A parliamentary committee has been told that the island’s political culture suffers from a deficiency in properly challenging government policy.
Former MHK Chris Robertshaw and Alistair Ramsay, a former government press officer, gave a near two hour evidence session to the Constitutional and Legal Affairs and Justice Committee.
Mr Robertshaw told the committee that “the will of the independent member to challenge and have the confidence to do so has diminished over the years”.
While Mr Ramsay argued that a key problem is the “blurring of the lines so that [a] large number of parliamentarians are also involved in some way or other with the executive”.
He suggested this leads to a “team Tynwald thing, where it’s very easy to suffer from group think”.
Debate
Mr Ramsay further claimed that when major issues are debated, “there isn’t much debate now”, saying much of this is done behind doors away from public scrutiny.
He also expressed a belief that Legislative Council has been “downgraded,” fostering a perception that members are “not entitled to challenge.”
Committee Chair Tanya August-Phillips MHK pushed back, stating, “I don’t think that anybody on legislative council feels that way at all,” and pointed to challenges made both in the chamber and privately.
In response, Mr Ramsay conceded that challenge may occur but concluded, “perhaps it’d be great if we could possibly see a bit more of that in public”.