THE Isle of Man has the ‘most undemocratic parliament in the western world’.
That’s the view of a member of a committee looking at reducing voting inequality.
Boundary Review Committee member Bob Riding, a retired banker, said the Isle of Man was setting itself up as an international voice and while it could say it had the longest-running parliament in the western world, he pointed out: ‘We have also got the most undemocratic parliament in the western world.’
One of the main principles under consideration by the committee, chaired by advocate Sally Bolton, is that of reducing inequalities amongst voters, and with that in mind the committee wants the public’s view on which of the following new constituency structures they would favour: eight constituencies with three members each; six with four; 12 with two; 24 with one or one all-island constituency with 24 members.
It is set to hold a series of public meetings about its work, as well as inviting the public to make submissions on its proposals, over the next few weeks.
The committee says factors to take into account include: the importance of traditional sheading, parish and local authority boundaries; the geographical size of constituencies; the number of voters per MHK; the borders of villages or other communities and whether the focus of MHKs should be mainly on national or local issues.
The principles being considered by the BRC, whose members also include former MHK Terry Groves and former MEA chief executive Ashton Lewis, were confirmed in December when Tynwald agreed to a series of recommendations made in an interim report. One of those was that all constituencies should each return an equal number of MHKs.
As well as public meetings and inviting the public’s written views, the committee has engaged the services of St Ninian’s High School students who will carry out a survey, using Facebook and Twitter, among their peers. The committee will also consult local authorities, although Mr Riding said the committee’s work would in no way affect local authority boundaries.
Mr Groves acknowledged suggestions about reviewing boundaries had been made for years but nothing had happened. He said previous reports became bogged down in the finer detail at an early stage, rather than getting the democratic principles in place first, and they had been rejected. Said Mr Riding: ‘I don’t think this time around Tynwald can afford to do that.’
Mr Lewis said the important issue was the value of democracy: ‘People are dying defending democracy. It’s a very, very valuable process and you need to guard it closely.’ He added: ‘We have it easy here, let’s get it right.’
Asked whether the committee had looked at reducing the number of MHKs and therefore saving money on their pay, the committee said it was not within its brief to reduce the size of the Keys.
Public views should be submitted by May 15. This can be done via the BRC page on the Chief Secretary’s Office website - {http://www.gov.im/cso/brc/review.xml|www.gov.im/cso/brc/review.xml} - which also includes an array of information about the committee’s work.
The public meetings will be held at the Promenade Methodist Church hall, Douglas, on April 17, Sulby Community Hall on April 18, Arbory Parish Hall, Ballabeg, on April 19 and St John’s Methodist Church hall on April 23. All of the meetings start at 7pm.