into the public domain and potentially embarrass the respondent with supplementaries, and of course prove to your constituents that you’re still alive and working tirelessly on their behalf (!).

Since being elected I’ve asked and answered scores of questions in order to progress or challenge things. I just don’t issue a press release every time, and I think I achieve more as a result.

But the problem is that even if you get a helpful response to a privately-asked question, at most that only informs you and the person you asked it for.  In some cases that will be enough, indeed the proper way of keeping private information.  But a lot of things will affect other people in the constituency and beyond and by not making such things public, you're depriving them.

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1 hour ago, A fool and his money..... said:

Ah OK. Why not?

If he got a red swimming certificate (highly unlikely)  he would be all over the press like this https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/first-mhk-to-become-advanced-bike-rider-562356

Says nowt, because he has done nowt, remember those montlhy vidoes he was going to post telling the middle people all about what he was up to?

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7 hours ago, Numbnuts said:

Stu Peters has been a massive let down. Lots not suprised . Enough said ..

When Glenda Jackson became an MP she left showbiz behind to be a politician. I left being a broadcasting gobshite behind. You should be thrilled.

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