One of the things I was not expecting while listening to the December sitting of Tynwald was to be reminded of Albert Einstein.

The great physicist is said to have defined madness as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The thought that our parliament might be in the grip of some form of institutional insanity occurred as members wrestled with the latest report on the future of Manx Radio.

The Select Committee on Public Service Media is the 13th political intervention since the broadcaster was founded 50 years ago, and it is unlikely to be the last.

The running average is one review every 3.8 years, with none so far achieving anything like a lasting settlement.

What to do with the Nation’s Station remains one of the many recurring and unresolved issues on the magic roundabout of Manx politics.

Manx Radio is especially contentious because of its peculiar hybrid nature as a subsidised station which also operates commercially. It is seen as taking money from both the public and private sectors while being subject to the discipline of neither.

Media rivals resent it because it hogs market share while enjoying a subvention that is not available to them. Government gets frustrated because it owns and part funds the station but cannot exercise any control.

Agitation from both these sources creates an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with Manx Radio that bubbles up in virtually every new Tynwald. For the members this presents an fresh challenge to find a sensible solution to an intractable problem. For the dedicated staff on Douglas Head it is Groundhog Day once again.

Critics complain that Manx Radio is unaccountable and resistant to change. They say its board of directors is a self-perpetuating closed shop, selecting its own membership like the 18th century House of Keys. It is only in the last two years that board vacancies have been advertised.

Although the final outcome of the debate has been delayed until January, it is clear that the latest package of select committee recommendations has failed to find favour with Tynwald.

The committee was particularly clumsy in prescribing an ’active role’ for government in the direction of Manx Radio, ignoring the fundamental importance of its freedom from political influence.

And in being prepared to see the station replaced completely by the BBC, committee members badly misjudged the extent of public loyalty to Manx Radio as a valued community asset.

It is remarkable that any politician, in this The Year of Our Island, could countenance the loss of a unique service that has done so much to underpin our sense of separate national identity. That level of support could not be replicated by any outside organisation.

Manx Radio does not always help itself. It sometimes gives the impression that any disturbance of the status quo would be the equivalent of the collapse of civilisation.

The status quo is not sustainable, though, because the underlying pressures against it will not go away.

Changes that could ease those pressures include withdrawal from commercial activity, as recommended by the select committee. That would give broadcast competitors less excuse to lobby against the station and spare listeners from the advertising slots, which can be excruciating.

Pulling out of the market might also allow the organisation to move from being a company to some form of public trust structure.

But going advert-free would cost the taxpayer more in subsidy if the BBC refuses to help with funding.

The station’s main relationship with government should shift away from Treasury, which is too central and political, as well as being the holder of the purse strings. Linking with a more detached and neutral public body, perhaps to do with community and culture, could encourage easier dialogue.

To enhance openness and accountability, Manx Radio’s directors or trustees could be recruited and appointed through a non-political agency like the Appointments Commission, with some representing various stakeholder groups.

Most important of all, in this age of fake news, the focus must be on developing public service journalism as an essential element of our democracy, a source of trusted information and a channel for engagement of the electorate.

Those are my recommendations for the future of Manx Radio. As with the findings of the endless select committees, it may not be rational to hope that anything will come of them.

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WHERE WERE THE CELEBRATIONS?

The year 2018 has seen many anniversaries, but one that seems to have gone uncelebrated is the centenary of income tax in the Isle of Man.

Income tax made its first appearance in the United Kingdom in 1799, as a temporary measure to cover the cost of the Napoleonic Wars.

Less dramatically, when the tax was finally introduced here in 1918 it was to fund a subsidy on flour to keep the price of bread down for the impoverished populace.

The measure was only agreed after much wrangling between the House of Keys and the then Lieutenant Governor, the arch reactionary Lord Raglan.

At that time total Manx Government spending was around £7 million a year in today’s money, or £140 per head of the population. Now it is £1 billion a year and more than £12,000 per head.

Alongside income tax, appropriately enough, the Manx Labour Party also came into being in 1918 and has been celebrating its 100th birthday this year.

Born during a period of social and industrial unrest, the MLP soon made its mark and had six MHKs by 1924 - a quarter of the House - peaking in 1929 with seven MHKs.

In 1945, when Labour achieved its historic victory in the UK, the MLP fielded 18 candidates for the Keys but only two were elected. It faced opposition from the anti-socialist Manx People’s Political Association, which won four seats. Insular politics must have been quite exciting then.

There was another anniversary this year that has escaped the public’s notice.

In 1958 the UK Parliament passed the Isle of Man Act, which gave Tynwald a free hand over the raising and spending of revenues from direct taxation by finally removing the HM Treasury veto in this area.

The island lost little time taking advantage of the change, abolishing surtax on higher incomes and launching a campaign to attract new residents, more than 9,000 of whom moved to Manx shores during the 1960s.

And so we became a tax advantaged jurisdiction, as the world’s media so frequently fail to describe us.

Interesting that the island only really began to emerge from colonial control to gain fiscal independence just 60 years ago. So much for 1,000 years of Home Rule.

In the Isle of Man our collective awareness of milestones in modern political history is not what it should be in a nation that claims to be proud of its democratic heritage.

That’s something to talk about this Christmas, if your telly breaks, your iPad fails and you run out of booze.