The Isle of Man’s ministerial system of government has been robustly defended by former Chief Ministers, Tony Brown and Howard Quayle, though both acknowledged areas needing improvement.
They were appearing before a Tynwald committee exploring how the government is structured.
Changes were made to introduce ministerial government in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Mr Brown, who helped establish the system, contrasted it with the previous “chaotic” board structure.
He said “When we had a board system, nobody was responsible for anything… We had something like 26 boards of Tynwald who were all autonomous.”
He described the ministerial approach as “the most superior system in any of the Crown dependencies.”
Confusion
Mr Quayle agreed, quoting former Treasury Minister Allan Bell’s assessment of the old system: “27 disconnected parliamentary committees – a recipe for chaos and confusion”.
He added: “The ministerial form of government is vastly superior to what was in place before.”
Both former leaders emphasised the system’s adaptability.
<r Quayle noted: “There’s been several changes made to the Council of Ministers restructuring. Mr Brown did one, I did one… it’s evolving all the time.”
However, mr Brown raised concerns about recent changes: “They’ve downgraded the status of the Chief Minister by being only elected by the Keys.”
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