Some December Tynwald leftovers to dig into on Agenda. We hear from the new and former chairs of the Public Services Commission as Tynwald considered why the Commission hadn’t published its annual reports. The Commission is the employer of around four thousand civil servants so it’s kind of important that we get to find out what they’re up to. We also hear opposing views on Stu Peters’ attempt to persuade government to review its Net Zero targets and budgets. Is it just virtue signalling from Tynwald or will we actually see our energy bills reducing? I’d buy a big coat if I were you.

Does prison work? Clearly it protects us from people who’ve shown a willingness to harm fellow citizens; and it acts as a deterrent to people who might be thinking about committing a crime. It’s less successful in rehabilitation of offenders though and Andrew Neilson from the Howard League for Penal Reform believes that in some cases more effective and lower cost alternatives are available. Surely half an hour listening to Agenda would be enough to soften the hardest of criminal hearts? 

The Reproductive Rights Bill seeks to bring up to date our somewhat archaic legislation . This private members Bill has been brought forward by Tanya August Philips MLC and addresses matters relating to fertilization, embryology and surrogacy. We’ve also had some important international tax orders in Tynwald and an Income Tax Bill going through Keys. On Agenda we attempt to explain why these pieces of legislation matter. Encouragingly a Tax Bill in Keys tends to mean more money to pay for essential services and this time we won’t be paying?

Getting withdrawal symptoms from last week’s bumper Tynwald sitting? Well this evenings Agenda is just the answer. All the Tynwald highlights we couldn’t squeeze in to Sunday’s Perspective, including education, the post office, a bit more on the NI Fund and a few bonus questions thrown in too. There are certainly some big issues being discussed at the moment by Tynwald members but are they getting any closer to the answers? Spoiler alert - no, not really - but I guess you’d probably worked that out.

You wait around for an environment, food or agriculture strategy and then suddenly three appear all at once. DEFA Minister Clare Barber tells Agenda all about the energy strategy, the food security strategy and the agriculture strategy. There's no new money to help deliver the food security and agriculture strategies which may leave farmers feeling they’ve heard warm words before, but the Minister puts some convincing arguments that things will get better. The Department suggests just 6% of food consumed in the Island is Manx, is government moooooving quick enough to help the Manx food sector?

The debate that preceded the vote of no confidence into the Chief Minister raised a number of interesting points about the importance of the role. Some MHKs suggested that the policies of government would not change regardless of the person leading the Council of Ministers. Others felt that a change of Chief Minister was needed but seemed somewhat vague on why and indeed what a replacement might do differently. On Agenda this week former Douglas East MHK Chris Robertshaw considers the debate and explains what they should be talking about. Yes - more from Chairman Robertshaw’s little Green Book.

We’ve had some high octane politics over the past few weeks so Agenda takes a look at some of the less headline grabbing, calmer issues going through Keys and LegCo. Bill Henderson tells us about the Public Sector Payments Bill which “tidies up” some outdates legislation particularly relating to members expenses and Alex Allinson reveals what’s behind the Treasury (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. From the relatively obscure clause amending the 1928 Allotments Act to making it easier to increase fees its all considered on Agenda. And is the Treasury Minister really trying to pinch our pennies?

There’s been so much happening in Manx politics lately and with the vote of confidence in the Chief Minister taking place in the Keys tomorrow we have two interviews from October Tynwald on Agenda this week. One from the Chief Minister which explains his position on health and what he proposes to do about it. We also hear from Joney Faragher on why she resigned at the same time as the former health Minister. Better late than never on Agenda this week. Will the Chief Minister survive tomorrow’s vote? Who would you replace him with. Lots to consider.

In what appeared to be a relatively uninspiring Tynwald Order Paper one of the expected highlights was the Treasury Minister’s statement. As things turned out, Lawrie Hoopers resignation overshadowed everything else but Alex Allinson’s statement explained a lot, both in what he did and didn’t say. The temporary rise in the higher rate of income tax is looking more permanent than we’d been led to believe and the pension triple lock is likely to be removed, but there was some good news hinted at in the statement too. No give aways from Treasury but perhaps some jam tomorrow?

Agenda 14.10.24 - parking in Castletown and saving our town centres.

You’d wonder what all the fuss is about over closing off a few parking spaces in Castletown but it’s seen a couple of former town MHKs breaking cover on the subject. The latest of these is Richard Ronan who led the regeneration work in Castletown during his time as MHK. What was the thinking behind these regeneration schemes, have they worked, is government and Tynwald doing enough to try to bring vibrancy back to our struggling town centres. All this and more on Agenda - assuming I can find somewhere to park of course!