The Concept
The current structure of our government came into being in 1986 when Ministerial Government commenced. Even then, at its inception, it was recognised that this new form would need to be refined and adjusted in light of contemporary experience to ensure it was operating to best effect. Sadly this has not happened, and we are now suffering the consequences of this lack of action.
As a movement for good government FutureIOM is dedicated to focusing on the three crucial issues which we believe must be addressed if real improvement is to be achieved. We call these The Three Pillars. These are ‘The Democratic Process’, ‘A Unified Government’ and ‘Enhanced High Level Strategic Thinking’.
Pillar One
The Democratic Process
The individual elector only has an extremely limited way of expressing their political views once every five years. This diminishes even further if none of the candidates represent their……………
Pillar Two
A Unified Government
In a legal sense there is no such thing as ‘The Isle of Man Government’ rather our structure is made up of eight independent legal entities in the form of Departments. This has the…………….
Pillar Three
Enhanced High Level Strategic Thinking
The record of major governmental project work development in recent decades has been, bluntly, dreadful. The root cause of this is that infrastructure projects have to go through the Department of Infrastructure which cannot possibly hold the necessary level of expertise required for a diverse………..
The Three Pillars
Candidates standing for election to the House of Keys will undoubtedly draw their own conclusions regarding the opinions expressed by their constituents in the months ahead but what is already abundantly clear to FutureIOM is that:
There is a growing sense the connection between the electorate and the government is not what it was – that our democratic process has weakened.
Government keeps getting bigger and no longer lives within its budget.
Major projects go seriously wrong, fail completely or go catastrophically over budget again and again and strategic thinking often looks amateurish and ill-advised.
In Other Words, the Government:
Is too big
Spending is out of control
Engagement with the electorate is weakening
Record for handling major projects is deplorable
The adoption of the three pillars would allow…
… each department to be streamlined and more directly accountable to the public for their operational performance.
… the electorate the opportunity to be more engaged in the democratic process throughout the life of an administration.
… the government administration as a whole to have the confidence that high level strategic process was operating at a holistic and high quality standard.
… the Members of Tynwald to have greater access to the high level, non-departmental strategic guidance provided to the Council of Ministers.
… Tynwald itself to regain some of the parliamentary authority lost to the departments.
… the Chief Minister’s role to have a new authority.