I was astonished to hear that Angela Moffatt, of Prospect and the Manx TUC, thought she wasn’t speaking on the record to our reporter last week.
The story was about the idea of potentially adding £6,178 to Tynwald members’ salaries. They’d also lose the £6,178 they get in an ‘allowance’ for expenses.
We had heard from a source it was a suggestion that was being looked at by the emoluments committee.
Indeed, the Speaker of the House of Keys, Steve Rodan, confirms in this week’s Examiner that that is a possibility.
Adrian Darbyshire, one of most experienced and trustworthy reporters, wanted some reaction to that idea, so phoned Ms Moffatt and the story went in the Manx Independent last week and appeared online later.
When a reporter speaks to a contact, they can have ‘off the record’ conversations. That means that the person who is talking to the reporter won’t have his or her name attached to information supplied by them.
You see wording such as ‘the Examiner understands’ or ‘a source said’ in such cases.
Of course, the fact that a conversation is ‘off the record’ is spelt out clearly.
As far as Adrian is concerned, his conversation with Ms Moffatt was on the record. It happened to be about information he had gleaned off the record elsewhere.
Ms Moffatt accuses us of ‘creative journalism’. I’m not sure if that’s praise or a dig.
Anyway, we like to keep reporting and our own opinions separate in our news coverage. We reserve our comment for our editorial leader. And in the Manx Independent’s comment last week, Ms Moffatt earned some praise.
We agreed that when members of Tynwald have access to the members’ secretary and so on, it does seem odd that they think they should also be entitled to £118 a week tax-free expenses (they can claim for petrol etc on top of that).
What do they use it for?
This was the Independent’s comment column last week:
WHEN respect for politicians – not just in the Isle of Man but throughout the Western world– is so low, it’s hard to imagine a suggestion more likely to induce the ire of the electorate.
The committee looking at Tynwald members’ pay and pension is considering adding the £6,178 lump sum tax-free allowance for expenses to members’ pay packets.
It would be part of a reform programme that would see members contributing to their own pensions.
At least it would be taxed then.
As we mentioned in this column last week, the allowance is arbitrary and arguably unfair as it stands.
Angela Moffatt makes a good point in our page 5 story. She asks why members need an allowance for this sort of thing when they already have the members’ secretaries.
The committee should address why the members need an allowance in the first place before adding it to their wage packets.
l In the Keys this week Leonard Singer suggested that mud caused a road accident and asked questions on that basis.
We asked the police about it. As we reveal on page 8 the police say there was nothing on the road.
Did Mr Singer just rely on hearsay before he tabled a Keys question?
Often, if an MHK simply had a word with the minister or a relevant civil servant about any number of subjects and discovered the truth that way rather than grandstanding in Tynwald or the House, it could save our parliament a lot of time.