A former government communications officer has described the relationship between the electorate and the government as like a “blind date”, highlighting a fundamental flaw in the current political system.
The analogy was made by Alistair Ramsay during an evidence session with the Constitutional and Legal Affairs and Justice Committee Committee, which is examining systems of government.
Mr Ramsay argued that the ministerial system created an identifiable government but failed to establish a clear mandate or collective accountability.
“The relationship between the public and the national government is at the moment, between the electorate and the government that emerges after a general election is a blind date relationship. You don’t know who’s going to turn up,” he said.
Baffled
He warned that this leads to public disengagement, with people often baffled by parliamentary decisions.
“People are kind of baffled by what goes on in Tynwald and the house of keys, because it’s, well, I didn’t vote for that. We didn’t talk about that the last election.”
Former MHK Chris Robertshaw echoed concerns about the disconnect, suggesting the current process is misleading.
“I think we’re living a bit of a lie, really, with our general election, because all we’re doing, and I’m sort of falling into the lap of Lawrie’s [Hooper] views here just a little bit, but we’re voting for individuals, thinking that by doing so, we’re giving a mandate to whatever.”
Mr Robertshaw proposed that referendums on major issues could help keep the government “attuned” to public opinion, especially as future challenges emerge that were not discussed during election campaigns.
We will have further coverage of this committee hearing.