Manxness.

As might be anticipated in appointment to the Manx legislature, the overwhelming majority of nominations had some argument put forward by the proposer to demonstrate the Manxness of the nominee. Only five nominees did not have an explicit point made about their Manx connections, and of these only one does not have quickly identifiable Manx connections of the type discussed below. The exception is Christine Wheeler. Her proposer in 2018 described her as “a relative newcomer to the Island but she has already demonstrated her commitment to preserving what we have building on that and successfully meeting the challenges ahead. Mrs Wheeler has familiarised herself with how our Island’s Tynwald works and has immersed herself in politics, including researching the background to a number of the
issues we are currently facing”. She was unsuccessful.

So, what sort of Manx connections are seen as persuasive by MHKs in putting forward their nominations? In order of chronological depth we find Manx ancestry (11), Manx birth (9), Manx education (11), raising children in the Isle of Man (11), and long term Manx residence (48). Obviously many of these overlap – “born and bred” is an expression used of some candidates for instance – but what is striking to me is how much emphasis is given to long term Manx residency. For a significant number of nominees (31) this is the only marker of Manxness brought out in their nomination. This suggests that nominating MHKs are working on a conception of Manxness which bears something of a resemblance to the Scottish National Party’s emphasis on civic nationalism (discussed further in an open access article here) – being part of the community on the Isle of Man, whatever one’s origins.

Regionality.

Recently, a number of MLCs have described themselves as “Southern”, in a statement on the future of a publicly owned southern community pool which begins “The Southern Tynwald members”. MLCs are not elected on a constituency basis, but on a national one. Nonetheless, this does raise the question of how far regionality is stressed when nominating prospective MLCs.

When MLCs were overwhelmingly elected from sitting members of the House of Keys, there were frequent references to geographical balance in the Council – in particular a concern that MHKs representing Douglas constituencies should not be overrepresented, reflecting the other members of the Council being officials primarily resident in Douglas. With the growing shift to outside nominations, however, this has become a very much less significant theme. Only 26 of the nominations were associated with a particular region (of which 7 were associated with Rushen sheading, and 5 with Douglas). In the majority even of these nominations, regionality was associated with a particular activity – for instance specifying which part of local government the nominee had experience of (for instance Michelle Haywood in 2020). Of these 26, in only one nomination was there an echo of the former emphasis on regional representation. In 1987 Alan Killip was proposed partly on the basis that he was a Douglas resident who would be taking a seat held by a Douglas resident. He was unsuccessful.

Regionality is clearly not built into constitutional law for MLCs – they are elected on a national basis by the national legislature. Neither, in relation to the more recent pattern of appointing MLCs from outside Tynwald, is regionality an expectation emphasised in the appointment process.

A recurrent theme in nominations to the Legislative Council is that the nominee has a history of public service. Often the term itself is used in nominations, but it is worth expanding. Public service is seen as about societal rather than self-interest, and close to civic mindedness. It is not, however, seen as incompatible with being paid for the activity – although not seen as synonymous with public sector employment, it is not seen as incompatible. So we find the case for a nominee as a public servant built on a career as a police officer, for instance.

An overwhelming majority of nominations referred to the public service of the nominee: all but 8 of the 63. The 87% of nominees whose nomination referred to public service had the case made through involvement in a wide range of activities, and it was common for a single nominee to be associated with multiple types of public service – .for instance Barbara Brereton’s nomination in 2010 referred to her public sector work in a protective service, her other public sector work, her local government roles, her work as a school governor, her work in a religious organisation, and her work in a Manx charity.

As mentioned above, public sector employment was often represented as public service: 10 by reference to a protective service such as the police or the military, and 21 by reference to other public sector careers. Taken together, this was by some distance the most common way of making a public service case, at nearly 50% of all nominations.

Beyond employment, involvement in Local Government, almost always as a repeatedly elected Commissioner, was referred to for 18 nominees. We also find extensive reference to involvement of varying degrees with Manx charities – 17, as opposed to 3 references to involvement in non-Manx charities. The only other activities mentioned for 10 or more nominees were work with government agencies (13), work with Manx cultural associations (12; 13 if you include the Southern Agricultural Show, which perhaps controversially I have classed as a business association rather than a cultural association) and involvement with sports and hobby clubs (11, primarily Manx football and motorsports).

Focussing on the three biggest categories (public sector employment, local government, and charities), 44 of the 63 nominees had at least one of these categories in the case for their public service (just under 70% of all nominees). A significant number of nominees had two or even all three (14 and 1 respectively), but 29 of them had only of the three factors (.just over 45%).

The significant place of public sector employment as evidence of public service is interesting. As paid employment, it might be seen as in tension with the idea of service, and the prioritisation of the public interest over the private interest, I mentioned at the start. It suggests to me that a public sector ethic, making public sector careers different from private sector careers, has been taken as read by at least some MHKs during the process. We see this most strongly in relation to the protective services, but the significant place of public sector careers in many nominations suggests this assumption goes beyond those services.