The relationship between voters and government in the Isle of Man has been likened to going on a blind date.

When you walk into the polling booth at a general election the only choice on offer is between constituency representatives, not potential governments. So you have no idea what sort of national regime could emerge at the end of the democratic process.

Whether or not it reflected the will of the people, the new government that showed up two years ago has proved to be of a very different complexion from its predecessor.

Prior to the last election the political narrative was dominated by economic growth, market forces, a strict ’zero sum’ approach to budgets and spending restraint.

It was almost received wisdom that the state should be smaller and services more focussed to cope with growing demand from an ageing population, in a sensitive commercial environment where higher taxes were not an option.

The Quayle Administration, by contrast, has prioritised greater economic equality over simple growth. It is prepared to intervene in markets and appears more relaxed about public spending. The shrinking of the public sector and means-testing of welfare provision are items that seem to have slipped down the agenda, if not fallen off completely.

Dare we say it? The government that has turned up on our blind date looks relatively left-wing.

Nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but is it what most voters were hoping for back in the autumn of 2016? With no clear connection between constituency results and subsequent national policies, it is difficult to know.

Leftward Ho

Although some ministers may dispute the description, it is evident that the Manx ship of state has been listing somewhat to the left since the last general election.

One of the first acts of the new government was to reverse the means-testing of free television licences for the over 75s, an early indication perhaps that it favoured handing out benefits on a universal basis.

In his debut budget the Treasury Minister hiked tax payments for wealthy ’tax cappers’, announced the first increase in child benefit for seven years, and declared: ’Today we stop looking at the needs of the spreadsheets and start looking at the needs of society first.’

The tricky business of cutting public spending was parked outside of the budgetary process, in the innovative and ambitious SAVE project.

Increasing median earnings, which reflect the income of average families, is a key indicator of success for this administration, in line with the Policy and Reform Minister’s belief in what he calls ’trickle-up economics’.

Conspicuous by its absence from the key indicators is old fashioned growth in overall national income.

The government has made real improvements to the minimum wage regime, dipped into reserves to ease the impact of MUA debt on electricity and sewerage charges, is looking at tougher regulation of gas tariffs, and is intervening in the telecoms infrastructure.

And of course they have nationalised the Steam Packet, though they try to pretend this has not happened.

Team Tynwald

This government is not unfriendly to business, however. It has reformed and renamed the economic development department, including private sector representatives in the decision-making process. The work permit system is now streamlined to make it less of an inconvenience to employers, and planning rules are being overhauled in the hope that they might be more responsive to national economic need.

This is doubtless an active and confident administration that gained considerable momentum in its first two years. In this it has been greatly assisted by a new culture of co-operation among a fresh Tynwald membership that is the most diverse and socially progressive to date.

Enthusiastically united in support of the Programme for Government, ’Team Tynwald’ has achieved levels of monolithic consensus that would not look out of place in North Korea. Rare outbreaks of dissent have been met with impatience and intolerance.

The new spirit of collaboration, though welcome, combined with extensive political inexperience and naivety to ramp up the risk of Group Think and Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome.

Although there is plenty of parliamentary committee activity, on the floor of Tynwald there has been scant appreciation of parliament’s vital role as an independent entity challenging government and holding it to account on behalf of the public.

When Lord Lisvane, an international expert on Westminster-style democracy, warned of a worrying imbalance between executive and parliament in the Isle of Man, his concerns were shrugged off as those of an outsider who does not understand our local ways.

When the Economic Development Minister was condemned by a standing committee of Tynwald over the Vision Nine debacle, the notion that he should resign went down like blasphemy in Iran.

And when government railroaded through its purchase of the Steam Packet Company, Tynwald allowed this huge policy change to happen without proper public explanation and debate.

Difficult Decisions

Politicians love to warn of Difficult Decisions ahead, while thinking of ways to avoid them, and there are quite a few of these dangerous chaps waiting around the corner.

The nettle of public spending remains ungrasped after the SAVE team’s forage in the fiscal orchard found very little in the way of low hanging fruit.

The future funding of health and social care, and dealing with the public sector pensions legacy, are issues where it may well prove impossible to avoid serious controversy. Unless they are fudged, but that should be controversial too.

This government likes to describe itself as bold, but to be truly responsible ministers also need to be brave on proposals that generate real heat in constituencies. The retreat from long overdue changes in prescription charges was not bold and it was not encouraging.

Meanwhile the backbenchers, including the disobedient ladies of the Legislative Council, seem to be finding their feet. We are starting to hear again the once familiar complaint about the Council of Ministers ’block vote’.

Tension between the inner and outer circles of political responsibility is inevitable as agendas start to collide. And it is much healthier than pretending we are all living in Pyongyang.

Alistair Ramsay covered Manx politics for island newspapers for decades and later became a communications executive for the government, a position from which he retired last year.