In this series of blogs on nominations of outsiders to the Legislative Council I focussed, respectively, on profession, public service, Manxness and regionality and personality traits.  In this final blog I will seek to bring these threads together.

The paradigm nominee.

Firstly, what is the paradigm nominee? It should be stressed that the survey has considered all non-MHKs/sitting MLCs nominated for the Legislative Council since 1962. Combining these nominees gives us a decent amount of data to look at, but inevitably will be focussed on the long term picture, rather than current trends.

That reservation made, the paradigm nominee for Legislative Council would be:

• A man, although this is much less paradigmatic as we get nearer to the present. Over the entire period, only 18 of the 63 nominees, or a little under 30%, have been women.
• A professional, or retired professional, working in “Business, Media, and Public Service”.
• A person with a record of public service, typically including a career in the public sector, service in local government, or work for a charity.
• A long term resident of the Isle of Man, ideally having been raised on the Isle of Man, or raising their own children on the Island.
• An extrovert engaged with the external world, with a breadth of interests, high group visibility, and enthusiasm; ideally combined with a passion for the proposed role, or work that they could do in the role.
• A conscientious and honest person of integrity.
• A team player able to challenge members of the team.
• An intelligent person with the ability to carry out critical analysis.

Focussing on successful nominees.

Would this paradigm change if we focussed on successful nominees? This is a much smaller group – 13 have been appointed to the Legislative Council from outside Tynwald, so a little over 20% of all such candidates who have been nominated. Care needs to be taken in giving too much weight to what appear to be differences between two small groups.

The paradigm above is largely a good description of successful nominees too. Successful nominees are similarly described as from a professional career background, similarly extroverts with passion, similarly conscientious and honest, similarly team players able to challenge the team, and similarly intelligent and critical.

While successful nominees remained mainly men, the gap between men and women is much smaller when we focus on successful nominees. At 5 of the 13 (or a little under 40%), this gap is half the size of that for nominees; and, as with the nominees, has seen significant improvement over time. So, given the changes I have already identified over time in the nomination pool, if we look at successful nomination to refine the paradigm, I think it would be fair to replace “A man” with “A person”.

Turning to public service, the paradigm successful nominee looks a little different from the nominee pool more broadly, more like a person with a record of public service, typically involving work with or for a charity or other civil society organisation, or work with a government agency. 12 of the 13 successful nominations included reference to public service, a theme which we have already seen as very common in nominations generally.  The basis for a public service claim was very varied, but the most common claims were around involvement with governmental agencies including tribunals (5), charities (4), sports or hobby clubs (3), and Manx cultural associations (3).  In contrast with nominations as a whole, reference to careers in the public sector were comparatively less common than in nominations generally – 2 of the 13, so 15%, as opposed to 33% of the nominations generally. Also much less well represented in successful nominations was involvement in local government – 1 of the 13, so 8%, as opposed to 28% of the nominations generally.

Finally, turning to Manxness, I suggested that nominations seemed to emphasise a civic nationalism view of Manxness, with long-term residence being key. For successful nominees, long term residence remained a common marker, but descriptions as of Manx ancestry or Manx birth were substantially more common in successful nominees (7 of 13, or 54%) than nominees generally (14 of 63, or 22%).

Causes for concern?

It is easy to see why most of the elements of this paradigm are in play, but it does raise three possible areas of concern.

Firstly, I flagged earlier the mismatch between the proportion of the Manx workforce working as professionals in Business, Media and Public Service, and their representation in nominations to the Legislative Council. If we were to ignore the professional part of the paradigm, and focus on the other elements, would much be lost? In other words, is the nomination pool making enough use of people who otherwise fit the paradigm but are from other work backgrounds?  Sustained experience, and leadership of, civil society organisations such as charities, pressure groups, and trade unions might provide strong evidence of other aspects of the paradigm.

Secondly, the dual deployment of a career in the public sector as both professional background and public service could be seen as privileging those with public sector careers over those with private sector careers. Looking at the admittedly small number of successful nominees, however, it seems that MHKs are less accepting of the link between public sector careers and public service when voting than when making nominations.

Finally, there does seem to be a difference between the paradigm nominee’s Manxness (which is mainly based on long-term residence), and the successful nominee’s Manxness (which although substantially based on long-term residence, has a larger element of ancestry or birth). Generally, an emphasis on ancestry or place of birth is seen as problematic – for instance race, which includes ethnic or national origins, is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2017 (see Equality Act 2017 s.10). It should be reiterated, however, that the pool of successful nominees is so small, and the importance of individual personality and characteristics so obvious, that any difference in ideas of Manxness between nomination and vote may well be illusory.

The next round of MLC elections.

Looking forward, what sort of people might we expect to see being put forward for the Legislative Council? I would anticipate seeing substantial number of women and men described in their nominations as:

• People with a record of public service, typically including a career in the public sector, service in local government, or work for a charity or community group; perhaps with an increased emphasis on the latter.
• Long term residents of the Isle of Man.
• Passionate extroverts.
• Conscientious and honest people.
• Team players able to challenge members of the team.
• Intelligent persons with the ability to carry out critical analysis.

I also anticipate significant numbers of professionals, or retired professionals, especially those working in “Business, Media and Public Service”. It would be good to see them joined in the process by those from other work backgrounds.

In my earlier blogs on nominations of outsider to the Legislative Council I focussed, respectively, on profession, public service, and Manxness and regionality. A fair criticism is that these categories are only indicators that the nominee possesses traits which make them suitable to be an MLC – that is, that their personality and experience shows they are the right person for the job.

Experience is, I think, entirely subsumed in the earlier discussions – a nominee whose profession is referred to is not being nominated because they are an advocate, for instance, but because of the experience that has given them, and the skills they have developed. Personality, however, is more complex.

Personality is an area of increasing academic study, and within that a thriving subfield is the personality (and perceived personality) of politicians. Scholars have argued that personality – as opposed to ideology – is becoming more important even countries with an entrenched system of party politics. Aicholzer and Willman, for instance, suggest in their open access journal article that:

“Just as ideology represents the long-term and stable underpinnings of parties, personality traits are long-term and stable psychological characteristics that govern individuals’ and politicians’ consistent patterns of values, attitudes, and ultimately behavior (Caprara & Vecchione, 2017). A candidate’s personality traits can therefore be used as a short-cut by voters to assess what candidates are going to do during their term in office (i.e., ideological leanings) and how they are going to do it (i.e., conduct in office)”

If personality, or rather voters’ perception of personality, is becoming more important in large democracies, it has always been central to small democracies such as the Isle of Man. In a very useful comparative study of four such democracies, Veenendaal, again in an open journal access article, concludes that even in the three case-study countries which have an established party system, they “appear[ed] to exist as vehicles in support of individual politicians”. He argues that “the existence of parties conceals and misrepresents the genuine nature of political contestation in microstates, which is essentially based on personal instead of ideological premises”. So, personality is well worth looking at.

Aicholzer and Willman use six categories of personality traits in their analysis – what are commonly referred to as the Big Five (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism), supplemented by a trait from an alternative taxonomy, that of “honesty-humility”. They find that, at least in the groups they studied, voters preferred candidates with high levels of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and honesty, but low levels of agreeableness and neuroticism.

We can take these six traits as categories for nominations to the Legislative Council, and map onto them every explicit reference to a personality trait (as opposing to subtler messages about personality traits that a nominator may be putting forward by referring to say a career in the police). Not every nomination makes reference to such a trait, but the majority do (only 8 not referring to a personality trait of some kind).

The most common traits identified fell within “extraversion”, which we can very roughly describe as pronounced engagement with the external world, which can involve enjoying interacting with people, having a breadth of interests, high group visibility, and enthusiasm. 26 nominations referred to this in one way or another.

The next most common traits identified fell within conscientiousness, with exactly that word frequently being adopted. 23 nominations referred to this.

The next most common traits identified fell within honesty-humility, frequently being described as integrity. 22 nominations referred to this.

The last category I want to talk about using Aicholzer and Willman’s six traits is agreeableness. Broadly speaking, agreeable individuals value getting along with others, while low agreeableness individuals are often competitive or challenging people. 26 nominations described the nominee in ways consistent with high agreeableness, while 11 described the nominee in ways consistent with low agreeableness. At times the nominating MHK described the same nominee in both ways – for instance the nomination of Paul Beckett. What is going on?

I think the best explanation is that nominations reflect the complexity of the role of MLC. If I may steal a phrase, being part of “Team Tynwald” requires an ability to work constructively as part of a team for common goals; and being a member of the national legislature requires an ability to recognise the importance of the nation, and of society. At the same time, being an MLC – particular when the emphasis is on the Legislative Council as a scrutiny body at times challenging an established point of view – requires scepticism, a willingness to challenge, and at times a willingness to challenge without substantial support from others. Nominations seek to portray the candidate as agreeable, but not too agreeable; as disagreeable, but not too disagreeable. If agreeableness is rated more highly by MHKs than by the voters in elections studied by Aicholzer and Willman, this could be seen as a pragmatic response to members of “Team Tynwald” appointing new members to their team; members with whom they will have to work.

Using this established set of traits is interesting. I was a little surprised to find honesty-humility was not even more broadly deployed in nominations.  Perhaps, like lack of neuroticism (no mentions), it was something that was often taken as read. We should, however, recognise that any attempt to map the range of human personality traits onto a small number of discrete categories is going to lose something – perhaps much – in translation. Gorbaniuk and his colleagues question the value of the Big Five, and instead argue that “research on the structure of politicians’ perceived personality traits should be conducted for each country separately. The specificity of a particular country, its culture, and its political scence may plan an important role in this respect”. The psycholexical method they use for their study of the Ukraine is extremely impressive, and could work well in the unique context of the Manx MLC process, but is not something for a lone scholar to attempt. Nonetheless, their scepticism about their general, and their interest in the particular, led me to keep an eye open for traits which were commonly mentioned, but which did not necessarily fit easily or transparently into a six trait model. Two additional traits are worth mentioning.

Firstly, intelligence (24) and the ability to be critical (19) were frequently mentioned by nominators. Given the emphasis on the Legislative Council as a scrutiny chamber preceded the move towards appointing outsiders as MLCs, this is unsurprising.

Secondly, and something more of a surprise, passion was a recurring theme in a minority of nominations, appearing 18 times. Sometimes this was in the abstract, at other times it was associated with passion for the role, or as passion for a particular agenda (for instance preservation of the Manx environment, or equality, or human rights).

In the next blog, I will bring the different threads in these blogs together to identify the paradigm nominee for the Legislative Council and – more of a reach – the paradigm successful nominee.

Together with Teale Phelps Bondaroff, I wrote a long blog post on the changes to prayers in the House of Keys. Available on the excellent Law & Religion UK blog here .

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.

In an earlier blog I charted the change in the type of candidate being nominated to, and elected to, Legislative Council by the Keys. It was not until the 1990s that MHKs began to nominate, and elect, “outsiders” to Tynwald, previously having almost exclusively appointed MLCs who had experience of Tynwald either as MHKs or as sitting MLCs. From the 2010s the majority of those nominated to the Legislative Council were these kind of outside nominations.

The process of a lower chamber of a legislature appointing members of the upper chamber appears to be unique in contemporary constitutions; although there are some historic parallels. One significant feature of the process is the relative transparency. I need to stress relative – there is evidence of parts of the process that have not survived (for instance candidate CVs circulated by nominating MHKs in some years; or group meetings with interested MHKs and candidates), and it seems likely that there are other interactions which have not been recorded. We do however have comparatively extensive records of why candidates were put forward by their nominating MHKs, either incorporated into Hansard when nominations were part of Tynwald proceedings, or by Tynwald documents when the process moved onto paper). This includes both successful candidates and – distinctively – unsuccessful candidates.

I have collated information on all 63 outside candidates considered since 1962, and am currently analysing this dataset by reference to a range of characteristics put forward in the process. My focus is on the speeches (later letters) proposing a candidate, rather than carrying out independent research into the biography of each of the 63. This makes the analysis more bounded, but I think can also be justified on quality grounds. Candidate X may have been an official in a youth movement, and a police officer, but the proposers decision to talk only of X’s work as a police officer indicates what the proposer saw as persuasive to fellow MHKs sitting as an electoral college. That is to say, a focus on the proposers choice of characteristics shows us what they regarded as relevant and persuasive to other MHKs.

In this blog I look at the professional, employment, or career background of the candidates. I have classed each candidate by the categories used in the Manx Census 2021, Level 2 (described here). To help ensure consistency of how I class particular professions or careers I have also taken account of the UK NOMIS Employment by Occupation (SOC2010) characteristics, which usefully expand the Tier 2 categories with sub-categories (described here) . I have noted every profession or career mentioned by a proposer, rather than tried to make a judgment as to “primary” career – where the proposer mentioned a number of careers, each was seen as making the nomination more persuasive. So, what professions and careers were seen as persuasive?

Dominating the nominations were the broad category of “Business, Media and Public Service Professionals”. This very broad professional category includes for instance legal professionals including judges, accountants and economists; architects; journalists and PR professions. 35 candidates feel into this category. To break these 35 candidates down a little: 15 were finance sector professionals; 6 accountants; 6 lawyers; 4 media professionals; and a single quantity surveyor, single actuary, single architect, and single economist. The only other categories with 10 or more candidates were Protective Services Occupations (including armed forces, police, and the fire service) with 11, and Corporate Managers and Directors with 10.

55% of the candidates were from the category Business, Media and Public Service Professionals. To put this into context, in the 2021 Manx Census, just under 7% of the Manx working population were classed in this category. Entire categories of occupation have never been mentioned in nominating a candidate – on the Tier 2 table on the Manx Census, from Secretarial and related occupations down (constituting 44% of the Manx working population in 2021), only one person had one of these occupations referred to in their nomination (so less than 2% of all nominations). John LIghtfoot, described as an auto electrician who worked for the bus company for 39 years, was nominated in 2007. He was not elected.

This mismatch should not be seen in itself as a killer fact. Reference to profession or occupation is so ubiquitous in MLC nominations because it can function as short hand for, or evidence of, skills and traits that the proposer sees as useful to an MLC. For instance a lawyer with judicial experience might fairly be represented as able to “provide professional legal and technical opinions on the construction of Bills and various other legal matters” (nomination of Mr Michael Moyle by Mr Houghton in 2015). I will be seeking to unpack these characteristics in future blogs. Nonetheless, that the working life of so much of the Manx population has not been seen as useful preparation for the role of MLC should be food for thought to those seeking a diverse and representative Tynwald.

This is a rather impersonal, technical, blog. I would like to begin by agreeing with those commentators and parliamentarians who have expressed their dismay at how Dr Rosalind Ranson was treated as a result of her efforts to protect the Isle of Man during key phases of the global pandemic. To quote Dr Ranson from the BMA press release on the decision: “As a doctor, my duty is to put patients and public first and this was made almost impossible by the campaign that was waged to make my work life untenable, to undermine my credibility and professionalism and finally force me out of a role I had been so looking forward to making a success”.

The Employment and Equality Tribunal decision, or rather part of it, in Ranson v Department of Health and Social Care was released on the 9th of May; and can be read in full here. It is a lengthy and meticulous report which has largely drawn attention for its findings of the treatment of Dr Rosalind Ranson, who was Medical Director for key periods of the pandemic, when she sought to raise significant concerns over how the Manx response was being formulated. It raises significant issues concerning the governance, and management, of the public health response. After the publication of the decision, the head of the Manx Civil Service has retired and the Treasury Minister, who was Health Minister at the time, has resigned his ministerial post.

On the 17th of May, Tynwald began discussing the case. The President began the discussion by noting “The case is still sub judice and is likely to be so for several weeks to come … in view of the degree of public concern I have allowed the Chief Minister to make a short statement. I have asked the Chief Minister to avoid commenting on the case itself, which is still a matter for the Tribunal, but to concentrate on future government action, which is properly a manner for Tynwald”. The President then enforced this distinction in the debate which followed, for instance not allowing one of two questions from Mrs Caine, one of four from Mrs Christian, two of three from Ms Faragher (although one was on a different ground), one of five from Mr Thomas, and two of two from Mr Moorhouse, The President also requested the Chief Minister to answer some questions generally, rather than specifically.

It is, I think, fair to say that some members of Tynwald found the partial debate, with some topics permitted and others not, frustrating. The Speaker at the end of the debate asked the Chief Minister “to acknowledge today the pent-up frustration of Members with questions that, quite rightly, have been disallowed today and support a general debate on all questions raised … on all the issues … as soon as possible after the sub judice cloak has been lifted”.

The President was in an unenviable position, once he had decided to allow some questions to be asked and disallowed others without setting out why some questions could not be permitted. Proceedings might have gone more smoothly if he had begun the debate by doing so. I should stress here that sub judice does not permanently bar questions from being asked – it merely delays them. What might have been the basis for some questions being delayed?

The Standing Orders of Tynwald dealing with sub judice are not the same as those to be found in the UK Parliament. The current SO were revised in September 2021, and can be found here. A question shall not refer to any matter which is sub judice, subject to the discretion of the president (SO 3.4(10)), nor may a motion (SO 3.11(4)). nor the subject matter of a General Debate (SO 2.20B (8)).

Sub judice was defined by an amendment to SO on 17th November 2009. Under SO 11.4(1) sub judice “includes any civil case in which papers for the commencement of proceedings have been filed in the office of any court or tribunal, whether or not they have been served on or communicated to the other party or any criminal case where a person has been charged or summoned to appear at court. A case will remain sub judice until it is discontinued, or judgment has been or verdict and sentence have been delivered and until the time for appealing has expired; it will continue to be sub judice after papers for the commencement of any appeal have been lodged until judgment or discontinuance”.

Dr Ranson’s case is clearly, under Tynwald SO, capable of making a question sub judice. Unlike the UK Parliament SO, sub judice extends to proceedings before a Tribunal such as the Employment and Equality Tribunal. Although I would note that even the UK Parliament goes beyond the courts simpliciter in defining sub judice, for instance including fatal accident inquiries, the Tynwald SO go considerably wider – 22 tribunals are listed at the Courts website including for instance the Riding Establishments Appeal Tribunal, ,the Independent Schools Tribunal, and the Flood Risks Tribunal

But, given that the Tribunal is covered by the rules, a very lengthy decision has been made on the case, in Dr Ranson’s favour. Why is the case still sub judice?

My reading of the case is that two issues were left outstanding, although there may be a third., and I think we can usefully eliminate a fourth.

Firstly, by agreement between the parties the hearing focussed on liability – whether Dr Ranson had suffered a legal injury entitling her to a remedy from the court. By agreement, “all questions of appropriate remedies were left over to a further hearing” (para 854). One might have anticipated the President allowing questions to be asked about liability, but not the remedies – for instance whether Dr Ranson would be reinstated, the level of damages she should anticipate.

Secondly, and in my view even more importantly, the hearing raised very serious concerns as to how far the government side had met their obligations under the rules of disclosure. Disclosure requires the opposing sides in a court or tribunal action to reveal information to their other side even – it’s fair to say especially – when it weakens their case. These concerns are outlined in paragraphs 791-848 and make disturbing reading. The two sides were ordered to liaise to agree a format for a further hearing purely on the disclosure matters, and agree with the Tribunal a date (para.847).

The concerns raised by the Tribunal are very significant. Under a section headed “Government policy of (potential) Evidence Destruction”, for instance, the Tribunal stressed the further investigation which the Disclosure Hearing will involve “is needed to understand whether there has been material non-disclosure or destruction in this case but importantly to prevent a miscarriage of justice in any future case involving any Government Department” (para. 846, my emphasis). Another section, dealing with emails revealed following a question asked by the Chairman during Closing Submissions, raised concerns over whether processes which had allowed two important emails to “slip the net” might cause problems “in further proceedings in this Tribunal (or the High Court) involving disclosure” (para. 827-828). Another heading is (in quotes) “Concocted documents”, and includes the observation “It is unusual in this Tribunal for any party to have to go to the lengths of seeking affadavits as to the veracity, scope and extent of the disclosure but in this case it was thoroughly justifiable” (para.836).

This really matters. Courts and tribunals need to have evidence before them which will allow them to make just judgments according to the law. So disclosure matters. A Manx Tribunal making rulings critical of the Manx government is – albeit neither painlessly nor desirably – good governance working. A Manx Tribunal unable to do justice because key evidence useful to those taking taking action against the Manx government is not available to it may not be. So the Disclosure Hearing will be crucially important to understanding how Manx government was working in the aftermath to the Ranson affair. Because of the importance of this matter both for this particular set of proceedings, and constitutionally, I can see why the President would seek to apply the sub judice rule until after the Disclosure Hearing has concluded.

A third possibility is that the President was concerned that the government would seek to appeal the existing decision against it on a point of law, by appeal to the High Court (under the Employment Act 2006). The Tribunal works on the basis that the time limit for such an appeal is 42 days. One would hope the President, if informed by government that no appeal was planned, would not feel constrained to wait this time out before allowing questions to be asked. The reference by the President to “several weeks” suggests that this was not on his mind.

Given the seriousness of some explanations for some of the issues raised by the Tribunal around disclosure, it might be thought that a fourth possibility could apply – that the President knows or has reason to believe criminal proceedings are being considered. There is nothing in the debates to hint at this, but in any case it would not justify the President in applying the sub judice rule. Under the SO, sub judice applies to “any criminal case where a person has been charged or summoned to appear in court” – not to where an investigation is under way or is being considered.

I have been looking into gamification in education for a while, and more recently gamification in a physical seminar room. Prompted by a request for a chronology of the Manx constitution, I decided to have a go at putting a simple card game together on key, interesting, or quirky dates in Manx constitutional history. The game involves players placing cards accurately in a chronology – the first to play all their cards successfully wins. Keen gamers will immediately see which game this is based upon, but fortunately it is not possible to copyright a rule …

The plan is to end up with a free, open-access, game that anyone who wants to can download and use how they wish. At the moment, I have just under 60 cards, not all of which have images associated with them. Six of the set here:

If you are interested in playtesting the current deck, suggesting new cards, suggesting new images, or taking on translating the deck into Manx, please drop me an email and we will take it from there! My email is pwedge@brookes.ac.uk

A recent report by the House of Keys Management and Members’ Standards Committee has recommended replacing the current prayers by the Chaplain (or in their absence the Speaker) at the beginning of each meeting.

The first recommendation is that there no longer be a Chaplain of the House, the pastoral care currently offered by the Chaplain being offered by the Lord Bishop, and to allow adoption of one of two replacements to the current prayers (para.14).

If this recommendation is accepted, the second recommendation is for prayer to be replaced, for a trial period of a year, by a “House of Keys Smooinaghtyn”, which could involve a short talk on a philosophical or educational theme by a person nominated by a member. If this second recommendation is not accepted, prayer would be replaced by “a period of silence during which Members could be encouraged to reflect on the oaths or affirmations they had taken” (para.8).

What would a Smooinaghtyn look like? The Report includes draft guidance (Annex Two). A contribution would last no more than 3 minutes (300 words at normal talking speed); would consist of a short narrative “on a philosophical, educational topic or relating to the time of year; and/or a reading or readings from appropriate texts” (para.7). It “may reflect the practice of faith or the belief community to which the orator belongs (if any)” (para.8). It “will not denigrate another faith, belief, or none” (para.9), and “will be consistent with the principles of equal opportunity, dignity and respect for all and should not include remarks or comments that are discriminatory” (para.11). The text of the contribution should be submitted at least 24 hours in advance to the Secretary of the House, and may not deviate from the text (para.13). Although not covered explicitly, I assume that a text which fails to meet the requirements of para.9 and para.11 will be vetoed at this point, or the contributor will be required to make particular amendments. It will be broadcast on Manx Radio, but not transcribed (para. 14, 15).

As I noted in correspondence included in Annex Three, other jurisdictions have wrestled with making prayers around public business more reflective of a diverse population, and more inclusive. A few thoughts reflecting on that issue in particular.

The Smooinaghtyn as set out in Annex Two clearly envisages the possibility of contributors talking from their particular faith position, indeed going so far as to recognise that they may read from “appropriate texts” which I take to include religious texts. There are mechanisms, however, to allow the Secretary of the House to censor these contributions in advance. Policing the boundaries of acceptable contributions could be contentious,.

Who contributes? Contributors must be nominated by an MHK. Neither the Secretary of the House, nor MHKs, are required to take account of the principles of equal opportunity, dignity and respect for all, in the exercise of their functions. What if no MHK was prepared to nominate a member of a stigmatised religious community, even one whose contribution would meet the guidelines? Additionally, there is no suggestion in the documentation as to the criteria on which nominations would be accepted – is demographic representation in the Manx community important? avoiding a succession of contributions from the same or related communities? what about a contribution by someone who does not identify as belonging to any belief community? Issues about who contributes have been explored elsewhere (see Annex 4), but it is not necessarily straightforward.

What if the Secretary has to censor a contribution? As I’ve argued elsewhere, many world faiths contain doctrines, and passages of “scripture” which are profoundly difficult to reconcile with particular contemporary human rights values. Even within “equal opportunity, dignity and respect for all”, there are contemporary debates where both sides of intensely polarised debates identify their stance with equality, dignity and respect for all, and their opponents stance as quite the opposite. A community could have a member’s contribution censored for expression of lawful beliefs, including direct quotations from texts they regard as holy – the limits proposed in the Annex do not, entirely sensibly, limit themselves to criminal speech.

I think the less problematic option would be to trial, for a year, replacing prayer with a brief period of silent contemplation. Although closer to some religious traditions than others (I can but feel that the Manx Quakers punished for their religious practices would rather approve of silent contemplation reaching the legislative chamber), it is sufficiently capacious to address the needs of a diverse chamber and Manx population. It would also avoid the problems, present in the current system, that could be posed by a Speaker who has a conscientious objection to praying being required to lead the House in prayer.

PHR (Amendment) (no.22)  came into operation at 00.01 on 22 January 2022, although I did not find it publicly available until the morning of the 24^th.

The age at which a child travelling with a person covered by the vaccination exemption is required to test in order to leave isolation early is changed from 12 years to 12 years and three months (amended reg.5B).

Reg 6A is revoked. This formerly required wearing of face coverings on vehicles “used to provide a public transport service”. These amending Regulations do not, however, amend Reg 6B, introduced at the same time as Reg 6A, and used to require face coverings in public health settings through a GC (GC 2021/0094). Removing the PHR requirement to wear face coverings in these settings was announced as coming into effect at 00:01 on the 22^nd of January.

A GC has legal effect, so if its provisions are no longer desired, the approach throughout the pandemic has been to repeal them, if they did not contain a built in time limit. A recent example is the GC giving CoMin the power to define countries in different categories (GC 2021/0089) which revoked an early GC setting out a change of category for France (GC 2021/0086).

The face coverings in public health settings GC did not contain a sunset clause, but was revoked by GC 2022/0013, which was not available on the Tynwald website as of noon on the 25^th of January, but which can be found here. The text of GC 2022/0013, as of noon on the 25^th, was not findable by google search, or linked from covid19.gov.im or (according to OpenLinkProfiler) linked to from any webpage anywhere else. As I’ve said before, making legally binding documents available to the public before they come into effect is profoundly important.  More than three days passing before a member of the public can find the law does not reflect this.