Keys Preview: What’s Next?

When the House of Keys sits this morning for once the focus won’t be on the question paper, but what comes before it, for today is the day the gov finally speaks about Dr Ranson.

After 12 months of Tynwald being unable to truly sink its teeth into the scandal which rocked the Manx establishment, MHKs will get their first real go when Alf Cannan makes his statement at 10am today.

The problem for Mr Cannan is that while his immediate audience will be 23 other MHKs, eight of which serve his government, it is the around 85,000 strong audience outside who need the most convincing that just 18 months since it began his administration isn’t a lame duck and that it can help to make their lives better.

Yes he can point to departures in government and promise to change the culture. There was the review into the Chief Secretary role, but people will naturally ask what is being done to improve their lot.

In truth the Dr Ranson scandal was one this administration inherited, but the Chief Minister’s own position in the Quayle administration and the stinging criticism of the Manx government by the tribunal panel, the British Medical Association and the Manx public means he can’t just escape it by saying it was a different time, as some members have attempted to do.

Across social media and indeed in the real world, people are angered by the Dr Ranson scandal, but the wider state of affairs is also causing frustration, with Dr Ranson being the touch paper that has sparked the powder keg.

As we look around the island, the airport has become a running joke, the gov is working out whether to put its train set into an arms-length body, the South is no nearer a new high school than it was before the election, Douglas prom has hundreds of defects, sheep farmers are still battling over being paid for their wool, teachers and nurses remain in dispute, living standards and public services are creaking and the less said about the Liverpool ferry terminal the better.

Amongst the back benches and corridors of power, there is whispering chatter that we have a gov led by consultations and reviews. Not that anyone who opposed the changes to this year’s TT will think the consultations matter.

On Facebook Unite the Union has led calls for the Chief to resign, on Twitter, the words ‘general election’ keep springing up, I really don’t think any of that is going to happen, I don’t even see a chance that a vote of no confidence could be called, but there is real anger out there and the Chief Minister needs to find a way to turn doubters into believers.

And all of this comes before we get anywhere near the question paper.

There are questions on the DoI’s makeup, the price of telecommunications and e-scooters that ministers will have to face, but the main event is up first.