It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair
There is, without doubt, a lot of wasted discussion in politics. Some people wonder why we have such poor performance in the Isle of Man, why capital projects always come in late and considerably over budget. More recently, we’ve reached a point where we are unable to balance the books. Health‑care costs are spiralling. How did it come to this?
Five years ago, we had a major shift in governance, with more than half of the representatives elected to Tynwald for the first time. So clearly something is not working. Some people will tell you that it is complex, which ultimately makes you feel powerless, as if we, as a country, cannot control our future.
Let me reassure you: it is not complex. All the issues we are facing could be resolved not only in a positive way, but in a way that would secure our future and our children’s future.
Election time gives a mandate from the people to those in power to ensure that our society operates in a way that is beneficial to the community as a whole. The video below touches on some of these aspects, and on why, ultimately, when people do not take democracy seriously, it will fail you, and everyone else. As this podcast below with Darren Faber will explain.
Let’s take some examples. Housing is expensive here on the Island because demand is outstripping supply. But is that demand real? Do all the people who want to buy a house here actually want to live and work here, not just when the sun is shining, but when it’s dark, cold, and black? Because if their livelihood doesn’t depend on being here, then their contribution to the overall economy is limited. You can’t run a community on a six‑month‑a‑year presence. Well, maybe you can, but in that case we might as well all go and live in a warmer climate for the other six months.
When we build houses, the thinking rarely seems to go further than the ten‑year guarantee. Yet if we genuinely wanted to give young people a future, and it is the young that the future belongs to, we could enable schemes that allow them to build their own homes at a fraction of the cost. Yes, it’s a bit more complicated, but why should we saddle the younger generation with debts that the boomers never had to pay?
It can be done, in the blink of a year, with long‑term, sustainable planning. Not short‑term, box‑ticking, high‑price nonsense.
We are in, or fast approaching a crisis point within Manx care. Even saying that almost makes me throw my hands up in despair. The amount it cost just to change the name of our care system, supposedly to limit liability, is complete and utter nonsense. In a modern Western society, it is unthinkable that we do not have a modern workable health care system.
People are passionate about our health service, and without doubt, in my experience, the people working in our hospitals and surgeries are lovely, dedicated individuals. But the system itself is not efficient. The main purpose of a health‑care system is to get people better as quickly as possible.
We are on the cusp of a new technological revolution that will change life‑expectancy rates and the way health care works. I am a strong believer that we need to create deeper relationships between patients and practitioners.
In my own experience, spending three weeks in hospital in 2024, I had no idea of the names of the people who helped me. Every shift, it was someone new, looking at my report for half an hour and then making decisions. Health care is not a machine for anyone involved in it.
The focus has to shift to getting people better. Not only is that the humane approach, it is also the cost‑saving one. A healthy, productive person is ten times more valuable to society than a sick one.
No consultant is necessary if you run a hospital and don’t know what is happening or how to do the job. We need to create a system where that situation simply cannot occur. That means getting involved — planning properly, thinking long‑term, and solving problems once, not endlessly revisiting them. This is the efficient way to work.
What we should not be doing is commissioning yet another report from a consultant paid an astronomical amount, producing something the board may or may not understand, and then ultimately discarding it because no one knows how to solve the underlying problem. That is a cultural issue.
If you want the best, you have to make it happen. There are cultures, and systems that achieve this.
This is a work in progress blog post. Feel free to message me if you would like to engage with these ideas in the election.
Topics still to cover:
How to pick a candidate
Farming / self‑sufficiency
Tourism
Enconmy
Things that need doing are neither left nor right