Two seats on LegCo up for grabs

[SleepyJoe]

Who?

[Roger Mexico]

11 minutes ago, Numbnuts said:

Did Bill Henderson ever stand or get elected as MHK ?? Struggling to remember , thanks 

No less than four times.  We tend to forget the grip that he and Houghton had on Douglas North.  They weren't even opposed in 2001.

[BenFairfax]

Is this not the perfect time to slim down MLC ranks? At very least postpone appointments and see if anyone notices.

[SleepyJoe]

A Cannan administration would surely need a certain amount of revising oversight from LegCo?

Make MLCs popularly elected

[Josem]

8 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

Of course you could argue that it's better to have someone who was at least prepared to put themselves forward to the wider public, rather than someone who hasn't, but who happens to have the right contacts. 

I agree - The solution is to find people who are not afraid of subjecting themselves to the wishes of the public, and who have not been thrown out of office by the public.

There's a few such people who are still alive, and might be coaxed to serve the remaining 12-18 months (I'm not sure exactly) of the current MLC terms:

-Bill Shimmins

-Peter Karran

-Richard Ronan

-John Shimmin

-Kate Beecroft

-Howard Quayle

 

I doubt that most of them would be interested in the job. Obviously, I couldn't imagine Beecroft or Quayle serving in the role due to their current life circumstances. Those people are, I think, all of the people who fulfil the following three criteria:

-Have subjected themselves to public election

-Won their last public election

-Aged under 65 years of age

(Someone older might well be another credible candidate, so the cut-off of 65 years of age is somewhat arbitrary.)

They would also have the benefit of contributing some organisational memory, can hit the ground running, and each have a demonstrated interest in serving in Tynwald.

[Ramseyboi]

14 minutes ago, Josem said:

-Bill Shimmins

-Peter Karran

-Richard Ronan

-John Shimmin

-Kate Beecroft

-Howard Quayle

Is Bill still on island?  He didn’t stand due to family commitments i Scotland and will be missed.

Peter - haha.  Good one.  The ultimate granny farmer and populist politician who is unfortunately lacking intellectually to fulfil an MLC role.

Richard - we could do worse.

John - never understood how how the  PE teacher made it to be a minister anyway.  It’s a no from me.

Kate - no thanks

Howard - hell no, and it would reflect very badly on anyone who nominated or voted for him.

Unfortunately the fact that it is such a short term does make it pretty much impossible for anyone with a proper job to stand.  So we are likely to end up with a load of oldies who are at or approaching retirement.

Which raises the question that if someone commits to a five year term as Jane and Kate did should they be allowed to just change their minds part way through and walk out?  Obviously there will be circumstances like illness or massive change in family circumstances that are unavoidable but a contest should be a contract with penalties if you just change your mind.

[Roger Mexico]

It actually doesn't need to be a retread of any sort.  We're talking as if anyone elected to LegCo will only be there for a bit over a year, but there's nothing to say that they then wouldn't be re-elected in March 2023.  The last two casual vacancies that arose (Poole-Wilson replacing Wild and Sharpe replacing Anderson[1]) were both then re-elected for full terms after their initial term expired.

 

[1]  Sharpe was elected in 2018 at the same the other four women, but as she came fifth in the vote, she was allocated the two year term caused by Anderson resigning, rather than the 'four' (actually five) year ones.

[SleepyJoe]

Time for an electoral commission to review our flawed democracy