Mid-Term Appraisals

[Derek Flint]

On 8/20/2024 at 7:02 PM, Steve_Christian said:

Thanks Stu. Perhaps a KPI could be against election pledges/policies that you’ve achieved? 

anyone's pledges are meaningless. Nothing outside of those of the CM are realistically achievable 

[asitis]

Absolutely correct Derek, the CM says we are doing this, ten others nod because if they don't they are out and the rest is noise ! A long way from representative democracy !

[Dirty Buggane]

This would be great if the CM had good ideas and policies, not so good if he/she is an absolute incompetent plonker. 

[Lost Login]

13 hours ago, Derek Flint said:

anyone's pledges are meaningless. Nothing outside of those of the CM are realistically achievable 

To an extent but members can bring bills forward. Whatever you think of Allinson he had a couple of things he wanted to see changed and he has managed to get them through.

I would much prefer a potential MHK would in their manifesto set out their general views and beliefs so you can see if they accord with your own values and then set out 1 or 2 issues that they strongly believe in, what they want to see changed and how and then, if elected, they try and push to get a private members bill in place or the government adopt. That would be far preferable to what we have now about being the voice of common sense, holding Govt to account or just generalities about addressing the housing issue.

Many MHKs my be working hard or they may be doing nothing. In either case I think that most have brought very little, if anything, to the table in terms actually making a difference from them being elected rather than somebody else. I would love a standard question to an MHK to be "What have you done or achieved since being elected that would probably not have been done if somebody else half diligent had been elected instead of you". I expect many might struggle to come up with much, if anything.

 

[Ringy Rose]

The absence of having a directly elected CM- which is what should happen- I’d settle for MHKs having to say in advance who they would choose to be CM.

Neither of mine voted for Cannan, and had implied that in advance (hence my vote for them), but of course it wasn’t binding.

[Thomas Dalby]

On 8/18/2024 at 8:29 PM, Ringy Rose said:

 

 He’d probably do better if he didn’t just surround himself with nodding dogs.

Of all the things I read on Manx politics here this is probably the oddest. I think when Cannan reflects on his time as CM he will certainly rue having appointed a Treasury minister he is politically and socially very different from.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 8/18/2024 at 8:29 PM, Ringy Rose said:

He’d probably do better if he didn’t just surround himself with nodding dogs.

"You can judge a leader by the caliber of those who choose to follow him."

[Non-Believer]

21 hours ago, Derek Flint said:

anyone's pledges are meaningless. Nothing outside of those of the CM are realistically achievable 

The railing against policies of the time that Hooper did on my doorstep, pre-2021 Election was considerable. Including against the "fallacy of the Terminal which was already at £100M" (3 years ago now).

I voted for him on the strength of this. Never again.

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Thomas Dalby said:

On 8/18/2024 at 8:29 PM, Ringy Rose said:

 He’d probably do better if he didn’t just surround himself with nodding dogs.

Of all the things I read on Manx politics here this is probably the oddest. I think when Cannan reflects on his time as CM he will certainly rue having appointed a Treasury minister he is politically and socially very different from.

It's not odd at all when you consider one of the real problems about Manx politics, which is there aren't enough politicians.  Cannan simply didn't have the room to manoeuvre.  The only ministers available from the previous administration were Ashford and Allinson.   There were 8 completely new MHKs who effectively couldn't be considered due to lack of experience, Watterson is Speaker, Corlett and Moorhouse clearly don't want a ministerial position, nor did Caine at the time (she had just been appointed deputy Speaker) and Cannan clearly hates Callister.  Thomas also refused whatever job he was offered.

If you look how the vote went:

The Members who voted for Mr Cannan, there were 14 and they are: Ms Lord-Brennan, Mrs Poole-Wilson, Mr Callister, Ms Edge, Mr Peters, Mr Crookall, Mr Smith, Mr Ashford, Mrs Corlett, Mr Cannan, Mr Moorhouse, Mr Glover, Mr Johnston and Mrs Barber.

The Members who voted for Dr Allinson were 8 in number, and they were: Mrs Caine, Dr Haywood, Mr Hooper, Dr Allinson, Mrs Maltby, Ms Faragher, Mrs Christian and Mr Speaker.

And there were two spoilt papers. [Thomas and Wannenburgh]

Cannan used the 3 ex-MLCs and everyone else he could.  But he didn't have enough supporters and had to include Allinson and Hooper.  He put Ashford (the epitome of a nodding dog) in the senior job at Treasury role and then lost him due to the Ranson fallout seven months into his administration.  Allinson was his only choice.

[Thomas Dalby]

38 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

It's not odd at all when you consider one of the real problems about Manx politics, which is there aren't enough politicians.  Cannan simply didn't have the room to manoeuvre.  The only ministers available from the previous administration were Ashford and Allinson.   There were 8 completely new MHKs who effectively couldn't be considered due to lack of experience, Watterson is Speaker, Corlett and Moorhouse clearly don't want a ministerial position, nor did Caine at the time (she had just been appointed deputy Speaker) and Cannan clearly hates Callister.  Thomas also refused whatever job he was offered.

If you look how the vote went:

The Members who voted for Mr Cannan, there were 14 and they are: Ms Lord-Brennan, Mrs Poole-Wilson, Mr Callister, Ms Edge, Mr Peters, Mr Crookall, Mr Smith, Mr Ashford, Mrs Corlett, Mr Cannan, Mr Moorhouse, Mr Glover, Mr Johnston and Mrs Barber.

The Members who voted for Dr Allinson were 8 in number, and they were: Mrs Caine, Dr Haywood, Mr Hooper, Dr Allinson, Mrs Maltby, Ms Faragher, Mrs Christian and Mr Speaker.

And there were two spoilt papers. [Thomas and Wannenburgh]

Cannan used the 3 ex-MLCs and everyone else he could.  But he didn't have enough supporters and had to include Allinson and Hooper.  He put Ashford (the epitome of a nodding dog) in the senior job at Treasury role and then lost him due to the Ranson fallout seven months into his administration.  Allinson was his only choice.

I know all this, what I am saying is odd is that people still say he is surrounded by nodding dogs

[Thomas Dalby]

25 minutes ago, Thomas Dalby said:

I know all this

Although just to correct one aspect, the idea that Cannan might have offered Moorhouse a ministerial post is comedy

Edited August 24 by Thomas Dalby
Spelling

[Thomas Dalby]

3 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

 

Cannan used the 3 ex-MLCs

3?

[Roger Mexico]

3 hours ago, Thomas Dalby said:

I know all this, what I am saying is odd is that people still say he is surrounded by nodding dogs

My argument was obviously against your assertion that "Cannan [...] will certainly rue having appointed a Treasury minister he is politically and socially very different from". ( though I'm not sure he's socially that different either).  He certainly did his best to get as many nodding dogs as possible, but couldn't help the loss of Ashford or the electorate ditching so many last time.  And he got Johnston on board pretty quickly.  

2 hours ago, Thomas Dalby said:

Although just to correct one aspect, the idea that Cannan might have offered Moorhouse a ministerial post is comedy

Well he gave one to Crookall.  On three separate occasions.  So don't give up hope of comedy gold yet.  But the fact that Moorhouse hasn't taken a Chair or even departmental position suggests he's not interested.

39 minutes ago, Thomas Dalby said:

3?

Lord-Brennan, Poole-Wilson, Crookall.

[Vaaish]

2 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

Well he gave one to Crookall.  On three separate occasions.  So don't give up hope of comedy gold yet.

Absolutely. In terms of the longevity x failure quotient Dim Tim is the least successful Minister ever. And as you rightly observe, this is not an aspect that has deterred our esteemed CM  from gluing Tim to a COMIN seat. Possibly therefore indicative of Cannan’s wish for a nodding dog rather than illustrative of a lack of choice; surely even the most obtuse alternative could not perform less well. 
However, the lack of COMIN quality, reflecting Cannan’s restricted choices, is merely a symptom of that age old disease - desperately poor Keys candidates at election time. (Compounded by the Keys innate ability to select an abject cross-section of losers to fill the cushy seats in LegCo).

[code99]

In 0ctober 2022 Tynwald approved the Net Zero policy, in conjunction with the UK Government. If Stu does not agree with this policy (rightly or wrongly many residents don’t agree with Net Zero ambitions for this Island either), then he should have the courage of his convictions to try to do something to rectify what he believes is a 'bad' choice for the IOM as a whole, and for his constituents in particular. As far as I can tell, his venting on social media is akin to farting into a plastic bag (as a female I tend to avoid using this type of vulgar verbiage, but ‘them’s the breaks’). He could put together Private Members’ Bill(s) to repeal all of the Net Zero commitments made by the IOMG, or repeal some of them such as the mandatory installation of electric boilers for the new builds, windfarms, or legislate compulsory gas explorations in IOM’s territorial waters, etc, etc. My guess is that he has done nothing.

In the meantime, why can’t he rattle the cage about free parking for the politicians? I know that many private companies offer free car spaces to their employees - that generosity is funded by their shareholders. Personally, I object to giving taxpayers’ funded perks to Tynwald members and senior CSs, on top of their salaries and pensions, especially at the time when many IOM residents are struggling with cost of living/ cost of doing business crisis. Perhaps, as a political member for DOI, he could commission a public survey on this issue, but without squandering too much of the taxpayers’ money on it, although I suspect that would be pointless as the feedback will likely be ignored by the turkeys who don’t vote for Christmas.