Lord Bach, the government minister who's responsible for the Crown Dependencies, has been in the Island.

Our reporter, John Turner, interviewed him.

Lord Bach was very complimentary about the way the Manx negotiated the VAT agreement two years ago. In fact, you might be tempted to draw the conclusion that he thinks we outflanked the UK and got a much better deal than we deserved.

That conclusion would, I am sure, be hotly disputed by our political leaders.

But it does seem to be what Lord Bach is saying. It's only now, after Alistair Darling's buddies (and perhaps Richard Murphy, the blogger who has been so angry about the Isle of Man), looked at the books again that they decided that we were being subsidised by the UK.

I wonder if heads will roll at the UK Treasury if they really believe their negotiators were hoodwinked by the Manx in 2007?

Another related issue is on the front page of this week's Manx Independent.

It's the reciprocal health agreement.

As we've reported in the past, the UK's decision to stop treating Manx people in their hospitals (except for A and E or when the Manx NHS sends them for specialist treatment, which we already pay for) will have a big and damaging effect on lots of people.

In the Independent, we look at the case of servicemen and women.

That the UK has reciprocal health deals with countries that we've barely heard of (which we revealed in the Manx Independent two weeks ago) but won't soon have one with a country whose sons and daughters put their lives on the line for the British Crown is appalling enough.

But for those service personnel to potentially be denied treatment in the United Kingdom is unbelievable.

Flight Lieutenant Jim Kewin is leading the campaign to right this obvious wrong. We shall give him all the publicity and help we can.

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